Hatrack River Writers Workshop: From Concept to Climax

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Posted by redux (Member # 9277) on :

I usually find myself stuck in the concept phase, I have an idea, a general sense of scenes I would like to include and the characters involved. But when it comes to how the story will end I am at a loss. I come up with a few scenarios but I find them either unsatisfying or just plain silly.

So I am in need some advice: what tips, exercises, or techniques do you recommend in order to brainstorm a good climax to a story?

I look forward to reading your suggestions

Thanks!

Posted by Foste (Member # 8892) on :

My advice is to write out all scenarios you have in your head. Compare them, trim them edit them... You'll find one that will satisfy you

Posted by MartinV (Member # 5512) on :

If I have an idea, I will write it down and then stop thinking about it. Sometimes another idea will come along and stick together with the old one. If I get a snowball effect with ideas, that snowball becomes a story and I will begin to develop it myself. But I have to allow the thing to grow on itself first.

Allow things to happen, you are there to observe.

Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :

I write one or two sentences for each scene. In the process of doing that, I generally come up with an ending before I'm through.

Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :

You have a concept and it affects a character. So the question is, where do you want that character to end up? What should they have learned or suffered through? What is the point you are trying to make about said concept and how can you illustrate that?

Those would be the questions I would ask.

Posted by akeenedesign (Member # 7816) on :

My first ideas are usually silly or bland because I tend to go for the most expected, or the most cliche sort of climax. Or my climaxes are so convoluted as I try to surprise the reader so much that the story stops making sense.

So I looked in some of my favorite books, to see how my favorite authors treated their climaxes. I did it with the total intent to steal their techniques.

I found out that I adore climaxes that have a twist element, or an element of changed expectations where I have to redefine a character or a situation just as the climax is "getting good".

For example, I love all of the Harry Potter books because JK Rowling injects so many game-changing bits of knowledge that destroys certain expectations, just before the climax.

Voldemort isn't long dead in a far-away land and Quirrell isn't just a professor. Tom Riddle isn't just a boy from the past and the dark happenings are connected to (of all people) Ginny Weasley. Sirius Black isn't just an escaped criminal and Peter Pettigrew isn't the long-dead hero.

They're very basic, but when there are 2-3 game-changing expectations, they're very effective in reshaping what the climax does and how it feels.

So then I started thinking about my own climaxes, and applied the "redefine an expectation" thing I learned from JKR and other authors. The short story I was working on instantly became deeper and more enthralling as I completely redefined the relationship between the witch-hunter and the witch and also revealed something about a boy in the village. The previously-cliche climax became so exciting!

That's my technique

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

Sometimes I don't get an ending for a scene or a story until I get there.

Like right now, in one novel my MC is fighting a werewolf. The wolf has been injured, using silver, and in a previous fight with a wizard but it still has the upper hand. I've been thinking of that scene for a couple of months at least but I still have no idea how to kill the 'wolf and get my MC out of that situation. I better think fast for I need that tomorrow or Monday.

I thought about using a unicorn my MC helped but I don't know. Somehow that unicorn has to help him but I'm not sure about now. Usually I have the ending when I get to it or very soon after.

But as your problem, if you haven't already, write out the story or novel until you get to the point you can't go on. See if anything comes. Or if you are not sure, try seeing which idea feels the most right. Or do as one person suggested and write out each ending. From what I have heard you would not be the first writer to do that. At least one pro has done it that way, and probably more.

[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited April 22, 2011).]

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

redux, have you read what OSC says about the structure of his four MICE story categories in his book, HOW TO WRITE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY? He talks about them also in CHARACTER AND VIEWPOINT, but in the science fiction and fantasy book, he talks about how each kind of story starts and how they need to end.

If you can figure out which kind of story you are telling, his discussion of structure will give you ideas about how the story should end.

Also, you can ask yourself what kind of price does your main character have to pay in order to achieve the goal? That may help you figure out how to bring your story to a satisying conclusion.

Posted by enigmaticuser (Member # 9398) on :

I kind of start with the snowball idea like Martin suggests. For example right now I have this idea for a story about a guy trapped in a house (a fantastical house of course), but I have no idea about the story other than the setting.

Except, I think it has something to do with moving forward (another snow flake), in fact if I was to give it a name I think it would be "Forward" (another flake). And I think that's the crucial one. You don't have to have a big point, but you do have to feel the conflict, at least I do.

You don't have to see the exact resolution but something like "MC realizes that the only way to defeat X is to Y." Usually paired with a scene, in my WIP Evangeline I can clearly see two MC's, a secondary good guy, and a villain standing in darkness at the gate to something (I know now what it is), but I've gone back and forth about how exactly the surface problem will be resolved, but I have an impression of what it looks like.

After that I start reverse engineering it to where my character starts. How did he get here? Well he took the road of miles. Why did he do it? Because the Sage read from the Book of syllables and Chicken Scratch that told him that at the end of the road he would find his sister in the highest tower guarded by the most dreadful beast immaginable...a nameless government beaurocrat who won't let him upgrade his present mobile food establishment because it's not supposed to be permanent but he has to upgrade to become more profitable just so he can afford the stinking architect to tell him what he could already do himself!

Sorry, that last bit may not have been fiction...but it does sound like a good story...fantasy probably short where the character's name is Entre of Peneur and must fight the forces of the vile false priest of Eksess Ivr'egulation.

Posted by mrmeadors (Member # 6378) on :

Sometimes what works for me, especially in short stories, is to write the first thing that pops in my head. Just write the whole scene. It's never the "right" one, but I don't see it as a waste of time because I know it's helping me get through to the "good" scene. Anyway, I write a bad climax. And then after that things seem to come more easily. I can look at the bad one and see where it went bad, and what I can do to fix it. I get to know my characters better through writing the scene and then I can judge, do I like the way they are acting? What needs to change so that their climax matches up/is consistent with things like character motivation, and what the MC's goals really are. And having a concrete idea of exactly what the MC's goal is is vital, I think. it keeps the story on focus, and if it strays, you know exactly what went wrong. If you don't concretely know your MC's desire and motivation, then your climax could be skewed, causing problems (like having a story that's not really about anything....). Focus and practice, those are my MOs.

Melanie

Posted by redux (Member # 9277) on :

Thank you everyone for such wonderful advice. I am definitely tinkering way - trying to see what works best for me.

Posted by Reziac (Member # 9345) on :

LDW: the average unicorn is armed. While the werewolf is otherwise-engaged with overpowering your protagonist, the unicorn can stab him in the backside (or at least threaten it). Which may not be fatal, might only be a critical distraction, but it would sure shift the odds.

A method of plot-cultivation I saw mentioned elsewhere was the "fortunately-unfortunately" school: for whatever action you just had, for your MC's future there are probably two possible outcomes, a good one and a bad one. Pick the bad one. Rinse and repeat until your MC is in really deep trouble.