How to Use Rising Action in Writing

Using rising action effectively in a story is crucial to capturing and sustaining a reader's attention. Rising action is the part of the plot that adds complications and precedes the climax. Rising action focuses on the protagonist and/or the antagonist either trying to rise above the conflict or avoid defeat.

Instructions

1. Create a protagonist who is a dynamic character who changes in a significant way whether positively or negatively in order to begin an engaging rising action.

2. Place events, twists and the connections to the protagonist in a logical order so the story is clearly understood. Use vivid, descriptive action words to forward the plot towards the climax or conflict ending point.

3. Intensify the rising action. Focus on entangling the protagonist in the conflicts or struggles between two forces in the story. The protagonist could be struggling with loss, love, insanity, fate, society, self or nature.

4. Develop and weave literary elements that reflect or expand characters and conflicts within the story so that the reader literally cannot put the book aside. Incorporate literary elements into the story such as suspense, irony, similes, metaphors and symbols.

5. Add a last dimension to the rising action and include implications or have the reader infer or read between the lines. Often, the most intriguing stories are those in which the reader has to really stretch his imagination.