Making that Action Rise
The role of Rising Action and Zombie Hamsters in Story Structure
When I was a little kid in Ms. Foster’s fifth-grade writing class in Bedford, New Hampshire, she talked a lot about rising action.
“You want your reader to keep reading,” she’d say.
“You want them to stay up late reading the book with a flashlight under the covers,” she’d say. “Have any of you ever done that?”
Sure, all the time. But paying attention in class wasn’t quite so easy. As Ms. Foster talked, I daydreamed about falling in love with aliens that looked a lot like dogs and saving the world, so I missed a lot of what she was putting down in those classes.
Also, to be fair, I missed a lot because I was trying to read The Hobbit under my desk without her catching me.
But what she was putting down in that Bedford classroom was important.
Rising action is part of what keeps you reading a book (or watching a movie or a TV show).
IT HAS A LOT OF NAMES
Rising action can be called the messy middle.
Are you structuring your novel via the Hero’s Journey? You might call it ACT TWO or those moments between crossing the first threshold and the ordeal.
If you’re into Freytag’s Pyramid for your plot structure, you might call it rising movement.
Are you a Save the Cat! structure lover? It’s all of act two, every single beat from Break Into 2 to Dark Night of the Soul.
WHAT IS RISING ACTION?
It’s two words that should be self evident “action that rises,” but it honestly, just makes me think of yeast bread that’s proofing.
I’m not super into the term.
So, let’s says it’s this:
Your book starts and then things happen, more things happen and more things happen. There is cause and there is effect and the reader has an emotional stake in your main character’s emotional stakes and wants.
They key is tension.
In your story, every point in the plot increases the tension of whether or not your character will survive/get her goal/turn into a zombie hamster unicorn/whatever.
It’s about conflict. There are two main kinds: internal and external and what’s keeping your main character from getting their big wants and yearnings.
THE ROLE OF RISING ACTION
This little buddy that we call rising action (though I’m still not into that term) is all about making event that are so riveting, so interesting, that we readers can not help but be compelled to keep turning the page.
Keeping the action, the tension, increasing, keeps the readers turning the page.
The stakes getting higher, situations getting worse, emotions getting big, all help keep your reader involved in your story. It keeps them invested.
RISING ACTION IS NOT THE SAME FOR ALL GENRES
How your action rises is different in a literary memoir, romance, horror, thriller, or picture book.
It’s all about the promise of the premise (this is just what readers expect your story to give to them via the first pages) and also about the expectations of readers of your genre. That action is going to rise pretty high at very set points if you’re writing horror or a thriller. Not so much with a peaceful picture book.
THE WRITE PRACTICE’S TAKE ON RISING ACTION
The Write Practice has a pretty cool take on rising action on its post, excerpted from its book here:
”Dramatic structure is an idea, originating in Aristotle’s Poetics, that effective stories can be broken down into elements. At The Write Practice, we define six elements of dramatic structure:
Rising Action/Progressive Complications
“When writers are constructing a story they should include these six elements.
“Rising action is the longest part of the story, and one of the most important parts of dramatic structure because it contains most of the decisive action in a compelling narrative.
“If the exposition and inciting incidents are the beginning of the story and the climax of the story is the end, the rising action makes up the middle of the storyline.”
TOM BROMLEY’S TAKE ON RISING ACTION
Tom Bromley has a piece on the Reedsy blog where he writes,
“Rising action is everything in a story that occurs after the inciting incident (when the plot is set in motion) but before the climax, thus forming the bulk of the narrative. This involves the development of the protagonist’s internal and external conflicts, a primary conflict that comes to the forefront, obstacles they must overcome, and a “boiling point” that triggers the climax.
“In other words, rising action is the engine that powers almost every story. Without it, you simply can’t follow any established story model (like the hero's journey or three-act structure)… but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to write! Luckily, this guide will better acquaint you with this crucial story element: you’ll see exactly what should happen during the rising action, with the help of some sweet examples.”
SO HOW DO YOU DO THIS RISING ACTION THING? HINTS:
Goals and motivation build emotion: So show the reader not just what your character wants but why.
Make it Hard
There have to be things blocking the goals.
There needs to be effects
When the character does something, there needs to be something that happens because of what they’ve done.
Use Pinch Points
Make it Urgent
That ticking clock thing? It helps increase the tension.
Keep making it more and more scary/urgent/intense
This isn’t about plateaus and nice even moments. This is about it getting bigger and worse and scarier or more intense.
There must be a must. There has to be a reason why your main character MUST do things, take action, fall in love with a zombie hamster, whatever. Lean into those moments.
Pay attention to Ms. Foster, but also study books and see how they do it.