Monday, June 11, 2012

Saving the Best for Last

Presenting the finale. Ta-da!
 A couple weeks ago we “worried” over the first scene; today we’re skipping to the Finale. You might call it the Climax after rising action or some other name. I’m using notes from Elana Johnson’s workshop, which is based on Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat. My final revisions for The Seventh City currently concern a few finale changes. If I can pull all five of these off, it will be awesome! My original ending didn’t quite measure up. At least I recognize that and can fix it. Let’s see what Elana/Blake say I need to have:

1. Gathering the team—Make it right for friends to want to help the hero.
2. Execute the Plan—It should sound doable even if it is doubtful. (The plan will fail.)
3. High tower surprise—The bad guys make the plan fail by showing up to ruin it. There’s is usually a surprise appearance.
4. The hero must dig down deep to find a new plan, a new way to get out of the bad situation.
5. Execute the new, unexpected plan that hinges upon the hero’s shoulders, only he/she can make it work. This shows something in the character that the reader hoped existed but has now emerged.
Okay. That’s my goal this week. Send your creative aura or muse my way, would you please?

3 comments:

Jennie Bennett said...

I was at storymakers, but I didn't take the class, sounds like an epic ending though. I'll have to remember that in the future :)

Liesel K. Hill said...

I may just print this post, Renae! I, too, am writing the climax of the story I'm working on. I have a few of these but might have to work for the others! Thanks for sharing. Very helpful! :D

Unknown said...

No matter where you are writing in the story, Save the Cat will give some good ideas. I haven't read it yet. Elana has some good advice (since she doesn't like too much structure): you can implement any of Snyder's 15 beats with an outline before, as you write, or during revision. I like that.