Clinchers, aka Crisis

This week I decided to write about those moments between turning points. I call them Clinchers, they are also known as a (or) the Crisis. They are those times that make the reader's heart beat faster and make them turn the pages. It is where the bad guys attack the good guys, it is where the girl finds out something about the boy (or vice versa)that makes them question their love, and it is where the evil wizard sends his minions after the hero and the hero has to fight.

Now, the hero of this story you are writing is given the opportunity to follow his heart, but choices are oftentimes hard and this is how you know when a Clincher is about to happen. Something comes along to make this hero act. Heart or not. These Clinchers make the hero do something. Anything, to move this story along. It might even be better if he or she makes the WRONG choice. Sometimes characters making mistakes are a good thing.

If you were making a pudding, this is the ingredient that makes it thick. These Clinchers are scenes where there is so much tension and suspense, the reader has to gulp. And when it is over, they go ahhh.

If you are a story structure person, novels often have two of these Clincher scenes, the first one being sometime before the midpoint of the story, and it sometimes is used to introduce the villain character, ah yes. What a great Clincher that is!

Can you think of three stories where the villain is introduced? What surrounded that scene? YES!!! that's a Clincher.

Come on back next week, and I will discuss the middle of a novel and how it should behave.