by C. S. Lakin
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World: The final climactic battle between the Surprise and the Acheron builds to the moment in which Jack discovers his captain, his long-pursued enemy, is dead. He takes the captain’s sword from the surgeon and begins repairs.
It’s important to keep in mind that the climax may not be just one scene; it could comprise a number of scenes. But when coming up with your ten key scenes, focus on the moment in which the goal is reached. The climax brings the conflict with the opposition to a close. And it’s also the moment when the two MDQs are answered, so the protagonist comes into his essence in full in that scenes. This is where he faces the truth about himself and his world.
If your character is victorious at the climax, he will reaffirm his beliefs, embrace his truth, defeat his lie about himself and the wound that has hounded him. He may be hurt and in pain, but the valuable lessons learned outweigh the damage.
Key Scene #10 – The Satisfying Resolution
After climax, your story is over. The hero has reached (or failed to reach) his goal, the conflict has ended, the plot has reached its basic conclusion.
But if you end your novel there, readers will put down your book unsatisfied. That final essential scene is needed for closure and wrapping up the loose ends.
Whether that resolution scene comes moments after the climax or skips ahead months, you want a succinct, brief scene that shows the results of the hero reaching his goal and brings your theme(s) to the forefront one last time.
You want to leave readers with a specific feeling or emotion. This is the period at the end of the sentence, the last note that lingers in the air after the end of a sublime symphony.
Ask yourself: Will your story ending leave readers happy, sad, or somewhere in between? Will you tie everything up, or do you plan to leave some things hanging because you’re doing a series?
Keep this in mind too: a story that is completely resolved in the final pages can feel too pat and perfect. If everyone at the end is ecstatically happy, that’s not always a good thing. Hinting at change to come, at positive prospects, can be much more rewarding—and realistic—than that pat ending.
At the end of Colorado Hope, we see my hero and heroine at the park where a big celebration is underway. Colorado has been declared the 38th state, and the lovers are with their friends—those who helped stop the bad guys and reunite the pair. However, Alan, a young man who had a crush on the heroine and who played a key role in getting the lovers back together, shows up with a gal who seems to take a keen interest in him, hinting that Alan, too, will find true love . . . perhaps soon.
I like to think of the resolution scene as the final curtain in which all the key players take a last bow on stage. This of course is going to depend on your genre and plot. But I find it helps to think in this way so I don’t leave anyone out. The supporting cast often needs to be acknowledged in the end by the hero—and the reader.
Sometimes additional scenes will show the aftermath of some of the characters, including the villain, if appropriate. But you want to end with your hero enjoying the rewards of having reached his goal. More often than not, it’s within that scene that the opposition is shown to be fully defeated or impotent. Picture that deflated bad guy slinking away from the party, muttering angry words and looking wholly pathetic. Or the nemesis being dragged off by the cops to jail as the hero and his crew look on and smile.
While following that adage “Quick in, quick out” is wise, don’t rush your climax and resolution scenes. Often writers are burned out and exhausted from all the hard work of writing an entire novel, and they tend to hurry through these last scenes. But they’re some of the most important, so take your time to craft them well.
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Your assignment: Work on the key scenes #8-10. Spend time thinking of ways to make that dark moment as hopeless as possible. Think of your themes and how your protagonist can ponder her values and beliefs so that you bring the themes to the forefront. Lay out a powerful, impacting climax scene that shows your character reaching or failing to reach her goal. Then come up with that satisfying resolution scene that shows the aftermath of the climax.
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You’re now ready to dig into layering! I hope you’ve been putting your scenes into the chart and you now have a good understanding of both what types of scenes are needed for this initial framework as well as where they are positioned in your novel.
If you haven’t taken the time to develop a strong concept with a kicker, the protagonist and his goal, the conflict with high stakes, and the themes with heart, you should hold off going any further until you do so. Think about studying my 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction and use the workbook to flesh this all out. Then you’ll be ready to dive into laying out all these scenes.
Here are those ten scenes in a chart with a bit more explanation. (You can download a PDF of the chart here or if you’re reading this in a print version, go to www.livewritethrive.com and you’ll find the link on my resource page.):
#1 Setup. Introduce protagonist in her world. Establish her core need. Set the stage, begin building the world, bring key characters on stage.
#2 Turning Point #1 (10%) Inciting Incident. This starts the protagonist moving in a new direction. It’s the “opportunity” that arises.
Turning Point #2 (25%) The goal is set.
#3 Pinch Point #1 (33% roughly). Give a glimpse of the opposition’s power, need, and goal as well as the stakes.
#4 Twist #1. Something new happens: a new ally appears, a friend becomes a foe. New info reveals a serious complication to reaching the goal. Protagonist must adjust to change with this setback.
#5 The Midpoint – Turning Point #3 (50%). No turning back. Important event that propels the story forward and solidifies the protagonist’s determination to reach her goal.
#6 Pinch Point #2 (62% roughly). The opposition comes full force. Time to buckle down and fight through it.
