The duel of spells is won by the apprentice who knows one small charm and uses it at the right second.Earlier: the charm fails in a lesson. Costs: the master's faith in big magic.
The hero takes the slow road with the whole group over the fast road alone.Earlier: the group holds the hero back. Costs: arriving first.
The rope is too short, and everyone gives up something they are wearing to finish it.Earlier: what each scarf, belt and sash means to its owner. Costs: all of them, knotted.
The bet comes due, and the hero has to stake the one thing that is not theirs to lose.Earlier: who lent it, and why. Costs: trust that took years.
Both sides reach the prize at the same moment, and it takes two to lift it.Earlier: each fails to lift it alone. Costs: the sole credit both wanted.
The challenger turns out to be playing for the same cause as the hero.Earlier: each hides the reason. Costs: one of them must step back.
The contest is called off, and the two rivals finish it anyway with nobody watching.Earlier: both say they want only the prize. Costs: that pretense.
The debate is won by the quietest person in the room, who asks one question.Earlier: she is talked over three times. Costs: the hero's turn to speak.
The dragon agrees to a riddle contest and asks a riddle that has no answer.Earlier: the hero's habit of admitting ignorance. Costs: saying "I don't know" with a village at stake.
The duel of spells is won by the apprentice who knows one small charm and uses it at the right second.Earlier: the charm fails in a lesson. Costs: the master's faith in big magic.
The final test is the first test again, and this time the hero must fail it on purpose.Earlier: passing it was the hero's pride. Costs: a perfect record.
The hero cannot outplay the champion and has to outlast them.Earlier: the champion has never played a long game. Costs: every reserve the hero has.
The hero is winning, sees what winning will do to the loser, and has ten seconds to decide.Earlier: why the loser needs it more. Costs: the win, or the night's sleep.
The hero wins by turning the villain's own rule against them.Earlier: the villain states the rule with pride. Costs: the hero is bound by it now too.
The hero wins the argument and sees, on one face, that winning it was the mistake.Earlier: that person asks only to be heard. Costs: the friendship, unless the next line is right.
In the tournament's last round the hero faces their own enchanted reflection.Earlier: the hero's one bad habit. Costs: the habit has to go, now.
The judges are split, and the deciding vote belongs to the person the hero wronged in chapter one.Earlier: the wrong, never mended. Costs: an apology with nothing to gain by it.
The move the hero saved for last is the one the rival taught them.Earlier: the lesson, years ago. Costs: the rival knows exactly what it means.
The opponent offers a draw that everyone watching would accept.Earlier: the hero calls a draw shameful. Costs: certainty, whichever way it goes.
The plan fails in the first minute, and the only backup is the thing the hero swore never to do.Earlier: the oath, and why it was made. Costs: the hero's picture of themselves.
The race is decided by who stops for the runner who fell.Earlier: the rule that stopping means disqualification. Costs: the medal.
The rival plays fair in the final and is simply better, and the hero has to lose well in front of everyone.Earlier: the hero mocks a bad loser. Costs: the title, and the excuse.
The score is tied, and the tiebreaker is a question about the other side.Earlier: the hero never learned their names. Costs: pride, in public.
The storm arrives in the middle of the contest, and both sides must decide whether it still is one.Earlier: a warning both ignored. Costs: the day's result.
The storm giant will yield only to someone who says their own true name aloud.Earlier: the hero's true name is a joke at home. Costs: saying it.
The team wins only when its star passes to the weakest player.Earlier: the star never passes. Costs: the star's record season.
The trial turns when the hero's own witness tells the truth and not the script.Earlier: the script, rehearsed. Costs: the easy verdict.
Two heirs must each lift the crown, and it is too heavy for whoever wants it.Earlier: a servant carries it easily. Costs: the wanting.
A choice 25
A lie would spare everyone, and the hero is the only one who knows it is a lie.Earlier: a smaller lie that worked. Costs: carrying it alone.
The door between two worlds is closing, and the hero has friends on both sides.Earlier: a home made in each. Costs: one world.
The hero breaks the rule they wrote themselves.Earlier: the hero enforces it on a friend. Costs: the right to enforce it again.
The hero can break the curse or keep the gift that came with it.Earlier: the gift saves the day once. Costs: the gift.
The hero can keep the secret and the home, or tell it and lose both.Earlier: how the home was earned. Costs: the address.
The hero forgives before the apology comes, and it never does come.Earlier: the list of what is owed. Costs: tearing up the list.
The hero gives up the thing the whole story was a hunt for.Earlier: one scene of what it cost others. Costs: the prize, within reach.
The hero hands the decision to the person it affects most.Earlier: the hero decides for others, kindly. Costs: control of the ending.
The hero has to ask for help from the one person they told never to come back.Earlier: the door slammed. Costs: the first sentence of the call.
The hero is offered everything they asked for on page one and no longer wants it.Earlier: the wish, stated plainly. Costs: admitting the wasted road.
