What Is the Three-Act Structure?
January 16, 2026
What Happens in the Middle of a Story?
January 19, 2026What Is the Three-Act Structure?
January 16, 2026What Happens in the Middle of a Story?
January 19, 2026
What Is Rising Action in a Story?
If you are a new writer, you may be asking yourself why my story is so flat in the middle. That is usually where rising action in a story does its job. Rising action is the plot of a story when things get worse and worse, and the main character is challenged more towards the climax. In the 3-act structure, rising action is mostly in Act 2. It keeps readers interested because each scene adds conflict and increases the stakes and moves the character to a major turning point. In its simplest of terms, rising action is the “build-up” that makes the climax matter.
One thing to keep in mind is not every middle is strong rising action. A story can have a middle that feels slow or random but when a story has rising action, every part of the middle is building tension and moving toward the climax. If your story has a feeling of losing energy halfway through, rising action is usually the missing piece.
What does it mean by that?
To get a basic understanding of rising action, consider a story as a road that keeps getting more difficult. At the beginning, the reader is introduced to the character, settings and main problem. Then the story is not able to stay still. Something has to keep getting tougher, riskier and more emotional. That is where rising action starts.
Rising action in a story is the series of events that builds tension between the beginning and the climax of a story. It gives the story momentum. It makes the readers ask, “What is going to happen next?”
In the 3 act story structure, it usually goes something like this,
- Act 1: Setup
- Act 2: Rising action
- Act 3: Climax and resolution
Act 2 tends to be the longest part of the story. This is where your character is trying, failing, learning, adapting and encountering new obstacles. A simple way to define it is this, rising action is the middle of a story where the conflict escalates and the stakes increase until the climax of the story.
Here are the major elements of rising action,
- New obstacles appear
- The main conflict gets increased
- The character makes choices
- Tension increases
The story progresses towards the climax, one thing that is important to remember is that rising action is not just “more events” it is meaningful escalation.
So if you have ever asked the question, “what is rising action?”, the answer is, it is the build-up section, where trouble builds and hence, the character cannot return to normal life.
If you want a broader view on 3Act, you can check out, What Is the Three Act Structure and you can check How to Outline a Book for Beginners to have a clear view on outlining your story and if you want to know what are basic to write a book, learn from How to Start Writing a book.
How to Write Rising Action Step by Step
If you are looking to know how to write rising action step by step, the good news is that it becomes much easier if you keep it simple.
Start off having a clear story problem
Your rising action has to have something to be built off of. Ask yourself, what’s the want of the main character and what is in his way? If the problem is weak, the rising action will be weak as well.
For example, maybe your hero wants to win a competition, save a friendship, get out of trouble or solve a mystery.
Give character an early challenge
Do not hop from the beginning right to the biggest moment. Instead, try to put a smaller obstacle first. This shows the reader that it is no going to be an easy journey. It also provides your character with a reason to do something.
This is one of the best ways of building rising action step by step, start small and build.
Make each new problem more challenging than the last one
This is what rising action is all about. Every major scene throughout the middle needs to increase up the pressure. The challenge can become,
- More dangerous
- More emotional
- More personal
- More costly
These challenges can be either external like events, obstacles, other people or internal like fear, doubt, emotional conflict. Strong rising action tends to be a combination of both.
If all problems are the same, the story might have a repetitive nature. But if the obstacles are increased one by one, there is a natural growth in the tension.
Allow the character to make decisions
Rising action is not mere events and incidents occurring by chance. Your character should be reactive, make decisions and make mistakes. Good rising action is created by the choices made by the character, it’s not only outside events.
This is important because the reader is more attached to the story when the character’s own decisions shape the story. Rising action is also the time that the character starts to change. The pressure that they face should gradually make them change their perspective, beliefs or confidence as the story unfolds.
Raise the stakes
As the story goes on, the consequences should get more serious. At first, failure may potentially mean embarrassment. Later, it might cost a relationship, a dream or even a life. Stakes are not really about what happens, they are about why it matters emotionally to the character.
When beginners ask, “how do you write rising action?”, one major rule to keep is this, always make the next scene matter more than the previous one.
Include setbacks, not easy wins
If your character manages success with too little struggle, there is no tension. Let them fail sometimes. Let plans go wrong. Let surprises drive them to a change of direction. The story comes alive with these setbacks.
A good rule to follow is that every time the character seems to be closer to success, throw in a complication.
Lead naturally to the climax
Rising action should not appear random and forced. Each action must make logical sense and advance toward the moment or story.
By the end of the rising action the reader should have a feeling that a big showdown, decision or discovery is coming. By this point, the character should be chased into a situation in which he or she has to do something, make a decision or make a change, there is no easy way out.
That is what makes the ending satisfying. Also, pacing matters here. If everything builds up too quickly, the story can feel rushed. If it is too slow readers may lose interest. Balance intensity and breathing space matters and know about What Is Pacing in a Story?
Quick check,
- Is each scene more difficult than the previous one?
- Are the stakes clearly increasing?
- Does the character make decisions, or just react?
- Does each scene lead to the climax?
Examples/Mini Tips
Let’s see a couple of simple examples to see how this works in practice.
Example 1: The story of competition in school
A shy girl enters a school speech contest. In the beginning, it is simple, she is just nervous about speaking in front of people. Then the rising action is started when she loses her practice notes. A classmate mocks her. She freezes in the middle of rehearsal. At home, her family has expectations of her doing well. Now the pressure continues to build. By the time it is contest day, the reader is completely engaged in the tension. That final speech forms the climax.
In a beginning story, every obstacle should challenge the character in some different way. One obstacle may be external, such as losing notes. Another is internal, for example, fear.
Example 2: Mystery story
A boy finds a strange key in his grandmother’s attic. At first, he is simply curious. Then he finds an old map. Then someone else starts to go searching for the house. Then he finds that the key may hold a family secret. Each new discovery makes the tension and danger more extreme.
The rising action keeps going till he opens the hidden box or comes face to face with the truth. That is the climax.
Rising action in mystery stories works best if each answer raises a new question. You can use this pattern with any genre, a romance, a fantasy, a thriller or a drama, rising action is about escalation, not which genre you are writing.
These are examples that rising action is not just “stuff happening.” It is an organised escalation of conflict. That is the difference between a random middle and a good one.
Common Mistakes Made By Beginners
Beginners tend to struggle with the middle of a story so here are some of the mistakes that you should avoid,
- If scenes do not increase conflict or stakes, the story gets stuck. Each scene must advance the plot.
- If the same type of obstacle is used over and over, then the story becomes repetitive. Vary the challenges.
- Easy success eliminates tension. Let the character win progress from struggle.
- Middle can be long, unfocused, and lose the reader. Keep asking - does this scene lead to the climax?
- If the climax feels big but the rising action is weak, then the ending will feel undeserved.
Another mistake that is often seen is the inclusion of scenes that do not relate to the main conflict. If a scene doesn’t advance the story, then it probably doesn’t belong in the rising action.
FAQ
Final Thoughts
Rising action is the part of the story where the tension rises, the conflict becomes more profound and the reader is carried from the beginning to the climax. In the 3 act structure, it is the engine for Act 2.
As a first-time writer, you do not need to make it too complicated. Just focus on one thing, make each scene harder, more meaningful, closer to the Big Turning Point.
A simple way to think about rising action is this, problem, complications, bigger consequences, climax. Do that well and your story will be stronger, clearer, much more interesting to read.
And if your story ever gets stuck spinning around in the middle, it’s usually a good sign that your rising action needs to be pressurised more or that the stakes need to be higher, or that the choices more meaningful.
