You're sitting in a theater, or maybe you've got a dog-eared paperback in your hands, and suddenly the "intro" stuff is over. The hero has left home. The mystery has its first real clue. The stakes just went from "that’s annoying" to "oh no, people might actually die."
That's the rising action. Honestly, it's the meat of every story you've ever loved.
Without it, you just have a situation. A guy loses his job. Okay, so what? If he spends the next two hours struggling through interviews, getting betrayed by his best friend, and accidentally stumbling into a corporate conspiracy—that’s the rising action. It's the climb up the roller coaster before the terrifying drop.
What's the Rising Action, Specifically?
Basically, the rising action is the series of events that starts right after the "inciting incident" (the thing that kicks the story off) and leads all the way up to the climax. It's usually the longest part of any book or movie.
If you look at the classic structure proposed by Gustav Freytag back in the 19th century—which we call Freytag’s Pyramid—this is the section where tension builds. But it’s not just "stuff happening." It’s a chain of cause and effect.
One thing leads to another. The character makes a choice. That choice has a consequence. That consequence creates a new, harder problem.
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Why it feels like a "climb"
Think of it like this: if the climax is the explosion, the rising action is the trail of gunpowder leading to the barrel. It’s the period where the protagonist is trying to solve their problem but keeps hitting walls.
- Conflict gets messier. The antagonist isn't just a shadow anymore; they're actively sabotaging the hero.
- Stakes get higher. It’s no longer about winning a game; it’s about saving the school.
- Character growth happens. This is where characters actually change because the pressure forces them to.
Real Examples of Rising Action in Action
Let’s look at some real stories to see how this actually works.
In The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the inciting incident is Katniss volunteering for her sister. But the rising action? That’s almost the whole book. It’s the training in the Capitol, the interviews where she has to pretend to be in love with Peeta, and then the actual games. Every time she survives a fire or a tracker jacker attack, the tension ticks up. We aren't at the climax until the very end when only she and Peeta are left.
Take a classic like Star Wars: A New Hope. The rising action starts once Luke Skywalker leaves Tatooine with Obi-Wan. They get to the Death Star, they rescue Leia, they lose Obi-Wan, and they escape. Each of these moments builds the "threat level" until the final trench run.
Even in a horror story like Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, the rising action is that excruciatingly slow week where the narrator stalks the old man. Each night he opens the door just a little bit more. The tension isn't just in the murder; it’s in the wait.
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The "Muddy Middle" Trap
Ask any professional writer and they’ll tell you: the rising action is the hardest part to write. It’s where most stories die. People call it the "muddy middle."
Kinda sounds gross, right? It happens when the rising action loses its "rise." If the characters are just walking around talking without the stakes getting higher, the reader gets bored.
Expert story consultants like Lisa Cron (author of Wired for Story) argue that for rising action to work, it has to be internal. It's not just about a bridge blowing up. It’s about the character’s "misbelief"—the internal lie they tell themselves—being challenged by the external plot.
If your hero thinks they have to do everything alone, the rising action should involve a series of events where "doing it alone" fails harder and harder until they are forced to change.
How to Spot It While You're Watching
If you're trying to identify the rising action in a movie you’re watching tonight, look for these three things:
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- The "Point of No Return": This is usually the start of the rising action. The character has crossed a threshold and can't go back to their "normal" life.
- Try-Fail Cycles: The hero tries to fix the problem and fails. Or they succeed, but the success creates an even bigger problem. (Think of Die Hard—McClane stops one terrorist, but now the others know he’s there).
- The Countdown: Often, rising action includes a literal or metaphorical clock. The wedding is in three days. The bomb is ticking. The poison is spreading.
Why We Need the Build-Up
Some people think they just want the "good parts"—the big fights or the romantic kiss. But without the rising action, those moments feel empty.
You need the struggle to make the victory mean something. If a character wins a fight in the first five minutes, you don't care. If they spend 90 minutes getting beaten down, outsmarted, and pushed to their limit, that final punch feels like a personal victory for you, too.
Actionable Steps for Better Storytelling
Whether you're writing a novel, a screenplay, or just trying to tell a better story at a dinner party, you can use these principles to keep people interested.
- Stop making things easy. If your character needs information, don't let them just find it on Google. Make them have to track down a person who hates them to get it.
- Escalate the cost. If the hero fails a task early on, maybe they lose their keys. If they fail halfway through, maybe they lose their job. By the end, they should be at risk of losing their soul.
- Connect the dots. Each scene in your rising action should be there because of the scene before it. Avoid "and then" stories. Use "therefore" or "but" stories. "The hero went to the store, but it was closed, therefore he had to break in."
- Check the pulse. If the tension has stayed at the same level for three chapters or twenty minutes of film, you’ve flattened out. Throw a curveball. Introduce a new complication or a ticking clock to get that "rise" back.
The next time you're stuck in a story that feels "slow," look at the rising action. Usually, the stakes have stopped climbing, and the character is just treading water. To fix it, you’ve gotta turn up the heat.