: Re: 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

@YK4692630

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I think your concern is valid. Climax is usually a build up of the emotional investment until it piques. Having 2 might minimize the second climax and would seem weird to have 2 since we are mostly used to 1 climax stories involving all parties.

I don't know if this is 2 climaxes or not but I would think the ending of Lord of the Rings has multiple climaxes.

We have the story of Frodo and the story of Aragorn and the rest of the gang. The climax of Aragorn and his gang revolves around their objective to launch an attack on Mordor. This ultimately leads to the life and death climax/cliff hanger of being surrounded by tens of thousands of orcs.

Frodo's climax is a journey that leads him to Mount Doom to destroy the ring once and for all. This ultimately leads him to a climax of good vs evil and personal desires.

While they are in 2 different locations, different plots, different paths, different climaxes, but the same goal (to destroy the ring), they both had their climaxes result of cause and effect of each other.

Due to the attack on Mordor, Frodo was ultimately able to destroy the ring. Due to the ring being destroyed, Aragorn and company was able to be saved from the hordes of orcs that surrounded them.

The goal was ultimately achieved and resolved both of their conflicts differently but intertwined.

I don't know much about your story and you did hint at saying you were not able to combine them, but I hope this example might give you a different angle about combining climaxes while being separate.

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