Welcome back to the Reverse Plotting series, y’all!! This time, in Installment 2, we’re gonna take a peek at the first part of the process – plotting your climax.
As way of review before we get started, though, let me give a quick recap from last week in case you forgot or didn’t read it and don’t want to go read it. 😉
We mostly discussed the three basic elements that make up a good story: theme, plot, and characters. Theme is the lesson you want to teach, and (for me, at least) stories seem to work better when I have my theme already decided upon before trying to write the story. Plot is the sequence of events that carry your characters from start to finish and make your heart race. Characters are the people the story is about – the ones that make you cry or laugh. For me, characters tend to be the heart of the story.
Alrighty, now that that’s out of the way, I have a short exercise for you if you haven’t already done it or if you’re plotting a novel right now: find your theme, the beginning and end of your plot, and decide what main character(s) you want to use. Here’s how.
Theme: ask yourself a question. Is loving your enemies stupid? Is vengeance biblical? Is chocolate actually critical to the wellbeing of humans?! (The answer to the last one is obviously yes. :P)
Plot: ask yourself what the goal is that your characters are working towards (side note: that is one awkwardly worded sentence, but I spent FOREVER rehashing it in my brain and this is the best I could come up with. If you have a way to say it better please tell me in the comments!! ;))? Is it to reclaim a throne? Discover new lands? Slay a dragon? Create chocolate? Keep that goal in mind, ’cause when we plot your climax is when your character’s goal is about to come to fruition – or is about to fail.
Characters: ask yourself what kinds of people fit best with your theme and plot (or, if you work like me, ask what theme fits best with your characters and plot). Are they snarky and stubborn? Broody and tragic? Optimistic and naïve? What do they need to learn?
Alrighty, now that you’ve got that done, you’re ready to dive into the climax. 😉
The Climax
As I work through this, I’m going to make up a fake novel that I’M NOT ACTUALLY WRITING (yet – I might get so intrigued that there’ll be a fifth thing under the Current Projects tab xD) to show you how it works. This means a lot of lists, so if you aren’t a list person, it might be wise to close the tab and forget all about this. XD
(Update after finishing the post: yep, I really want to write this story now… XD)
However, now you’ll see why the three basics of storytelling are so important – I’m going to work through each section and weave it into a climax so you can see how they knit things so tightly together. 😉 And, in case you’re wondering, I usually plot the climax and falling action together, since the falling action is so short compared to the climax. 😀
(And yes, we’re doing Spanish numbering again.)
Número Uno: Theme Plot
In case you didn’t catch it during the last post, I really struggle with coming up with a story solely from a theme – I usually get either a plot or a character idea first, then find a theme that fits later on.
So.
I’ll start with plotting first, then come up with characters, and THEN come up with a theme.
If you did the exercise in the very-long-and-probably-unnecessary introduction, even if you’re just making up a novel in your mind, you have a goal your characters are working towards, and this is what your plot is going to stem from – your goal. The climax is either the achievement of that goal or the failure of that goal. It’s the point of no return, where either the character we’re rooting for (or, in the case of a tragedy, against) will either win or lose. It’s the time of highest tension, and usually the longest scene in a book or movie as well. Oftentimes this is where authors hit or miss with their books – if the climax is pathetic, most people won’t come back to the story.
As I mentioned before, I’m going to show you how this works with a fake novel that I’m calling Lioness for now. ;))
(A bit of background about Lioness: a mother’s nine-month-old child is kidnapped and the story is about her working to rescue him.)
Main goal: to find the missing baby before the kidnapper’s dire note comes true
See? No problemo! Now you just have to figure out how the mother’s goal is either achieved or failed in the climax:
Way it’s resolved:
Climax – the mother is faced with her greatest trial yet: she is within reach of her child, but the kid is being carried away by the kidnapper the mom is chasing. She chases them through all of the kidnapper’s security traps – pits of lava she has to get across, swinging pendulums trying to knock her into it, mazes, etc. In the end she reaches the kidnapper, gets into a fight with him, and nearly loses. However, she eventually beats him, taking her child back and capturing the criminal.
Falling action – the mother is safe with her child. We close with her in her home, crooning a lullaby to him.😊
(Also, keep in mind during these that a character’s goal may change throughout the story – a character’s want (usually the first goal, if goals change) and a character’s need are different, which will result in a goal change around the midpoint.)
Make sense? Now, go try it out with your own mental novel, or one you’re writing, or one you hope to write!
Número Dos: Plot Characters
Characters can be really hard to come up with – especially ones that defy stereotypes and are three-dimensional AND relatable. I can usually come up with about one decent character no problem, and the rest I have to work harder for. But it’s worth it, considering that characters are the heartbeat of a well-spun tale (in my opinion, anyway – I know people who prefer plot over characters).
Now, there’s a lot I could get into here – do you want a flat character arc or a round character arc, a character developed with character questionnaires or over the course of a story, a tragic character or normal character – but for the sake of article length (I’m pretty sure y’all are already bored XD) I’m going to skip all that and assume you’ve already decided what type of character you want and have them mostly fleshed out.
(That’s probably the longest sentence I’ve ever written. XD)
Firstly, come up with a lie that your character believes. It should correspond to the plot or theme (whatever you’ve developed first). If character is the first thing you’re developing, then just come up with a whopper of a lie and let ’em believe it. 😉
Lie believed: that she is strong enough to rescue her child by herself.
Way it’s resolved:
Climax – she is beaten by the criminal when she finally catches up and only when she begs God for help is she able to rescue her baby. She knows that the strength given to her wasn’t hers – that was her forgotten Lord gently coming back into her life and showing her she can’t do it by herself.
Falling action – we see her singing a lullaby to her child that she made up herself – one based off Psalm 28:6-9
Número Tres: Characters Theme
By now you should have a pretty solid idea of what you want your thematic question to be – after all, your theme should be closely tied to the truth your character learns. Like almost identical. 😛 Basically, you’ll need to take the thematic and rephrase it into your answer – this is your main message. For example:
Question: am I strong, able to do whatever I set my mind to?
Main message: You are not able in and of yourself to beat all odds and to do all things. You need God, the LORD, to be your strength and shield.
After that, you need to figure out how you’re going to resolve that in your climax – how your character and plot will be tied together with the theme. Example:
Way it’s resolved:
Climax – the mother is beaten, despite all the times she tells herself that she can do this, that she can beat this, that she is strong enough, that girl power is a thing. She realizes that nope, all of those are lies if you don’t add the God she ran away from into the mix. So she calls out to God and, through HIS strength, is able to save her child.
Falling Action – we see the mother back in God’s presence, no longer running or believing the world’s lies. We see her singing Psalm 28 to her child, reveling in the strength God gives her.
See? It’s actually pretty easy if your brain isn’t dead! And if you ever need anyone to brainstorm with, find a rock and talk your ideas out – it’ll listen as well as it can, I guarantee it. 😉 (But if you don’t want to be thought crazy, try just typing out random ideas until you stumble upon something that piques your interest.🙃)
Wrap Up
So! We’ve got our biggest section of this series over and done with (congrats if you read through it all – you deserve six milkshakes), which means next week you’ll get a still-long-but-not-as-long article about that dreaded middle. Seriously, the stuff I learned about the middle CHANGED MY WRITING LIFE. I can’t wait to share it with you, so be sure to tune in!
What do you think? Does this process work for you, or are you a solid panster through and through? Or, do you think this is the stupidest thing ever? XD Should I actually write Lioness? ‘Cause now I’m excited about it and the message against feminism, which is something I feel quite passionately about. 😉
Anywho, take courage, pursue God, and smile while you still have teeth! 😀
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