The hero is offered the throne and gives it to the cook who fed the uprising.Earlier: the cook's quiet good sense. Costs: the crown the hero was promised.
The hero leaves, though supper is on the table and everyone expected the staying.Earlier: the reasons to stay, all good. Costs: every one of them.
The hero lets the rival take the credit so that the thing gets done.Earlier: credit stolen once before. Costs: the name on the plaque.
The hero must choose between the friend who is right and the friend who is theirs.Earlier: loyalty is praised above all. Costs: one friend, either way.
The hero must hand the last dragon egg to the enemy's child, the only one who can hatch it.Earlier: the hero tries and fails to hatch it. Costs: their side's one advantage.
The hero says no to the reward and names a different one.Earlier: what the hero really needed, unspoken. Costs: the giver's goodwill, perhaps.
The hero stays, though the bags are packed and everyone expected the leaving.Earlier: the ticket, bought. Costs: the life the ticket was for.
The hero takes the slow road with the whole group over the fast road alone.Earlier: the group holds the hero back. Costs: arriving first.
The key works, and using it locks the way home.Earlier: the hero's plan for afterward. Costs: the afterward.
The mentor says stop, and the hero goes on.Earlier: the mentor has never been wrong. Costs: the mentor's blessing.
The truth would win the day and break a promise.Earlier: the promise, made lightly. Costs: the hero's word.
Two doors are closing, and the hero can hold one.Earlier: who waits behind each. Costs: explaining it to the other.
Two good offers, one hour, and nobody to ask.Earlier: the hero always asks. Costs: the offer not taken, for good.
The villain offers the fair deal the hero would have taken a week ago.Earlier: the hero's price, named aloud. Costs: knowing the price has changed.
The wish will be granted on condition that nobody remembers who made it.Earlier: the hero longs to be known. Costs: the thanks.
A discovery 25
The answer was in the hero's own first line of dialogue.Earlier: the line, tossed off. Costs: only pride; the reader gets the pleasure.
The code is broken, and the message is an invitation, not a threat.Earlier: every guess is a fearful one. Costs: defenses built for nothing.
The culprit is the one who asked the hero to look into it.Earlier: the request, a little too eager. Costs: the client and the fee.
The dark tower is opened, and inside is a library that someone has been guarding from fire.Earlier: smoke on the horizon, misread. Costs: the hero's reason for the march.
The dragon's hoard is counted, and every piece is something a villager lost and it kept safe.Earlier: lost things, mentioned in passing. Costs: the reward for driving it off.
The hero confesses, and everyone already knew.Earlier: small kindnesses the hero took for luck. Costs: the drama of confessing.
The hero finds the proof and sees their own name in it.Earlier: a favor the hero forgot doing. Costs: clean hands.
The hero learns that the lucky escape was arranged by the person they resent most.Earlier: a piece of luck nobody explains. Costs: the resentment.
The hero overhears the true opinion of the one person whose opinion matters.Earlier: the hero fishes for it and fails. Costs: being unable to unhear it.
The hero reads the diary's last page and learns that they were the secret.Earlier: the diary's gaps. Costs: who they thought they were.
The hero's hidden talent is seen by exactly the wrong person at exactly the right time.Earlier: why it was hidden. Costs: the hiding place.
The letter is opened at last, and it was never an accusation.Earlier: the hero dreads it for chapters. Costs: the years spent dreading.
The lost thing is found where the hero looked first, by someone who looked properly.Earlier: the hasty first look. Costs: the hero's claim to be thorough.
The map was right, and the hero has been holding it upside down.Earlier: someone small says so and is hushed. Costs: an apology to the small one.
The monster in the lake is measured at last, and it is very small.Earlier: each teller adds a yard. Costs: the town's best story.
The old enemy's reason comes out, and it is a good one.Earlier: the hero refuses to hear it. Costs: the simple version of the past.
The photograph is developed, and there is a fourth person in it.Earlier: three people swear they were alone. Costs: one of the three, as a friend.
The prophecy is read to the end for the first time, and its last line is an apology.Earlier: the scroll's torn edge. Costs: the certainty the quest ran on.
The record that would clear the hero would also sink someone innocent.Earlier: that person's one kindness. Costs: a clear name.
The sleeping king is woken at last and has no idea how to help.Earlier: generations wait for him. Costs: a plan that was only "wake the king".
The spell works, and it shows that the hero never had magic, only nerve.Earlier: each earlier spell has a plain cause. Costs: the title of wizard.
The stranger turns out to be the hero's oldest friend, unrecognized.Earlier: one habit of the friend's, described. Costs: every unkind word since they arrived.
The thing everyone searched for was sold at the yard sale in chapter two.Earlier: the sale, played for laughs. Costs: buying it back at any price.
The truth is said out loud at the worst possible table.Earlier: three near slips. Costs: the dinner, and years of quiet.
