Tag: climax

Categories
Screenwriting

New Heights (The Climax)

At this point in 2020, we are over halfway through the year and it seems like a new setback or disturbance occurs every day. It’s been an interesting year, to say the least, and we’re still three months away from the end!

It reminds me of the classic writers’ adage, “Conflict is king.” It seems conflict has driven every aspect of life this year, and I dare to say it makes us yearn for a new year already. To continue with the theme of writers’ terms, we wish to get beyond the climax to the resolution, where there will be a change in the narrative—at least we hope so!

As creative writers, we can almost plot out 2020 with the plot points of a movie.

  • Exposition/set up
  • Rising action
  • Climax
  • Falling action
  • Resolution

As these plot points indicate, the climax isn’t what our story is all about and it definitely isn’t the end of the story, just the highest point of tension, this is why we call it the climax.

Climax!

When I think of my script’s climax, I think of a mountain, everything I’ve been writing before this point has been leading to it and nothing will be the same after it.

Eventually, the narrative will have to come down from the mountaintop, but things are always different after you experience a peak. This is why a climax is different from the resolution of a narrative.

Whether it’s simply a scene’s climax or the climax of an entire story, we must be able to see the changes that occur after the climax. The climax brings change.

Robert McKee explains, “A story is a series of acts that build to a last act climax or story climax which brings about absolute and irreversible change.”1 A satisfying climax always brings a change in the direction of our story.

The best climaxes happen before the end of our story because it gives the audience a chance to see the aftereffects of the climax. Many stories use the climax as a resolution to the conflict in a story, but they fail to include the falling action or change in the story’s charge.

Falling action and the resolution don’t have to be far from the climax, but are more effective as separate structure points, as I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Below are a few suggestions for making sure your climax is the peak of your story,

1. The run-up to the climactic moment (last-minute maneuvering to put the pieces in their final positions).

2. The main character’s moment of truth (the inner journey point toward which the whole story has been moving).

3. The climactic moment itself (in which the hero directly affects the outcome).

4. The immediate results of the climactic moment (the villain might be vanquished, but the roof is still collapsing).2

Keep in mind we are taking our audience on an adventure. There will be highs and lows along the way, but the climax is the highest point and there is only one way to go from there.

Get There!

Stories are all about getting from point A to point B and it’s a writer’s job to make the journey interesting and worthwhile. Not necessarily easy, though. What makes a story great are the detours and obstacles the characters must face in route to their goal.

Keep in mind, no one’s goal is to face maximum opposition which is the goal of a climax, not the resolution. The climax is the biggest hurdle in route to our narrative’s resolution. Following are a few examples of movies where the climax led to a satisfying resolution:

The great thing about these examples is that there is still a story left to tell after the climax because then the story has been taken to new heights!

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

1  1 McKee R. (1997). Story: Substance, Structure, Style, And The Principle of Screenwriting (Kindle edition) pg 42.

2  https://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/4-ways-to-improve-plotclimax-in-your-writing

Categories
Screenwriting

On the Rise

Six months ago when the pandemic first came to America, scientists and medical professionals thought that once the temperatures warmed up it would kill the virus and everything would go back to normal.

But, as we know, in a crazy plot twist the heat actually made the virus spread like wildfire and everything got worse.

  • Businesses began closing back down.
  • Schools that tried to open have now switched to virtual learning.
  • Large gatherings are still frowned upon, meaning even movie theaters have yet to fully reopen.

The old adage came true, “what could go wrong, did!” It seems like every time something went wrong, fear and negativity went up. This is a clear example of how conflict encourages action and how actions fuel life.

The same principle applies to storytelling, especially movies. As the stakes are raised, the story is propelled forward when actions are on the rise!

On the Rise!

As we progress forward from our story’s inciting incident, rising action is the vehicle that moves our narrative from scene to scene; eventually to the conclusion of our journey.

Although it seems formulaic, it is more a framework to guide us as we go on the journey with the characters. Famed 19th-century German writer Gustav Freytag divided a story’s plot into five distinct stages:

1. Exposition (sometimes including the inciting incident.)

2. Rising action.

3. Climax.

4. Falling action.

5. Dénouement.

As we move from scene to scene, action is kinetic. Before the climax it is called rising action, because there is rise in tension, conflict and risk that creates a need for a resolution. It is important to understand that rising action isn’t the climax of our story, but the preparation for and road to it.

