Yesterday, I wrote nearly sixteen hundred words in under an
hour.
Today, I’m having trouble getting out five hundred (which is my daily minimum).
Based on the first statement, one can assume I’m not in the
middle of a Forest of Trees and Things. Actually, I’ve just finished the
climax, the most vital part to my story. I’d also like to claim it’s a pretty
good climax, all things considered.
The climactic chapter, the showdown between the hero and the
villain, is just over 3300 words, which means I wrote half of it yesterday.
Prior to that, I’d written small amounts of words each day (barely making my
goal).
What in the world happened yesterday?
Why is it so hard today?
I found my answer
in the simple word ‘climax’.
Which part of a book
do you enjoy most?
Me, I’m a little strange. I tend to enjoy the middle parts,
the points where there’s plots twists and subplots and shiny new characters.
For a lot of people, however, the end is the best part. The villain is as
strong as she’s ever been, and the hero is at his lowest. The white-bearded
mentor is dead; the Ally is trapped beneath a thousand tons of rubble (the same
Ally who miraculously survived the explosion that created said rubble), and the
love interest has been forced to serve under the villain’s nefarious captain.
There’s no way the Hero and his motley band of villagers can
tackle this villain. After all, the author has armed her with the best of the
best, enough minor villains to take over the world.
And somehow, the hero
does it.
Be it through Dues Ex Machina (not advised) or through the
Hero’s brilliant plan, the villain’s armies are dispersed, the nuclear holocaust
is averted, the magical dragon is killed, and the villain is brought low, made
the laughing stock.
The climactic showdown is often the most tense, most exciting, and most thrilling
part of any novel. It’s packed with emotion, action, loss and victory. It’s the
part of the rollercoaster where it plunges straight down, shoots through two
loops, and then jerks to a halt in time to stop at the finish.
You, the reader, have had the time of your life. Now you’re
ready to settle back and enjoy the last few chapters, the explanations, the
epilogues, the endings.
And boy was that ride
worth it.
Now imagine yourself as the writer. Shouldn’t be too hard to
do, even if you aren’t one. Imagine writing that scene. Imagine writing how the
hero dodged the dragon’s fire and claws and tail, stabbed the villain’s
second-in-command through the heart, and forced the villain to surrender at the
point of the sword. The valiant hero saves the girl, rescues his friend, and
visits the grave of his mentor.
It’s a lot of fun to write. Whether you’re writing it out
with a pen, on a computer, or on a good old-fashioned typewriter (if so, I envy
you), it’s the best part to write. At last we get to watch as our hero takes
down the villain. Our hands can’t move fast enough on the keyboard, the pencil
can’t scratch fast enough on the page; nothing can keep up with our minds as
they race. The tension the writer has built up can be seen in their posture as
they lean closer and closer to the page, the keyboard, the screen. They cry a
little, laugh a little more, and let out a triumphant shout as the hero says “DROP.
YOUR. SWORD.”*
It’s a lot of fun. You learn to type faster than you’ve ever
typed before, or you might have to learn how to decipher the scribbles that
result from combining half a dozen words in your haste.
And then comes the end. Sometimes the end can be
fascinating, enjoyable, and give the writer a nice warm feeling. But other
times (as is my case), it’s hard to get it out, and make it live up to the
previous chapter. It just doesn’t feel… right. If the climax really is that
good, how can some happy ending do the despair and triumph justice?
What about your
climax?
Does your climax make you sit on the edge of your seat? How
many word-per-minute records have you broken as you approach this showdown?
If you’ve never been more excited, if you can’t stop, even
if dinner smells fabulous, even if it’s
two in the morning, even if your homework needs to get done, if you just need
to get that last page done…
You’ve done it right.
*yeah this isn’t an original line.
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