#7 Twist #2. An unexpected surprise giving (false?) hope. The goal now looks within reach. A mentor gives encouragement, a secret weapon, an important clue.
#8 Turning Point #4 – Dark Night Moment (75%). Major setback. All is lost and hopeless. Time for final push.
#9 Turning Point #5 - Climax (76-99%). The climax in which the goal is either reached or not; the two MDQs are answered.
#10 The Aftermath (90-99%). The wrap-up at the end. Dénouement, resolution, tie it all in a pretty knot.
Part 2: The Next Layers
Chapter 10: The Next Layer
This is where it gets fun and crazy—once you’ve locked in your ten foundational scenes. Meaning, you have all kinds of options here when it comes to layering your scenes.
In thinking of various genres, I came up with all kinds of possibilities. So I’m going to throw a few at you and let you play with this.
I’ll show you an example of using that natural action-reaction behavior to create the second layer. We’ll also look at romance structure using this technique (since romance novels have two different engines that drive the story), and I’ll show you how I focus on subplot for my second layer in my crime/detective novel.
No, your layers don’t have to always comprise ten scenes, but it’s an easy and practical method. I happen to like simple methods with round numbers. Feel free to vary this. But I’ll be presenting some options here, and I hope they’ll help you flesh out your novel in an organized and intuitive way.
Some novels have fifty scenes; some have more than a hundred. But it makes sense to me to start with the most important ones and work your way to the small ones—the ones that link the bigger scenes.
Or, revisiting the analogy I started with, we start filling the jar with big rocks, then drop in pebbles, then sand, then water. Then the jar is full.
I like to layer in subplots, and I’ll be providing you with a twenty-scene chart and an example to show you how you might do this with your story. But if your novel doesn’t have a subplot—like The Martian o
r Cast Away, which are singular plots about a man trying to survive the elements—you’ll need a method of layering that is directly related to your main plot. Or you might opt for this layering option over the subplot one, even if you have a strong subplot. The objective is to use a layering method that works best for your story.
You can get very complex with all this, but if you’re new to writing novels, I would encourage you to start simple. I’ve seen too many aspiring novelists attempting extremely complex plots and failing miserably due to a lack of skill and experience in structuring novels.
What I find the easiest and most logical when it comes to this second layer is to think in terms of that natural action-reaction cycle. You can start fleshing out your plot outline by padding the ten key scenes with the reaction and processing scenes.
For example, take a look at the scenes numbered 11-20 (in boldface) that I’ve interspersed in the first layer chart.
Chart: Action-Reaction Second Layer
#1 Setup. Introduce protagonist in her world.
#2 Turning Point #1 (10%). Inciting Incident.
#11 Reaction to the Inciting Incident. Character processes, makes a decision, leads to . . .
#12 Turning Point #2 (25%) – New action or incident that sets the goal for the novel.
#3 Pinch Point #1 (33% roughly). Give a glimpse of the opposition’s power.
#13 Reaction to the Pinch Point or first big step toward the goal. (Note: often the protagonist isn’t aware of the action occurring in the pinch point, so instead you might show some initial steps taken toward the goal.)
#4 Twist #1. Something new happens. Protagonist must adjust to this event.
#14 Character acts based on that twist (the adjustment played out).
#15 A complication because of the adjustment.
#5 The Midpoint – Turning Point #3 (50%). Important event that solidifies the protagonist’s determination to reach her goal.
#16 Regroup after the Midpoint, a decision made for new action.
#17 A new complication and reaction.
#6 Pinch Point #2 (62% roughly). The opposition comes full force.
#18 Response to the big challenge presented by the pinch point.
#7 Twist 2. An unexpected surprise giving (false?) hope.
#19 Adjustment to the twist. Decision and new action.
#8 Turning Point #4 (75%) Major Setback. All is lost and hopeless.
#20 Help or strength comes to succeed at the climax. Prepare for the final push.
#9 Turning Point #5 (76-99%) The Climax.
#10 The aftermath (90-99%) The Wrap-Up.
I hope you can see the many possibilities here. While these descriptions are a bit vague, they capture the progress and setbacks as the protagonist goes after her goal. Two steps forward, one step backward. Your novel will have a mix of action and inaction. Of doing and of processing or thinking, regrouping. In those low-energy processing scenes, that’s where we see reflection and growth. Those pertain to the character arc.
With every new action or twist or setback, your character needs to react, process, and make a new decision. Plans are revised. Internal goals are questioned, character flaws and strengths are revealed and put to the test.
Your character will have momentary victories, but she’ll also have failures. I like to build my stories so that each setback or failure is bigger and more impacting than the last.
One prolific author I know plots her novels with three main obstacles, each worse or more challenging than the prior one, with the final one at that dark moment before the climax. That’s a great initial framework, but you can certainly have many more than three complications along the way.
