1. Introduction
2. Background and Context
   1. Types of Climaxes
3. Setting Up the Perfect Storm
   1. Elements that must converge:
4. The Protagonist’s Ultimate Test
   1. Components of Meaningful Conflict
5. Technical Execution
   1. Crafting the Scene
6. Conclusion

Introduction

You and your characters have made it through so much, they’ve grown, you’ve grown. The reader is hopefully ready to throw the book across the room, or checking that there’s still a few more chapters left in the book. It’s time for the climax, the pinnacle of action and tension right after the protagonist has had their worst moment of doubt in the story.

The climax is so important because it can take a 3-star review to a 5-star review in a few pages. You’ll find these results with you’ve set up the perfect storm, provided the protagonist with the ultimate test, and your final execution of the payoff. We’ll explore more of this below.

Readers and authors alike fear failed climaxes because they can ruin an otherwise good story. There have been books that I, and my wife, and many other readers, have loved until the climax. Then it seemed like the author took the easy way out, or added a twist that didn’t feel genuine to the story. So, let’s look into the climax a little more, and help you create a stronger memorable moment in your story.

Background and Context

The climax of your story is one of the many, if not the biggest, reasons that any potential picks up your book. While some, like me, will pick up a book just if the cover is intriguing enough, others read the synopsis and can tell right then if your book is for them. The synopsis should hint at the climax, the why they will take the time to read your story. The role of your climax is to bring the reader and character to the defining moment to see if they’ve learned from the journey that led them to the moment of highest risk. There are different types of climaxes that result in different books. Some readers will only look for one kind of climax, which often leads to super fans if you consistently produce the same type of climax in each story but keep it fresh.

Types of Climaxes

Physical Confrontation: The physical confrontation climax appears in many stories where the character must complete some final battle against the big bad in order to achieve their objective. Often you’ll see the protagonist’s skills tested as they face their greatest opponent. The physical confrontation will be nose and nose until the unique thing the protagonist needed to learn allows them to administer the final blow. Think Obi-Wan Kenobi killing Darth Maul with his master’s lightsaber. There may not always be some big resonating moments in the physical confrontation, but the evil is vanquished, for now at least, and the protagonist can find solace in the completion of their objective.

Emotional Resolution: The emotional resolution climax takes every loss, gain, and anything in-between from the story and ties it up in a way that it’s almost like an emotional dump truck releasing its load. You’ll probably be crying, or singing “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” here. Really, the emotional resolution climax is often called catharsis, and is a wonderful thing to have your readers experience. This means they’ve identified so deeply with your characters that they can’t help but have that healthy emotional unload to mirror the protagonist’s.

Moral Choice: The moral choice is another test version of the climax. You’ll want to use this approach to the climax if you’re trying to share a moral message with your readers. A character who needs to learn that the real path to good is through honesty, then that tells you your climax should address this. They won’t always succeed based off your character arc, if you’re writing a standalone or series, or if there’s a secondary message that you want to send as an author. Negative character arcs are still arcs, and can make compelling stories, but they won’t always “succeed” in the eyes of the reader. If you’re writing a standalone, you’re more likely to hit the climax on a high note, but series will provide losses depending on where the book is in the series. Or if you’re trying to send a “yes-but” message, then you may have the character hold true, and technically succeed, but the next two parts of the book will show the cost of staying true to the morals.

Multiple Thread Convergence: The multiple thread convergence is when you’ve been telling a multi-POV story that follows different people or groups until the climax of the story. These people/groups come together to face each other, join forces, or to complete the whole of the story that’s been only partially told by all sides. Dean Koontz’s The Darkest Evening of the Year is the first story that comes to mind about this. At first it feels like you’re reading two different books, but once you reach the climax, you see how all the different threads connect the people you’ve been reading about. This connection results in a chaotic and powerful climax.

Setting Up the Perfect Storm

The greatest climaxes have the best build up. One of the writing structure methods that brings this into context is the Save the Cat! method for Fiction Writing by Jessica Brody. She teaches the five part climax. If you haven’t read that book yet, I highly recommend it. Beyond that, there are some elements that you’re looking to ensure happen prior to the climax.

