The Two Halves of the Climactic Moment

The Climactic Moment is the story in microcosm.

The Climactic Moment is where the protagonist’s final relationship to the plot goal is determined by definitive success or failure, as is the character’s relationship to the thematic Lie and Truth. Although the events of the Climactic Moment might not be the “biggest” of the story, they will always be the most important, in that they decide the story. The Climactic Moment not only brings the story’s conflict to a close, but also determines whether or not the preceding structural elements satisfactorily come together to create a cohesive and resonant whole.

In our series about the two-sided structural beats, the Climactic Moment marks the final one. As we’ve seen in the posts over the course of the past month, this two-sidedness is always about providing a stark division between what comes before and what comes after. For the Climactic Moment, what comes before is the entire story; what comes after is “what will be” in this new paradigm the protagonist has now created.

Specifically unto itself, the Climactic Moment requires the pacing of the story and the climactic sequence to offer two very specific halves of its own, which we will call Sacrifice and Victory/Failure.

But first, a final look at the all of the two-sided beats we’ve discussed in this series:

Inciting EventFirst Plot PointMidpoint (or Second Plot Point)Third Plot PointClimactic Moment

What Is the Climactic Moment?

Ideal structural timing sees the Third Act begin (via the turning point of the Third Plot Point) at the 75% mark. Halfway through this act, at the 88% mark, we then encounter the turning point into the Climax proper. The Climax is a sequence of scenes comprising roughly the final 10-12% of the story, in which the protagonist directly confronts the antagonistic force to finally determine whether or not the plot goal will be fruitfully achieved.

The reason the Climax is given fully half (if not more) of the Third Act is due to this sequence’s obvious importance within the story. This is what everything has been leading up to or foreshadowing throughout the entire story so far.

However, even the Climax itself must rise to a high point and come to a climax of its own. That climax-within-a-Climax is the Climactic Moment. The Climactic Moment is the definitive end of the plot conflict (if not yet necessarily the story itself, which may continue for a few scenes more to tie off loose ends in a Resolution).

The Climactic Moment is the moment in which either the protagonist or the antagonist claims a victory (or perhaps the plot goal is definitively removed from both of their reaches). This is the moment when the bad guy dies or the romantic leads get engaged or the protagonist gets her promotion—or gets her promotion and turns it down because it no longer aligns with her new values.

As I’ve discussed elsewhere in noting the important links between certain structural beats, the Inciting Event in the beginning can be seen to ask a question: will the protagonist triumph in the external conflict? The Climactic Moment, then, is the definitive answer to that question: yes or no.

In many ways, the appropriateness of your Climactic Moment will determine whether or not the entire story works. If the Climactic Moment is a faithful emergent of the Inciting Event’s question—and every subsequent structural beat’s exploration of that question—then the story will hold together to create a big picture.

If, however, the Climactic Moment is not intrinsically related to and emergent from all the previous structural beats, it will prove that the story as a whole does not work—that, in fact, the Climactic Moment is providing an answer to a question that is different from the one posed in the story’s beginning.

One of the easiest ways for this to happen is when the author confuses subplots. For example, if the Inciting Event presents a romantic story with the question of “will they or won’t they fall in love?” then the Climactic Moment must answer that question. If instead the Climactic Moment focuses on a suspense subplot, in which it provides the answer “the bad guy is defeated,” then the story may at best feel fragmented. And, of course, this holds true in reverse as well. If the story begins as a suspense story but puts its main structural focus on the romance in the end (e.g., the bad guy is defeated by the Third Plot Point or some such, leaving the relationship issues to be spotlighted in the Climax), then the Climactic Moment will flounder.

Recognizing the Arc Created by the Two Halves of the Climactic Moment

Like any good structural beat, or scene, the Climactic Moment presents a transition. The protagonist may have fully aligned with the thematic Truth just prior to entering the final fray, the outcome of the fray itself should never be taken for granted. Even in genre stories in which readers expect and desire a certain outcome (e.g., the good guys win, the lovers end happily ever after, etc.), the story should not treat this outcome as a given.

This is best accomplished by observing the arc of the Climactic Moment, as revealed by its two halves: Sacrifice and Victory/Failure.

