Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Building Those Peaks

Still caught in the middle of the story and since this is the majority of the story the middle can be hard. Today, I'm looking at building those peaks that are leading to the climax. There are times in my own writing when I build these peaks to high to early. Then I look at the story and know I need to go back and re-work those peaks.

Too high too soon and where does the writer go. The atomic bomb is needed as the climax not an early peak in the story. Writing the middle is sort of like one of those charts that has jagged peaks but starting small and building to the next and the next with each peak a little higher. A reviewer once said a story I wrote was like a rollercoaster ride. Made me feel good for as I wrote each time the main characters worked to find a solution to the problem and succeeded, they encountered a new problem that needed time to grow. Those are the valleys but those will be talked about later/

So give your characters problems on the way to their goal but always hold that goal just out of reach. Let them climb the peak to find a solution to the problem they think will give them their goal, then sneak in another problem. Keep increasing the need to climb to what is the climax of the story. Your characters will keep reaching for the carrot and seeing it slip away only to try again.