 Robert McKee points out, “In the ideal last act we want to give the audience a sense of acceleration, a swiftly rising action to climax.”1

The action that follows the climax is called falling action as we let the changes in the narrative lead to a satisfying conclusion. The rising action makes us anticipate a climax where the conflict will peak; falling action is the result of the climax.

 Understanding how action works in a story, helps us see which direction it should go.

Which Way?

Rising action in our narrative has a steady charge until the climax, which by nature changes the direction of the story: positive to better, positive to negative, or even negative to worse.

Think of your story’s character arc, where they’ve been and where they’re heading. Rising action is what takes them there. Below are some examples where the rising action changes the course of the story between beginning and end.

The Hobbit: The rising action occurs as Bilbo agrees to act as a burglar during this adventure.

Grease: All the hurdles and obstacles Danny has to overcome to win the heart of Sandy.

Legends of the Fall: As each brother vies for the heart of the same woman in their own way.

Again, rising action isn’t the climax, but the motivation to get there: what should I do? , what shouldn’t I do? moments for example. The answers are when our story peaks at the climax, but up until then it’s simply the action on the rise!

1 McKee R. (1997). Story: Substance, Structure, Style, And The Principle of Screenwriting (Kindle edition) pg Page 218.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Flash Fiction-Splickety

Gotcha: Remembering the Resolution After the Twist-Andrew Winch

My favorite thing about flash fiction is the artistic freedom it allows. Within its rigidity, skilled writers can find inspiration to experiment and create that would never be possible in less defined mediums. It has a unique ability to blur the lines between prose and poetry, crafting worlds and emotions not elsewhere possible. But with all this potential, beginning writers (and even accomplished veterans) are often intimidated, wondering where to start.

Splickety prides itself as a community that nourishes the art of flash fiction, not only by publishing exquisite stories, but also by instructing and mentoring talented authors in this rapidly growing genre of storytelling. And one foundational principle we encourage all beginning flashers (no, not that kind) to remember is that, even though you’re writing a story that can fit on a single page, it is still a story—one with a beginning, middle, and end. It doesn’t need to use a traditional three-act structure, but it does have to complete an arc in order to leave a reader satisfied. That arc is much quicker than with short stories or novel-length, but it’s still there.

The principles contained within this all-important fact could (and do) fill entire craft books, but I’m going to focus on one specific pitfall I’ve seen lately: the resolution. I’ve spoken many times on the importance of a satisfying climax. The easiest way to accomplish this is with some sort of big reveal or twist (NOT a deus ex machina, for the love of Deus) that ties into the beginning and subtle clues/nuances throughout the story. Of course, that’s not the only way (thank Deus), but it tends to be a great place to start.

The thing is, this type of climax has a major pitfall in flash fiction because authors seldom know where to put the final punctuation mark. Most of the time, they are afraid of writing too much, and thus diluting the impact of their climax (not to mention going over the word limit). So instead, they clip the story off right at the apex. BOOM. The End. Consider the following line:

“Good thing he chambered a single live round with all those treacherous blanks.”

Not bad, huh? But if it was the last line you read after going on a literary journey (no matter how short), it would leave you with a raised eyebrow, like seeing a magician disappearing in a cloud of smoke. It’s a great one-liner, but it leaves the reader feeling a bit cheated. Compare that with the following:

“Good thing he chambered a single live round with all those treacherous blanks.

As he squeezed the trigger, he couldn’t help noticing a pair of red squirrels flitting around in the trees over Sam’s shoulder.”

Take a second to really dissect the structure. In the first example, the fact that there was a live round in the chamber is the huge reveal. It really doesn’t matter what else the story is about. The lethal bullet is the punch line. In the second example, the line about the squirrels could be significant, or not. It could reveal some minor foreshadowing earlier in the story, it could reinforce a theme, or it could be completely ambiguous. It really doesn’t matter, because its job is to give us a half second to digest the climax without taking away from it.

In some ways, this final line may actually be more important than the climax because it gives us a chance to appreciate the big reveal before turning the page. And more importantly, it actually enhances the climax by giving us a poignant scene to weigh it against.

Striking that balance between, “Gotcha!” and, “Blah, blah, blah,” can be a challenging one. Just remember, flash fiction is founded on this principle: give the reader everything they need, and not a word more. It takes practice and patience, but we’re writers. If it were easy, everyone would do it.

 

AUTHOR BIO: Andrew Winch, Splickety’s executive editor, writes backyard adventures with an otherworldly twist. Check out his weekly adventures at raisingsupergirl.com, follow him on Twitter @andrewjwinch, and like him on facebook.com/andrewjameswinch.