Elements that must converge:

• External Conflict Peak: You can also call the external conflict peak your story problem climax. This brings together most, if not all, of your threads for external conflicts to the highest point of risk for the story problem. The climax isn’t just about the elements listed below but also encompasses the story problems your character has been building since the book’s opening. Expect minor new enemies, revealed secrets, and other surprises to emerge just before the character resolves the book’s external conflict. You can find an example of this in Atom Bomb Baby by Brandon Gillespie, where the accumulated story problems are resolved right before the all-important external conflict peaks to answer the big story problem.
• Character Arc Completion: By the time your character’s reached the climax, they should have learned at least 99% of what they needed for the overall story. While the resolution might include a final 1% of learning, this approach risks feeling like an easy way out. The character arc should be closed out after the dark night of the soul and preparation for the climax. If your character needed to overcome their blind trust in the world around them, like Tom Natsworthy in Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve, then your character must be ready to resist the established norms by the beginning of the climax.
• Theme Crystallization: You probably wrote your story for a reason, whether that’s to have fun, let others engage in your worlds, or to teach a moral lesson, the climax is where that should be clearer than most areas. Yes, this should align with your characters as well, but in reality, we are creating for ourselves first. Your theme crystallizing in the climax should leave your readers without question on the purpose of the book. It’s a lot like He Who Fights with Monsters by Shirtaloon (A.K.A. Travis Deverell), in book one, where the theme is the true cost of great abilities and the effects it has on opinions/the character’s life.
• Subplot Resolution: Remember how I mentioned that at least 99% of your character arcs should be completed by the climax? It’s not different for your subplots. Not tying up your subplots can be a reason a lot of readers struggle with a book. There are the acceptable questions formed from your climax, falling action, and resolution, but any subplots created prior to that should conclude in the climax. This helps your reader feel like you’ve been an honest author with them and aren’t holding out on information for suspense’s sake. These subplots are different from an overall series plot, which really is the main plot, but sometimes they can get mixed up. Make sure you’re clear in what is a subplot and what is a main plot, especially when writing in series.

Creating the perfect storm for your story’s climax involves blending the external conflict peak, character arc completion, theme crystallization, and subplot resolution. Each element is vital in making your climax not only exciting but also fulfilling for your readers. By focusing on these aspects, you can craft a climax that truly resonates and leaves a lasting impression. The build-up is just as crucial as the climax itself, so take the time to set the stage for an unforgettable conclusion to your story.

The Protagonist’s Ultimate Test

Now that you’ve set up the build-up to the climax, you’ll want to formulate the greatest challenge for your protagonist to face. This is the climax, and you want it to be, well, climactic. So it’s time to pull out all the stops, stop making it easy for your protagonist, and keep your reader wondering if they will achieve their goal, or go home a failure. But what is this ultimate test, and how do you know the way to truly test your character?

Components of Meaningful Conflict

Stakes are at their highest in the climax, so don’t hold back. You’ve been working your entire story to reach this point, and your readers are expecting it all to be answered in this moment. As you’ve been ramping up the stakes from the opening sequences of the rising action, you’ve probably been dropping in small pieces of the larger picture cost if the character doesn’t succeed. When the protagonist is in the throes of the climax, they should be struggling with the cost of losing, giving up, or taking a new path.

A lot of what your stakes are in the climax depend on your story and your protagonist. But in a more general way, the stakes should be equivalent to life and death metaphorically, if not literally. Creating the highest stakes possible for your climax keeps it from feeling flat, like in “Matrix: Resurrection.” While they tried to use personal investment, it didn’t quite build on the original trilogy’s stakes.

Personal investment from the protagonist in the climax is critical to keep it from becoming the literary equivalent of Michael Bay explosions. Or Borderlands, if you know what I’m talking about. Really, though, having a personal investment in the climax makes it more memorable and impactful for the reader. When your protagonist has something personal at stake, whether that’s large scale like their world, or small scale like a personal item, it adds that extra layer for your readers. If you go into the climax with something like a small item, don’t forget about it, because your readers won’t. All’s well and good if your protagonist saves the day, but did they hold onto their lucky button?

Personal investment can make or break your reader’s memory of the climax, but if you’ve been building the rest of your story properly, it should appear in the climax with minimal effort. And what better way to create character and reader investment than providing no easy way out?

No easy way out means that the protagonist will have to face the climactic villain, literal or metaphorical, before they can continue with their life. The choice to leave this journey should have happened far back in the book, and it would have been a much shorter book had they left this path. Like the boss battle in a video game, raise the invisible barriers and keep your protagonist from escaping the climax. How you raise those walls depends on your story.

