Novel climax help!

Hi Giae!,

Just a thougth, could you break your complex climax down to several chapters each in one characters POV? Then the final chapter could tie up all the POV.

you know something like this;
Chapter 11
Jack drew the gun. he knew mary was somewhere behind him, but couildn't turn to find her.

Chapter 12
Mary crept along behind Jack and watched as he drew the gun.

chapter 13
the badguys were dead. Jack was wounded but he was alive, now he had to find out what happened to Mary.

Okay not a very good example, but do you know what I mean?

Annie

My brother, also a writer, gave me some good advice once: "Don't unnecessarily complicate things for yourself." It sounds like that's what has happened here. If you have too many characters, settings, subplots, POVs and battles going on at once it will end up a frog in a blender no matter how many sites you visit. For every complication you add, your chances of success go down exponentially.

Unless you are a published writer of many years' experience, with several books under your belt, multiple POVs are a bad idea. Think of all the books you have read that use them - I'll bet there are not more than 2-3. Pick a character and stick with her and you'll cut your mess in half.

As for the subplots, they should all be tied up before the climax (battle) starts. Some can be taken care of in the middle, some just before the end. Others can be left to the reader to figure out, using the clues you have given them. Which subplots are really important to the story? Get rid of all the others. You may have two or even three books here.

Even then, you will have a mess on your hands. The only way to control this is to track the actions of each character throughout the course of the story as they weave and intertwine. It's like choreography.

Now you are left with the battles. Maybe you can handle that without too much trouble, now that all the rest is taken care of.

And good luck - you're going to need it.

Gaie said:

Thanks all. Actually I've only really got two POV's - well, if you count Third Person Omniscient as one, and a first person POV as the other. Subplots are tied up, my two main plotlines are the ones coming to a conclusion here. But Good has to defeat two separate forms of Evil, by both magic, and hitting it with stuff. And attempted diplomacy in there somewhere. Followed by hitting it with stuff until it goes splat.

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OK, then. Why? Why does there have to be two separate forms of Evil? Why does there have to be attempted diplomacy? Why does magic have to be involved? Don't answer those questions here, but ask them to youself--how can you structure the rest of your book to simplify the ending?

Can you combine your two seperate forms? Or can they both be defeated at once, even if by accident? Is diplomacy really necessary? And if it is, can it take place earlier?

Gaie said:

Thanks all. Actually I've only really got two POV's - well, if you count Third Person Omniscient as one, and a first person POV as the other. Subplots are tied up, my two main plotlines are the ones coming to a conclusion here. But Good has to defeat two separate forms of Evil, by both magic, and hitting it with stuff. And attempted diplomacy in there somewhere. Followed by hitting it with stuff until it goes splat.

Click to expand...

Gasp! Why different POVs? Subplots and TWO main plotlines? A cast of thousands?

IMHO, subplots should tied up BEFORE the climax. Keep it straightforward. I think the problem with a lot of writers is that they think the more complicated (or shall we say, convoluted) the plot is, the more clever and wonderful your story is. It's not true. Most people can't handle more than 3 things happening at the same time.

If you must have a big battle climax or whatever, break it up into smaller scenes and focus only on one or two characters in each scene. FOCUS. Watch movies for inspiration: e.g. How Peter Jackson break the key battle scenes into smaller, manageable chunks. And how he went off on different threads focusing only on a subset of the plot/characters at the climax (Frodo/Sam, Gandolf/Merry, Aragon) and gave them equal time and focus.

Stick with the same storytelling technique. Structure is important in a big, complicated story. Don't go off into 3rd omniscient, then switch to 1st person, then back. The last thing you want to do is to confuse your readers.