Secrets of Writing: Climax
The Climax is where the Hero comes face to face with the Villain and fights him to the finish. This is the make or break scene of your story. It’s the pay off for the whole shebang. If you were to break down the effort that goes into a story, 75% should go into the story and 25% should go into the ending. The ending makes a lasting impression on the Audience. If it’s a weak ending, people will walk away generally unimpressed.
You should try to wrap up the climax with one action that solves everything. Because all the forces should have come to a head. It should all be down to one act of will. One act that will either defeat the Villain or make the Hero lose if it fails.
This creates immense tension right at the moment of truth.
The Audience wants emotional satisfaction. You need to give them what they want, but not like they expect. Endings need to have an element of surprise to be satisfying. If they end exactly the way people expect, they’re going to think you didn’t try very hard. And then they’re going to be more critical of the story.
Try to look at the Climax as a cross roads. The hero has a choice of directions he can take during the climax. Only you, the writer, know where those diverse roads lead. You decide which one the Hero chooses and which fate awaits him at the end.
One way to guarantee the Audience will get turned off is by taking the Climax out of the Hero’s hands. When you let someone else win the Grail or solve the problem, you steal all the energy from the climax. You are saying that the whole story leading up to this point was irrelevant because the Hero wasn’t really needed. That is probably one of the worst things you can do in fiction. It’s called a “deus ex machina” ending, which means “God in a Machine”. In Ancient Greece, a lot of bad plays had gods showing up at the end the climax, waving their hand, solving all the problems in the story. Audiences hated it then and they hate it now. Even if you don’t use gods.
Audiences nowadays have seen so many movies, read so many comics and novels that they are jaded. They want some bang for their buck and you need to wrack your brain to provide some.
It’s a good idea to use a visual that some how represents the premise at the end of the Climax. This is known as a “Key Image” and it can create a powerful, lasting moment that stays with the Audience after they finish your tale.
For example, in CITIZEN KANE the final image is a shot of a child’s sled burning in the flames with the logo ROSEBUD on it. It answers the question of the story, what is Rosebud. It also represents the premise, which is: “Take away a boy’s childhood and you end up with a childish man.” The sled represents his lost childhood going up in flames.
A large portion of the Audiences expectations and satisfaction comes from the end of the climax, so make it worth the price of admission. It’s the most important scene in the whole story.
Let’s go back to Kyle for an example of Climax. When we left off, Kyle was lying on the floor of the convenience store, with glass sticking into his back. And cops were converging on him. This is a crisis situation. How does he get out of it? Let’s find out…
The glass is grinding into his back, jarring Kyle with pain. The gun is slippery in his hand. Milk has sprayed all over him. The sound of the cops footsteps is get louder. Kyle knows they’ll come around the shelves and see him any second. He starts to get up, but the milk sprayed floor makes it hard. His back is in agony. What does he do? Should he give up or get that damned carton?
Kyle looks at the shattered case. One carton remains unscathed. He reaches for it. Gets it. Suddenly he feels renewed. Determination fills him from head to toe. He rams his body against the shelves as he hears the cops coming near.
An avalanche of cans hits them, they topple backward as Kyle leaps up and starts to shoot.
Klik klik klik
The gun’s empty.
Kyle races for the exit, kicking a gun from a cop’s hands before leaping over him. He clutches the milk carton like a football. The store’s exit is the goal line. He’s racing for it. The cop’s partner tries to get up, but slips on the puddle of slurpee slush that’s been growing on the floor like a B-movie monster. His shot goes wild and takes out several cartons of Camels near the cash register.
As Kyle rushes out the door, he hears sirens approaching. More heat! He dives in the cop car and starts the engine. The two cops come running out as he shoves the transmission in reverse. They start firing at him. Bullets shatter the safety glass in the windshield, making it impossible to see. Kyle floors it and the car screeches backward, tires smoking like chimneys.
He swerves the car around and puts it in drive. He smashes his forearm into the windshield, knocking out the glass so he can see. Three cops cars are racing into the parking lot before him, blocking the exit. He floors it and spins the wheel, driving off the sidewalk onto the street. They give chase. He tries to turn left at the intersection, but two more cop cars and an ambulance are blocking that way, so he turns right.
Damn! The crevice is up ahead. No way over it. But the street behind him is full of cop cars!
No choice but to floor it. The ground has risen up on his side of the crevice, making it higher than the other side. As he rushes toward the crevice he sees the whole adventure flashing before his eyes. He sees himself falling into the crevice toward flames. Pitchfork wielding demons are waiting for him below with gleeful expressions on their evil faces. There’s a second where he feels himself falling.
KATHUMP
He made it! The car made it across!
He looks in the rear view mirror. Cop cars are diving in the crevice. Others are trying to stop and end up crashing into each other. One car gets pushed in the hole by the one behind it.
Kyle makes for his apartment, laughing all the way home.
Of course, this was an absurdly overblown action story. But aren’t most comic books? I used the action motif to show the climax in its extreme. But you can do a great job with climaxes without having action. The film DEATH AND THE MAIDEN has a great climax with no action. Another good example is REAR WINDOW. Study films for examples, rather than comics because most comics are bad examples of how to do things.
REMEMBER: The end of the Climax is the make or break scene in your story, in more ways than one.
Nice work, wonderful & Great addition. Thank you for all good works
Posted by Kim on 01/26 at 04:28 PM
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