One barrier, as mentioned above, is personal investment. Making the protagonist face the antagonist, or else their family dies, keeps them in that fight. Another barrier might be that you’ve removed all possible transport away from the conflict, and the protagonist can’t outrun the antagonist. You could see this one also as the protagonist being in the courtroom and being unable to leave. They must face the judge and jury or risk appearing guilty. Find an example of this in Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

Technical Execution

Now that you’ve prepped for the big finish, it’s time to actually execute the climax. Don’t worry, if you’ve laid the proper groundwork, this will be easier. In reality, you’ll rewrite, revise, and edit the actual climax scene multiple times. So if you’re on your first draft, don’t stress, but try to get the following elements in place as you write.

Crafting the Scene

Pacing Techniques: In the climax, you’ll want to use every pacing technique that matches your writing style. In the earlier drafts, look at dialogue versus narrative. The scene could have high action, but be so packed with narrative that it slows down the scene too much. Or you could be going for a highly emotional scene, but the characters talk too much and think too little. You’ll have to find the balance for you and what works for your target audience. In later drafts, look at sentence structure and word choice. Thrillers are a great example of this as they use short choppy sentences to show fight sequences and to keep the story flowing. When it comes to your climax, a lot of the time you want the readers to feel like they’re flowing through this segment but not carried away in the rapids.

Sensory Details: Everything seems to hurt less and stand out more as your protagonist faces the greatest challenge of the story. Or at least, that’s what we’d like to think. Sensory details are key to crafting your climax as they pull your reader deeper into the story at the most important part. Ignoring the pain can show the character growth, but it is still there. How the pain feels may differ. Even if your protagonist improves their swordsmanship, injuries will still hurt, but differently. Think of getting a cut for the first time as a kid, it hurt like crazy! If you’ve led a life in the outdoors getting cuts and scrapes all the time, you’ll notice something catch on your skin, but it won’t hurt in the same way. You may not even realize it’s there until you try to wash your hands. In the climax you’ll want to highlight all the important details that will lead to the falling action consequences. Your sensory details can also emphasize the stakes as, for one example, they can trigger memories of why they’re in this climactic moment.

Emotional Resonance: The climax is the scene where the reader expects to feel everything. Hope that it will all work out. Fear that it won’t. The anxiety if a plan A, B, or Z will work, though they aren’t even sure if the characters created a plan Z. Emotional resonance is the pinnacle of the emotional arc of the story. For some stories, it will leave your readers crying, and in others, they will jump for joy. Whatever you do, you want your emotional resonance the strongest in the climax. To create a strong emotional resonance, you’ll need to pull on the heartstrings of the story. Why are you telling this story? Who are you writing it too? Once you identify those, infuse those concepts and that person into the climax. It should align with the challenge you’ve set for the protagonist. Even if your story is “just written for fun” you’ll want to pull on the concepts that made this idea “fun” for you. It can be “just a fun story” and still have emotional resonance with your readers.

Dialogue Impact: Words have meaning. This is an old lesson from one of my military instructors that has stuck with me ever since he said it. The words we and our protagonists use in the climax impact the story more than in any other part of the story. The dialogue used in this section of the story must work more than just the conversation front and to break up the bricks of your action packed narrative. Are the words a taunt that also reveals hidden truths about the character? Are they distractions for the protagonist’s friends to set up a secondary attack or retrieve the desired object? Words can be an obstacle or a tool for both sides of the scenario, and can lead to unexpected resolutions.

Story Climax Writing Exercise

Practice creating a compelling story climax by focusing on character, stakes, and emotional resonance.

Preparation

1. Choose a character from an existing story or create a new one
2. Identify their core internal struggle or greatest fear
3. Determine the highest possible stakes for this character

Climax Drafting

Write a climax scene that:

• Puts the character’s greatest fear directly in front of them
• Creates a moment where they must make an impossible choice
• Reveals their true character through action
• Includes sensory details that heighten emotional tension
• Uses dialogue that reveals hidden truths or motivations

Reflection

After writing, ask yourself:

• Did the scene test my character’s growth?
• Are the stakes clear and meaningful?
• Does the scene reveal the story’s core theme?
• Would a reader feel emotionally invested?

Conclusion

Mastering the art of the story climax is about more than just dramatic action, it’s about creating a moment of profound transformation that resonates deeply with readers. By carefully weaving together external conflict, character growth, thematic clarity, and emotional depth, you can craft a climax that doesn’t just conclude a story, but elevates it. Remember, the best climaxes aren’t just about what happens, but about what it means for the characters and the readers who have journeyed alongside them.

Additional Resources

• Craft books:
  • Robert McKee’s “Story”
  • K.M. Weiland’s “Creating Character Arcs”
  • Donald Maass’s “The Emotional Craft of Fiction”

Previous Post: Rising Action: Building Tension and Engagement

Next Post: Falling Action and Resolution: Bringing It All Together