The End (final 1/4 of the story) is made up of more than the Climax. When you followed the assignment for Day Eight, I trust you were able to remember and plot out scenes from this final section besides just the Climax.
Yes, the Climax is the crowning glory and it really deserves more than one day, but it's time to move along.
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, said at a commencement speech: "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future."
Your job as writer is to connect the dots. And, because you know the future -- the Climax -- you don't need to rely on trust. You can actually connect the dots.
Work backwards from the Climax -- which is the moment when the protagonist finally stands firmly in her power, stands up to her greatest fear or confronts the thing that has beat her up spiritually. The scenes in the final 1/4 of the project lead up to the Climax.
As you see, the line ascends quickly. The scenes you plot here serve primarily to advance the protagonist to the Climax. Nothing new can be introduced, no pontification or philosophizing. The reader does not want the story to end, but they can not stop reading. They have to know what happens. Keep things moving.
These final scenes show the protagonist beginning to develop and rely on her intuition. She fights for one step forward. Falls two steps back. Conflict, tension, suspense at every turn -- yes, even if you're writing a memoir for your kids, keep it exciting. Keep the story moving. You, as the author, may not want it to end either. You have fallen in love with the characters. They have taken over your life. Get over it. Move steadily to the Climax.
In the End, the protagonist still has foes to confront and overcome. Only now, she is armed with a new understanding of herself. For the first time, her goal truly comes into focus. She can see it. She moves toward the light -- one step forward toward the ultimate transformation, beat back three steps.
Yes, the Climax spotlights the character in full transformation as she demonstrates the necessary new skill or personality, gift or action, but the scenes that build up to the Climax show us the transformation unfolding step-by-step. The reader lives the experience with her. Together the protagonist and reader moves closer and closer to her goal, firmly aware that she had to experience everything she did throughout the entire book to get to this final stage -- the Climax.
Ask yourself -- do the scenes that lead up to the Climax reveal most dramatically her steps toward transformation?
Assignment:
1) For maximum effect, check that every scene you've plotted on your Plot Planner for the End (final 1/4 of the story) has both:
a) a preparation or anticipation scene that comes right before
AND
b) a follow-up, reactionary scene that comes right after.
It's like playing tennis. Huh? I know, playing tennis is nothing like writing, but... As a kid, I learned "turn and step, hit, follow-through."
1) Turn -- preparation step.
Hit -- main event.
2) Follow-through -- reaction.
1) Preparation or anticipation creates emotion. Often, the anticipation of some feared event is worse than the actual event itself -- creates tension, conflict and suspense.
2) Without the follow-through step in tennis, your hit is erratic. Without showing the effect of the action on the character in writing, you rob the reader of revealing emotion. And, one can never have enough emotion in a story.
