How to deal with multiple climaxes (multiple protagonists)?
I'm writing a series, and I have two protagonists. Both are PoV characters, and both offer different viewpoints on the main conflict (an ongoing war). One is a respected general, has frequent contact with the leader of the army, and heads many campaigns. The other is a healer (the genre is fantasy-ish), is protected from the majority of combat, and spends most of the novel in a castle.
While these two characters are tied together by a single goal, they each have different plots, and those two plots have different and separate climaxes. Because of who and where they are, I cannot combine the climaxes. They might take place at the same time, but they are hundreds of miles apart.
How do I handle multiple climaxes like this? I understand how the novel has to lead up to the climax, and how the climax is followed by a short resolution, followed by the end of the book. I'm worried that if I put one climax after the other, one or both will be messed up in terms of how the reader sees them.
Is this a valid concern? Is there a way to write multiple climaxes, or should I stay away from it at all costs?
Note: I've thought of the 'switching PoV' method, where I switch back and forth between each climax. My problem with this method is that the climaxes are totally different, and I feel that doing this will only serve to separate the reader from both.
Second Note: Another possible way to deal with this is, since it is a series, to simply have only one climax per book. This of course means that one plot will not be resolved with every book, which seems to me would cause a bit of a problem.
1 answer
A good book should form a thematic and, ultimately, moral whole. Multiple characters may reach their moment of crisis, but there will generally be one central climax that plays the major notes of the theme and multiple supporting climaxes that work in harmony or counterpoint to support the major note.
A simple unity of action is not needed or even desirable. A short story has a simple unity of action. The characteristic of a novel is that it has a unity of theme expressed through a diversity of action. A novel is orchestral. It is a composite of many moments, many highlights, but all leading and framing the great moment of climax that is not simply the culmination of one character's storyline, but the grand summation of the overall theme that runs through all the threads of the novel.
A novel requires that diversity of action to deserve the name (and justify the length) but it also requires the unity of theme and moral focus to qualify it as a complete and unified work.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads