Writing crowning moments in your work

Last night I was thinking about some of the games I play, how I would write them or expand on them given half a chance, the characters I would use, and give each character a Crowning Moment Of Awesome, Crowning Moment Of Funny, Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming, Nightmare Fuel and Tear Jerker moment to help flesh out the character. For example one character's CMOA is running down a serial killer, a CMOH might be how contrite and caring a character is with those affected by a disaster, a Tear Jerker a character going catatonic over how horrifying everything is, ect.

I think this would serve as a good writing aid. Is it good form to try and write in such moments?

Where it's appropriate to have such high points, perhaps.

I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to create such moments, but I think they're inherently subjective. You can have opinions about what scene in your work you personally consider the funniest, saddest, etc of course, but ultimately its up to the reader if you wrote it well enough to be considered a crowning moment of whatever. Could be something you thought was just a development scene resonates with people more than what you intended to be a crowner.

Use it sparingly. For instance, if your character were to hop into a humongous mecha and surf on the top of a spaceship into the gaping jaws on a cyborg demon, ripping through its immune system of smaller cyborg demons and dragon liches with a laser blade the size of a school bus in one arm and three 30mm rotary cannons in the other before ripping out its city-sized heart and throwing it into the sun, ending with the mech bursting out of the cyberdemon's chest just as the spaceship detonates in a 100 megaton explosion, only for your mech to transform into a space plane and outrun a supernova caused by the demon heart, all while power metal and accompanying orchestra is playing in the background, that would be fucking awesome. Do it every episode, and it will get boring.

"Oh, how bothersome. Looks like I have to fly into the jaws of a cyberdemon and rip out its heart out again."

Oh absolutely. For one you need to keep the Willing Suspension of Disbelief which if such a moment were an every episode occurrence then it would be broken. For another were they to happen all the time they would stop being awesome or funny, it would be the norm. Third, I was thinking more to write these moments up to add depth to the character, what I mean by that is normally standoffish character shows Hidden Depths and they really do care, and keep that planned Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming in reserve to use when I think it would work the best.

So it would be kosher to try and work such moments in? So long as I can do it with restraint and wisdom?

Sure, but don't put the cart before the horse. Think of what would best suit the narrative and pacing. Readers will decide for themselves what a CMOH or a CMOA is. Like, watching Moulin Rouge, my heartwarming feels go nuts when Christian's spinning Satine, while others think of their first kiss or when they're reunited. I've read some stories where I feel like the author is snarling, "you will fist pump at this action set piece and you will LIKE IT!" It's an instant turn-off.

edited 26th Oct '13 3:25:28 PM by phoenixflame

I know what you're saying. Specific examples? I know the trailers for the two Dead Island games got criticism for trying to invoke Tear Jerker. Myself, I'm much more comfortable writing the story as it writes, one part leads to another, and specific moments less about trying to make it a CMOA and more about making a point, saying what I want to say and letting the reader make up their own minds.

Which reminds me, might be worth looking through the story to see if I try and project a certain view rather than portray the story as is.

What if the characters are so awesome that that sort of thing actually is totally commonplace for them? And the point is to keep one-upping the utter batshit insanity? Like, they do what you described, and then a few chapters later, they do something even more awesome than that?

Well, I think that is the danger with hotshotting. Jim Cornette addressed this with ECW in that they had the steel chairs, then they had the tables and ladders, then the cage, then the thumbtacks, then the barbed wire, then the beds of hyperdermic needles, then brimstone around the ring and you had to engulf your opponent in flames, then C4 charges and exploding rings. How far do you go to create drama and excitement?

In a more storyline scenario first Buffy fought a master vampire, then the most sadistic vampire in history, then someone who made themselves invincible, then a vampire cyborg, then a Physical God, then a master witch, then the Ultimate Evil, then a Reality Warper, then a vampire slayer as in a slayer turned into a vampire. By the need to keep escalating and escalating foes like a dangerous vampire, a invincible demon, a rogue slayer, a scientist, a evil doctor, a trio of nerds, an evil priest and the US Army seems passe. To create drama they had Buffy trying to have a life around slaying, then her boyfriend becomes evil, then a friend turns on her and threatens everyone, then the team risks falling apart, then her mother dies and she has to look after her threatened sister on her own, then she is ripped from heaven by her friends to remain on hell on earth and has to cope with severe emotional torture, then she cracks having to deal with her on again off again vampire boyfriend who tried to rape her and trying to build an army.

That's why I liked the season nine comics because they turned down the drama, they turned down the threat to something that is manageable. They were able to keep it interesting, they tried another approach and I think it worked well.

I sometimes come up with ideas for such moments before I've got context for them. Alot of my fun in writing is creating plot and theme around these moments. Though existing story ideas can give birth to moments too, so it's not one way ride.

Tear Jerker, Heartwarming, Nightmare Fuel, Funny, Awesome. If anyone cares, this shows how important crowning moments are for me. From most important to least.

On maybie less related note. I know these are very much YMMV, but I have impression, that crowning moment pages have become just-list-everything-kind-of-fitting moments.

Yeah... I think that's a natural consequence of YMMV things. Different things strike different people as particularly 'awesome' or 'sad'. Opinions and all that.

I think by its very nature, a 'crowning' moment is something that can usually only happen once or twice (if at all, again, depends on the reader). If there's a story where everything is crazy and over the top and awesome then that becomes the norm, and what would become a CMOA in any other story just becomes business as usual. They're no longer the story's crown, they're just another step up Mt. Escalation. In contrast, in a more laid back setting something as simple as a shy character telling a bully off might be satisfying enough to qualify.

I think many tropers should think about what is moment and what is crowning moment. They should also resist temptation adding examples right after or during episodes of their favorite shows. I have seen funny pages filled with things that are not even jokes. Like serious character development stuff. And no, there was no Narm.

As for my definition of the crowning moment? Things that are built up and deliver. Things that stand above most other good parts of story. Things that even non fan may know.