Writing The Rising Action: Tips for Increasing Conflict Without Boring Filler
HelloOoOo everybody!
Today we're here for episode seven of my course, How Writers Become Authors: A Step-by-Step Guide for Crafting Your Novel. We're continuing our deep dive into Freytag’s Pyramid, and right now we're at everyone’s least favorite part of the pyramid, the rising action. The rising action trips up a lot of writers for two reasons. First, it's the longest part of Freytag’s Pyramid, so you have a lot of opportunities to mess up. Second, it's technically the middle of the novel, which means we can fall into sagging middle syndrome. That's when you have a super exciting beginning and ending to your novel, but the middle of it lags, meanders, and ultimately bores the reader. Fortunately, the rising action doesn't have to be a mess. In fact, if you go into it with the right mindset, it might end up being your favorite part of the writing process.
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Step 1: A Quick Refresher
As a quick refresher, the rising action is the series of events that further escalate the conflict until it comes to a head at the climax. If you're following the Three Act Structure, this would be considered Act Two. It's the events detailing how the protagonist is trying to fix whatever conflict has arisen, and it's designed to increase tension and suspense for the sake of the climax. This usually accounts for about 70% of the story, which means you have a lot of content to work with, and you have to make it count.
Step 2: The Formula
Everyone wants some kind of secret formula for writing the rising action, but ultimately it's really simple. Think of your story as a treasure map, and the climax is where X marks the spot. Treasure maps never take you directly to the treasure. You have to follow clues that take you to different locations that offer new clues. That's how the rising action works. Each plot point moves the story closer to the climax, just like each location on a treasure map brings you closer to the treasure.
Say your story follows a main character who is searching for her long-lost brother. You can't just have her Google his name, find his location, and then bam! The story is over. The rising action would follow the series of events and mishaps as she tries to locate this man. Maybe he has an extremely common name, so she's stuck researching a ton of men, just trying to narrow him down. Maybe she thinks she's finally found the guy, but when she shows up and meets him, he's super old, like older than their parents. Maybe when she finally finds her actual brother, he's moved away, so now she has to find his new location. Each of these events represents different plot points within the rising action. Some of these plot points take our main character closer to her goal; others bring her further away from it.
If you're not sure what to feature in your rising action, here are a few content ideas and plot points.
Step 3: Rising Stakes
New consequences are revealed, or relationships or circumstances change, making the conflict even more dire or the goal even more important to achieve. Say your main character has to save the kingdom from an evil king, and along the way they fall in love with the princess, AKA the evil king's daughter. This raises the stakes of the story because the evil king isn't just a threat to the kingdom; he could also potentially harm your main character's love interest.
Step 4: Setbacks
Your character can't just experience a series of uninterrupted wins throughout the rising action. It's not relatable, and it's not believable. A resolution feels earned if the character struggles along the way, so they need to experience some failures and setbacks in order to create a satisfying resolution.
Step 5: Character Relationships
It's very uncommon to write a book featuring just one character, though it's not technically impossible. But the odds are your character is going to make friends or allies along the way. They might fall in love. They might get their heart broken. They might experience betrayal. Character relationships often go hand in hand with the plot itself, especially if the character is journeying with other characters or if they're battling villains.
Step 6: The Dark Night of the Soul
This is a scene that occurs directly or almost directly before the climax of the novel. For most novels, the climax involves your main character tackling their conflict head-on. And, for the sake of entertainment, as well as raising the stakes, you want your main character to enter the climax at a disadvantage.
That's when the dark night of the soul comes into play. This is a scene where something devastating happens to the main character. They're betrayed. They fail at something really important. A lie is revealed that hurts them very deeply. Or maybe they lose someone they love. This devastation makes them feel as though their goal is impossible to achieve. They might give up entirely. The point is, they're at their lowest emotional point. They're feeling really sorry for themselves right now.
This plot point exists to make the conflict in the climax feel even more daunting, which means if the main character experiences a victory at the end of it all, then it’s going to be really satisfying for the reader; that victory is going to feel earned.
Step 7: Variant Endings
Now, you might notice an issue here. Some climaxes don't end in a victory. This is especially common in tragedies, or in any genre that ends in some type of tragic circumstance. Or, if you're writing a mid-series book that ends in a cliffhanger. If that's the case, then you might employ the polar opposite of the dark night of the soul.
Basically, rather than taking your character to a new low before the climax, take them to an incredible high. Let them experience a major win, whether that's victory in battle, fame and fortune, or finally getting to kiss the girl they've been in love with for years. This will make the tragedy of the climax even more devastating, because the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Now, if you follow these tips, then you should be able to avoid sagging middle syndrome. But if you're struggling with that, here are a few more tips to consider along the way.
Step 8: Break Their Legs (Not Literally)
This is a tip I offer writers whenever they feel like their writing is getting boring, or they don't know what to write next. It’s probably time to raise the stakes. Whatever your character's situation is, make it worse. Plots revolve around conflict, and worsening whatever problem your main character is dealing with is a really easy way to raise your novel's stakes and avoid sagging middle syndrome. Remember, the point of the rising action is to increase suspense and tension. Throwing a wrench in your main character's journey is a great way to do exactly that.
Step 9: Keep Your Subplots at Bay
Subplots are important to most novels. They are secondary storylines that run parallel to the plot. The odds are, if your book includes a subplot, that's a good thing. They add richness and believability to the story. They help to expand the characterization.
But a lot of authors who struggle with sagging middle syndrome allow their subplots to overtake the rising action. Basically, the author writes the introduction, which is where the conflict is introduced. Then the rising action covers the main character's family life, their love life, their situation at work, literally anything but the conflict. Then suddenly the climax is here, the conflict is resolved, and that's it. It's over.
This is not the purpose of a subplot. It's supposed to move forward alongside the plot, not overtake it. It's totally fine to feature subplots in your rising action. In fact, you probably should. And it's okay for a subplot to dominate a particular scene from time to time. But your subplots should never dominate the entire rising action.
Step 10: Move the Story Forward
Lastly, and most importantly, move the story forward. Every chapter in your book needs to move your plot forward in some way. It could be the tiniest inch. It could be a single line from your chapter, so long as your plot has moved forward. The biggest culprit behind sagging middle syndrome is filler. And filler is any content that doesn't advance the plot or character arcs. People get bored when they read filler because the content feels useless. Why am I reading this stuff if it has no bearing on the plot?
So if you're not sure if this is your problem, go through every chapter of your book and ask yourself: “Does this move my plot forward? If I deleted this chapter, would the story still make sense?” If the answer is yes, then you've written filler, which is going to contribute to sagging middle syndrome.
If the answer is no, you're probably on the right track.
So that's all I've got for you today!
The rising action doesn’t have to be intimidating. Your primary goal is just to increase tension and take your characters closer to the climax. And if you need any extra help, I have a worksheet linked right here.
If you need help writing your very own book, check out my writing craft books, How to Write Romantasy, as well as Shut Up and Write the Book. They are available at all major retailers and in all formats: ebook, paperback, and audiobook—all that good stuff.
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