The Climax (Secrets of Story Structure, Pt. 11 of 12)

The Climax is the pièce de résistance of your gourmet meal of a novel. When you 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 should have readers on the edge of their seats. They should be breathless, tense, and curious to bursting. They should have a general idea of what’s coming but also suffer the exquisite torture of a little doubt. What’s gonna happen? Will the characters survive? Will they save the world/their families/the battle/their lives in time?

What Is the Climax?

Starting with the Third Plot Point, the action will rise to a fever pitch. The characters will have been backed to the wall with limited choices about how to respond. The Climax begins when the two speeding trains driven by protagonist and antagonistic force begin hurtling toward a final collision.

The function of the Climax is to conclusively end the plot conflict by deciding whether or not the protagonist will attain the plot goal. Although some genres (such as romance) predetermine the protagonist’s success, it is not structurally important whether or not the character gains the plot goal.

In some stories, the protagonist may decide the true victory is found in not seizing the plot goal even once it is within reach. What is important is that the protagonist reaches a moment in the story in which it no longer makes sense to pursue the plot goal. Either because the protagonist reaches the plot goal or because the antagonistic force creates a permanent block to the plot goal or because the protagonist decides to relinquish it—whatever the case, this is where the protagonist’s pursuit of the goal ends.

For Example:

• In Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion, the Climax is reached when the protagonist Cazaril and the antagonist Martou dy Jironal clash in the duel that kills dy Jironal, which allows Cazaril to achieve his goal of breaking the curse upon the royal family.
• In the classic film The Thomas Crown Affair, insurance investigator Vicki Anderson fails to achieve her plot goal when the trap she set for her master thief lover fails. She waits to arrest him as his Rolls Royce arrives to pick up the stolen bank money, only to discover he left the country and sent a decoy in his place.
• In Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess, the protagonist Sara’s central plot problem is solved when she returns the neighbor Mr. Carrisford’s monkey and reveals herself to be the long searched for daughter of Carrisford’s dead business partner. This allows her to escape her servitude to the evil Miss Minchin and return to a loving family.

In some stories, the Climax will involve a drawn-out physical battle. In others, the Climax might be a simple admission that changes everything for the protagonist. Almost always, it is a moment of revelation for the main character. Depending on the story’s needs, the characters will reach a life-changing epiphany directly before, during, or after the Climax. They will then act definitively upon that revelation, capping the change in their character arcs and ending the primary conflict physically, spiritually, or both.

The Climactic Moment

The Climax is a sequence of scenes comprising the final eighth of the story. This sequence is designed to funnel the characters into the pivotal Climactic Moment. The Climactic Moment is the climax of the Climax. It is the exact moment when the conflict ends.

The Climactic Moment is one of your story’s most structurally essential beats. This is so not just because the plot cannot end without it but because the Climactic Moment reveals what your story is really about and whether the structure you’ve designed has worked.

Whatever happens in the Climactic Moment is what your story has been building toward. Every beat in the story’s structure (starting with the Hook and moving through the Inciting Event, the First Plot Point, the Pinch Points, the Midpoint, and the Third Plot Point) has been leading up to the Climactic Moment. If you were to write an outline that featured just these main structural beats, you should see a consistent pattern. Everything at these beats should thematically align with what happens at the Climactic Moment. If they do, you know you’ve created a story structure that works. If they do not, you now have a map to guide you to which structural pieces need to be revised to create cohesion and resonance within your plot.

The Climactic Moment tells you three things:

1. What your main conflict is really about.

2. What your protagonist’s main plot goal really is.

3. Who is the true antagonistic force.

These three elements should be presented consistently throughout the story. By the same token, if you have consistently presented a conflict, goal, and antagonist at every other plot beat, these elements must be featured in your story’s Climax.

The Climactic Moment signals the end of the story. Although you will likely tie off loose ends in a final Resolution scene (to be discussed next week), the Climactic Moment is the true ending. There is no plot left after this.

Where Does the Climax Belong?

The Climax occurs in the Third Act, beginning around the 88% mark. More often than not, the Climactic Moment at the end of the Climax will be the penultimate scene, just before the Resolution. Because the Climax says everything to be said except for a little emotional mopping up, there’s no need for the story to continue long after its completion.

Some stories will include a faux climax, in which the characters think they’ve ended the conflict, only to realize they haven’t addressed the true obstacle standing between them and the goal. For example, in Toy Story, Woody and Buzz defeat the evil neighbor kid Sid in a faux climax, only to realize they may still miss the moving van that will take them to Andy’s new home. Faux climaxes do nothing to change the requirements of the actual Climax.

Examples of the Climax From Film and Literature

Pride and Prejudice: As in most romantic stories, the Climactic Moment of this classic novel occurs when the two leads come together, admit their love for each other, and commit to a long-term relationship. After Darcy’s gallantry in patching up Lydia’s elopement with Wickham and his efforts to reunite Bingley and Jane, he and Elizabeth are at last alone on a walk, during which they put straight their former misconceptions, repent of their misconduct to one another, and get engaged.

It’s a Wonderful Life: After receiving the gift of seeing the world without himself in it, George races back to the bridge and fervently prays, “I want to live again!” This moment is both his personal revelation and a bit of a faux climax. It properly caps the unborn sequence (which follows a mini plot and structure of its own) and leads into the true Climax in which the town rallies to help George make up the lost $8,000 before he can be arrested.

Ender’s Game: After Ender and his team graduate from Battle School, they enter a new series of what they all believe to be tactical games training them to face the aliens. Pushed to the limit of his physical and emotional endurance, Ender triggers the Climactic Moment when he breaks what he perceives as the rules. He looses his frustrated aggression on the game and annihilates the enemy. Then comes the revelation that he wasn’t playing a game at all, but rather commanding faraway troops fighting the aliens in real time.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World: The climactic battle between the HMS Surprise and the Acheron takes up a lengthy section of the Third Act, rising to a single red-hot point. The Climactic Moment occurs when Captain Jack Aubrey enters the Acheron’s surgery to find the French captain, his long-pursued enemy, dead. He takes the captain’s sword from the surgeon and organizes the mopping up.

Top Things to Remember About the Climax

1. The Climax occurs near the end of the story, beginning around the 88% mark and ending only a scene or two away from the last page.
2. The Climax comprises a sequence of scenes leading to the Climactic Moment.
3. The Climax decisively ends the primary conflict with the antagonistic force (whether the protagonist wins or loses).
4. The Climax is the fulcrum around which the character arc turns. Whatever happens here is the direct result of the protagonist’s personal revelation.
5. Depending on how many layers of conflict you’ve created, your story may feature a faux climax leading up to the Climax proper.

Cut loose with your Climax. Have fun with it and think outside the box. Make sure you’ve checked off all the essential elements of structure so you can give readers an experience that will cement your story in their memories.

Stay tuned: Next week, we will talk about the Resolution.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! How does your story’s Climax fulfill all your promises to your readers? Tell me in the comments!

Related Posts:

Part 1: 5 Reasons Story Structure Is Important

Part 2: The Hook

Part 3: The First Act

Part 4: The Inciting Event

Part 5: The First Plot Point

Part 6: The First Half of the Second Act

Part 7: The Midpoint

Part 8: The Second Half of the Second Act

Part 9: The Third Act

Part 10: The Third Plot Point

Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, or Spotify).

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