Your story’s Climax is the moment everything has been building toward—the final test, the big showdown, the emotional payoff. It’s where your characters converge, tensions explode, and all the plot threads tie together (or unravel spectacularly). Whether it’s a battle, a confrontation, or a quiet but intense decision, the Climax needs to feel inevitable and […]
August 27, 2013 by 1 Comment Structuring Your NovelHow to Structure a Whammy of a Climax
The climax is what our stories are all about. We craft our beginnings and middles just so we can reach this final whammy at the end. The bad guy is defeated. The guy gets the girl. Secrets are revealed. Resolutions are made. The conflict is resolved. The story ends. In order to milk our climaxes […]
August 21, 2013 by 7 Comments ForeshadowingDeliver Foreshadowing in a 1, 2, 3 Punch
I said last week that I was going to fail at not gushing over Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim—and I was right. Turns out I have yet to say all I have to say on this subject. For the next couple of weeks, we’re going to explore a few more lessons we can glean from […]
June 30, 2013 by 21 Comments Characters8 Promises Writers Must Make (and Keep) to Their Readers
A book is a contract between reader and writer. The reader promises to pay attention to the story and emotionally invest in the adventure. In return, the writer promises to fulfill certain expectations about the fictional experience. When you fail to fulfill this contract with readers, you are, in essence, breaking your promises to them. […]
May 15, 2013 by 15 Comments CharactersAre Your Bad Guys Dying in the Right Order?
When it comes to a story’s Climax, you want to give readers the biggest bang for their buck. That might seem to mean always saving the biggest explosion for last. But there’s actually another consideration to keep in mind when ordering the events of your Climax. Now, before I get any further, let me just […]
July 4, 2012 by 8 Comments ForeshadowingDraw Out Your Story’s Tension—But Not Too Far
We delay reader gratification by foreshadowing something interesting to come—then not giving it to ’em and not giving it to ’em. The very fact that readers know the good stuff is coming (paired with their subsequent desire to see how it plays out) is usually enough to keep them turning pages. In fact, they would be […]
May 23, 2012 by 20 Comments CharactersStay True to Your Protagonist in Your Story’s Climax
In the posts on my blog, we’ve spent the last couple months talking about story structure, and one of those posts was devoted entirely to the Climax. However, in writing that post, there was one potential pitfall of the Climax I didn’t touch upon. One of my favorite sword-and-sandals epics from the 1950s is Cecil […]
April 29, 2012 by 31 Comments Structuring Your NovelThe Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 10: The Climax
And, now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for! The climax is the pièce de résistance of our gourmet meal of a novel. When we wheel out the climax and lift the serving dish’s gleaming silver lid, this is the bit that gets all the “oohs” and “aahs.” The climax of a story should have readers on the edges […]
April 22, 2012 by 44 Comments Structuring Your NovelThe Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 9: The Third Act
The third act is the moment we’ve all been waiting for—readers, writers, and characters alike. This final section of the story is the point. It’s what we’ve been building up to all this time. If the first and second acts were engaging and aesthetic labyrinths, the third act is where X marks the spot. We’ve found the treasure. […]
January 18, 2012 by 30 Comments Novel EndingsA Must-Know Tip for Writing Slam-Bang Finales
The ending of your novel is make or break territory for your readers. If you’ve convinced them to keep reading this far, you need to have something extra special in store for them come the end. If you disappoint readers in your story’s Climax, you risk losing those readers forever. So how can you dazzle […]
