Don’t Let This Sloppy Technique Kill the Tension in Your Story’s Climax

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http://www.kmweiland.com

Points out one of the most egregious mistakes you can make in your story’s climax and how to make sure readers never look away from your exciting finale.

Historical and speculative novelist K.M. Weiland offers tips and essays about the writing life to help other writers understand the ins and outs of the craft and the psychology behind the inspiration.

Video Transcript: Imagine this: you’ve created an amazing story, full of amazing characters, who are clashing in an epic conflict. Your story’s climax has arrived, and, baby, it is tense. You’ve got readers on the edge of their seats. They’re turning those pages so fast they’re getting paper cuts. In other words, you’re doing everything right. But then—you do something wrong. You cut to a commercial break. “Don’t you dare touch that dial, folks! We’ll be right back with more exciting mayhem!”

Can you hear it? Pssssssssssst. That’s your story’s tension and your readers’ excitement deflating like a popped balloon. There’s an especially egregious example of this in the finale of Victor Hugo’s generally wonderful classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He’s got his story’s climax cranked into high gear as the gypsies attempt to free La Esmeralda by launching a massive attack on the cathedral, which is then admirably defended by Quasimodo and his molten lead. It’s exciting, it’s tense, it’s right out of a blockbuster movie. And then—psssssssst—Hugo cuts to the entirely low-key financial discussion and hypochondriacal worryings of the king, who to top things off has been an almost nonexistent player in the story up to this point. Even worse, this turns out to be one of the longest chapters in the book.

Tension and excitement are always high commodities in a story, but especially in your story’s climax. This is show-me-the-money time. If you can’t deliver solid tension here, then you gotta wonder where it is working. Once you cruise into the do-or-die mayhem of your climax, don’t cut away from it for anything. If you’ve got unfinished business, you’ve got three choices: 1) Wait until the resolution to take care of it. 2) Tie off the loose ends before the climax starts. Or 3) rework this unfinished business so that it’s actually exciting enough to belong in the climax without demolishing your story’s tension or your readers’ interest.