The witness has told the truth from the start, in a language nobody troubled to learn.Earlier: the witness is waved away. Costs: the hero's belief in their own fairness.
A rescue or an escape 25
The bridge holds for everyone but the hero, who must find another way across.Earlier: the hero insists on going last. Costs: the long way round, alone.
The cage was never locked.Earlier: nobody tries the door. Costs: the story they told about being trapped.
The enchanted sleepers can be woken only by a stranger calling each one by name.Earlier: the hero learns the names idly. Costs: a voice gone hoarse by dawn.
The escape needs one person to stay and hold the door for a single minute.Earlier: who has never once been last. Costs: the longest minute in the book.
The escape route is drawn on the wall in a child's hand, and it works.Earlier: the drawing is dismissed as scribble. Costs: the adults' certainty.
Everyone is counted out, and the count is one over.Earlier: a stowaway, glimpsed. Costs: the hero's secret about who else was inside.
The forest closes the path behind them, and the only guide left is the one they tricked on the way in.Earlier: the trick. Costs: owning up to it before the guide will lead.
The griffin will carry three, and there are four.Earlier: the fourth joined late and uninvited. Costs: one walks, or all do.
Help was refused out of pride, and now the hero must accept it with everyone watching.Earlier: the refusal. Costs: the pride, in public.
The hero cannot get there in time and has to shout instructions to a frightened beginner.Earlier: the hero is a poor teacher. Costs: patience, found at last.
The hero carries out the person they came, an hour ago, to stop.Earlier: the quarrel. Costs: the reason for coming.
The hero frees the others first and is caught doing it.Earlier: the hero's plan to go alone. Costs: the head start.
The hero reaches the edge and has to trust a rope held by the least reliable friend.Earlier: that friend drops something small. Costs: the hero's rule of relying on nobody.
The ice will hold only one at a time, and somebody has to go first.Earlier: the smallest is called a burden. Costs: the smallest goes first, and matters.
The last boat is full, and the hero steps off so that a stranger can step on.Earlier: the hero pushes to the front of a line. Costs: the seat.
The lost child is found asleep in the back of the search party's own truck.Earlier: the blanket in the truck, mentioned once. Costs: nothing, and that is the relief.
The rescuer arrives and finds that the captive has already organized everyone inside.Earlier: the captive's bossy streak. Costs: the hero's grand entrance.
The rescuers get stuck themselves, and the one they came for talks them out by radio.Earlier: her skill, doubted. Costs: the rescuers' pride.
The rope is too short, and everyone gives up something they are wearing to finish it.Earlier: what each scarf, belt and sash means to its owner. Costs: all of them, knotted.
The signal goes up, the wrong people come, and they help anyway.Earlier: the hero snubs those very people. Costs: owing them.
The spell that opens the cell needs a true thing said aloud, and the hero has run out of small ones.Earlier: small truths, spent cheaply. Costs: the big one.
The storm forces two rival search parties into one.Earlier: the split. Costs: two leaders, one map.
The tower has no door, and the captive lowers a rope to pull the knight out of the moat.Earlier: the knight's heavy armor. Costs: the songs he hoped for.
The water is rising, and the hero goes back for the one thing that cannot be replaced, which is a person.Earlier: the hero names an object. Costs: the object.
The way out is the way they came in, past everything they ran from.Earlier: each thing they ran from. Costs: facing them all in reverse order.
How it works
These climax story ideas are 100 ways for a story's high point to go: the plan fails, the truth is said out loud, the hero gives the thing up. Under each is what to plant earlier and what it costs.
Read the full guide
Ideas for the climax of a story, by what it decides
Four groups name what the scene settles: A contest (who wins), A choice (what the hero gives up), A discovery (what comes out) and A rescue or an escape (who gets out). Take the one your first chapter promised.
Ideas for a climax to a fantasy story
The group In a fantasy story holds twenty. A crown is too heavy for whoever wants it. A tower has no door, and the captive lowers the rope. A dragon's hoard turns out to be the village's lost things, kept safe.
Put the cost where it can be seen: something the hero is holding, wearing or standing in front of.
If the climax needs a paragraph of explaining, move the explaining three chapters back.
Questions and answers
What is the climax of a story?
Its peak of tension and drama, also called the turning point. The word comes from the Greek for staircase or ladder. It is the stage where the protagonist at last meets the biggest challenge, leading to the resolution.
What makes a good climax?
The hero settles the story's main question by doing something, and pays for it. On this list the hero wins the argument and sees, on one face, that winning it was the mistake.
What is an anticlimax?
A letdown that follows exciting events. It is not always a fault: where a story's tone calls for a more equivocal conclusion, an effective anticlimax is as valid as a traditional climax.
Does the climax come at the very end?
Near it, not at it. The climax leads to the falling action and the resolution, so leave room after it. For the last scene itself, see story ending ideas.