In this modern age of movie spectacle, we often think of the Climax as needing to be the “biggest” scene. Although this is often a good course, it is not inherently necessary, especially as witnessed in quieter relational stories. Even if a romance closes with the comparatively “big” action of one of the leads racing through an airport (or whatever the equivalent in the 21st Century), the Climactic Moment may in fact be a relatively quiet moment of confession and vulnerability—consummated by a symbolic kiss.

It is not always important for your Climax to be the loudest, biggest, flashiest thing in the story. The Climactic Moment’s only true deciding factors are that a) it decides the conflict and b) it provides readers a psychic catharsis after the character’s previous physical and emotional travails.

This is why the Climactic Moment cannot be just a “one and done” beat. There must be an emotional arc. That arc is provided by the protagonist’s willingness to “Sacrifice” and the resultant “Victory” or “Failure” (depending on the character’s relationship to the thematic premise).

Sacrifice

As we’ve already seen, the Third Plot Point’s Low Moment created the final crucible for the protagonist’s inner conflict. Whether or not the character chose to fully release the Lie and align with the Truth was, in many ways, an even more important climax than the Climax itself—if only because that choice was the major factor in determining the actual outcome of the external conflict.

If the protagonist did indeed choose to release the Lie and align with the Truth, this decision will have been hard-fought. It was not an easy choice for the very reason that it demanded a sacrifice. The character gave up both the Lie itself and any remaining “protection” provided by its paradigm. The eventual and inevitable progression is that the protagonist’s decision after the Third Plot Point additionally represented total commitment to some great sacrifice that will come due in the final beat of the external conflict.

In stories with life and death stakes, this sacrifice could be the character’s very life. Simply by choosing to enter into the final fray, the character recognizes he is risking his life.In stories with professional stakes, such as legal thrillers, the protagonist may  risk losing credibility or even being disbarred in order to align with her own integrity and finish out the trial.In stories with relational stakes, at least one of the leads will confront fears about commitment and union and be willing to make personal sacrifices in order to unite with the other person in a meaningful relationship.

In short, the Climax is where the story’s stakes finally demand payoff. Even if the protagonist has already suffered greater losses than what he is facing now, this sacrifice is the one that has been looming all story long. (And, indeed, part of the reason the character is now able to make this sacrifice may be because of the losses he has already lived through.)

Of course, it may eventuate that the character does not, in fact, have to surrender and suffer to the degree she has prepared herself to do. What is most important in this beat is that she is aware of the stakes and is willing to face them without stinting. Only this will allow the external conflict to finally be resolved.

Victory/Failure

The protagonist enters the Climax resolved. He is willing to sacrifice to the last measure (as defined by the story’s context). And he may indeed have to. He may give his life, his career, his health, his relationships, or any other number of difficult surrenders.

He may do this to achieve an ultimate spiritual and moral victory—and indeed perhaps a great physical victory as well, if it turns out the things he’s giving up weren’t really serving him (as in, for example, the case of giving up a toxic or broken relationship).

But it may also be that simply in proving his pureheartedness via his willingness to sacrifice, he will find the ability to achieve his victory without giving up much at all. This usually only happens in stories with comparatively low stakes. If the stakes are life and death, as in action stories, most audiences will not be satisfied with anything less than a true sacrifice of some kind.

However, victory is never assured—particularly if the character chose wrongly between Lie and Truth at the Third Plot Point. She may enter the Climactic Moment willing to sacrifice something (perhaps the right thing, or perhaps the wrong thing). She may lose both what she was willing to risk and the ultimate plot goal. Or she may lose only one, but then discover that the one is no good without the other.

Regardless, this is where we find the true Climactic Moment, the true end to the story. Not only do we see the external conflict resolved and the plot question answered, we also see the results of the characters’ choices. We see whether the characters are made happy or sad, whether they are better off for all their trials or worse. What happens in the Climactic Moment is the story’s final statement about human reality, whether it is explicit or more likely simply implicit in the characters’ comparative state at the end of the story.

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This concludes our little series about the two halves of each of the major structural beats. I hope this has helped you see the inherent emotional arc within each beat and therefore what each beat is intended to achieve within the overall structure of the story!

Previous Posts in This Series:

The Two Halves of the Inciting EventThe Two Halves of the First Plot PointThe MidpointThe Third Plot PointWordplayers, tell me your opinions! Can you identify both the Sacrifice and the Victory/Failure in your story? Tell me in the comments! 

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