When the dramatic action of a story changes a character at depth over time, the story becomes thematically significant. The protagonist "shows" herself in scene acting in a transformed way - in a way she could not have acted in any other part of the story because she first needed to experience everything she does to get to the final stage. The Climax spotlights the character as she comes into full transformation and demonstrates full mastery of the necessary new skill or personality, gift or action. In the final quarter of the work, the protagonist moves toward the light - one step forward toward the ultimate transformation, three steps back, a fight for a couple of steps, being beat backwards. The Climax serves as the light at the end of the tunnel. "Any event that seems to the given writer startling, curious, or interest-laden can form the climax of a possible story," writes John Gardner in The Art of Fiction. It is the point at which the story turns from being an interrelated deliberately arranged set of scenes to gold. The climax hits close to the very end of the story. The dramatic action and the details and interpretations of the story hold the reader's interest and at the same time show the reader what they need to know to follow the story to its climax. In both the beginning one quarter of the story and up to the next three quarter mark toward the end of the middle, the character's emotional make-up is revealed through successively challenging events that are linked by cause and effect. The protagonist introduced in the beginning 1/4 of a story spends twice that time in the caldron of dramatic action of the middle. What does that mean? Jot down the ideas that come to you. What is the deeper meaning? The truth beyond the physical? The protagonist has undergone a transformation. Not necessarily true for all time, but true for the story itself, and likely for yourself, too. What is your story really saying? What do all those words you wrote add up to? Your story is a reflection of a truth. For the end to be meaningful and convincing, first specific character emotional development must be established through the use of dramatic action. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." Of course he was referring to students at their commencement, but it applies to plot as well. In other words, the beginning defines the end and the end defines the beginning.Īs Apple co-founder Steve Jobs says, "You can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards. Whichever which way you get there, the choices you make for the end of your story deserve attention.Ī finished draft allows the writer to stand back from the story and think both forward from the beginning and middle, and backwards from the climax. Which comes first? Does a writer labor over the first three quarters of a project where the groundwork is laid for the end? Or, does one write the climax itself first?īefore a writer can lay the groundwork about the character and the situation to build to a climax in a way that makes the highest point of the story seem both inevitable and surprising, doesn't the writer first need to know the climax? At what point do we surrender our idea of the story and our will, and let the story have its head? This means that until you write the end you will not truly know the beginning. The beginning of any entertaining and well-crafted story tells as much about where we are headed as to where we will be at the end. Eliot said, "The end is in the beginning." If it fails, disappointment stings all the more.Īgents, editors, directors, audiences, and readers alike expect the scenes of a story to add up to something meaningful in the end. She softens as she explains how, by the time she reaches the final quarter of the story, she longs for the work to succeed. When asked why, she rages about all the times she has read entire manuscripts only to be disappointed in the end. An agent flings a promising work against the wall.
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