Chart Out Those Scenes of Best Sellers
To get a more specific idea of this next layer, think about grabbing a few best sellers in your niche genre—novels that are as similar to your story as possible. Read through these novels and jot down a brief summary of each chapter’s plot. When you’re done, you should be able to identify those ten key scenes.
I say “should,” but, as you’ll see in the last part of this book, sometimes even highly touted blockbuster novels can fail miserably when it comes to structure.
Sad, but true—there are a lot of successful novels that have a weak or flawed framework, and often it’s a mystery to me why they’ve succeeded. There could be many reasons for that, which I’ll discuss later.
Hopefully, though, you’ll find some novels that have all the ten key scenes in place.
As you study these novels, you can also get some great insights into those adjacent scenes that show how the character reacts and then initiates new action due to the main plot events that transpire.
This isn’t a waste of time.
Honestly, we writers need to do our homework. If we’re going to write in a specific genre, we need to know what the basic plot structure is for that genre.
While there will be room for variation within a genre, you’re going to see some very clear similarities. An international thriller is going to have a lot of high-action scenes with very few processing ones. Characters in those types of novel briefly process while they’re jumping out of airplanes or planting bombs. In contrast, a thoughtful women’s fiction novel is going to have a large number of low-energy processing/reaction scenes that reveal inner conflict.
So take time to figure out where your novel fits into genre, then do your homework. Use these charts to identify their five turning points and their ten key scenes. Make a mark or highlight the secondary scenes that seem the most important. That’s where you’ll find the second layer.
An Analysis of Catching Fire
I spent some hours going through Suzanne Collins’s novel Catching Fire, the second book in her Hunger Games trilogy. If I were planning to write a dystopic novel (especially a series), this would be a good choice.
After I listed a summary of all the chapters (which have only one scene per chapter, though Collins does do leaps of time in some of them, noting multiple incidents and developments), I took a look at the placement of these scenes as well as the type of scene they were. I determined which were the ten key scenes.
Take a look at what I came up with. I hope you can see how this exercise might be insightful and instructive for you, to help you nail your genre’s typical structure.
Collins was spot-on. I used my handy calculator to determine the page numbers for each of the key scenes, and those scenes are exactly in the right place.
Note: because this is the second book in a trilogy, Catching Fire’s plot goal is reached (Katniss yet again survives the deadly games), but the ending has a big twist, and readers are denied key scene #10—the resolution or denouement. That “happily ever after” scene can’t come until the end of the series, with the overarching goal being the takedown of the Capitol and a “brave new world” of hope being reached.
Catching Fire
By Suzanne Collins
Book 2 in The Hunger Games series
1.Key Scene #1 – Setup. Katniss reflects on the changes to her life since arriving back from the Hunger Games. She brings food to Gale’s family and spreads her wealth around. She reinforces her relationship with Haymitch, waking him from his liquor-induced slumber. Peta arrives with bread. Katniss’s uncertainty regarding her feelings for Peta is evident.
2.President Snow shows up at Katniss’s house. He indicates he would have preferred her (and Peta’s) death at the end of the Hunger Games as he grills Katniss. The conflict/stakes are established as high as ever.
3.Katniss PROCESSES what just happened. She attempts to make sense out of her exchange with President Snow while she bathes in preparation for her prep team’s arrival. The trio arrives to prepare Katniss for her tour of the districts. Katniss is encouraged to develop a talent. Peta and Katniss exchange a kiss before the cameras. Haymitch tells her she will never have a real life—the one she wants with Gale.
4.Key Scene #2 - Inciting Incident. On the train, Katniss details the recent
visit with President Snow to her team. She runs through her next moves and options. At District 11, they do their act. Peeta surprisingly offers the district a portion of their winnings. Then Katniss speaks consolingly to the crowd, which responds by showing solidarity with the mockingjay salute. Katniss realizes she’s unleashed the whirlwind and in horror watches a man shot because of her.
5.They hurry back into the Justice building as more shots are fired. Haymitch demands to know what happened. Peeta explodes in guilt. Quick montage as they spend days doing the same appearances at all the other districts, until they arrive at the Capitol, where they make their final appearance before Snow.
6.They attend the big party at Snow’s mansion. Katniss thinks about the suffering people. Scene ends with her seeing a secret transmission showing a violent uprising in District 8.
7.Katniss remembers when she was in the woods on her way to the cabin for a rendezvous with Gale. Gale and Katniss draw closer, and Gale announces his love for her. Katniss tells Gale about the uprising in District 8. Gale reacts strongly. Katniss tells of her plan to run away. They argue about options, the world predicament. Coming out of the woods, Katniss seeks out Peeta to explain her plan and seek his approval. Gale is whipped in the square for his transgression of hunting in the forest. [This is also the 25% mark - goal fixed.]
8. Katniss is injured but not as severely as Gale. Katniss’s mom tends to Gale’s wounds. Peeta tends to Katniss, and Haymitch supports everyone. The threat to Gale’s life brings clarity to Katniss’s feelings for him.