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The plot of a story is more interesting and exciting if the characters have something to gain or lose.

Because of this, the characters in your story should something at stake, or some personal interest or involvement in solving the story’s conflict. Establishing what these personal interests or involvement are early in the story and then returning them through the rising action generates reader interest.

The “stakes” always revolve around two basic questions: “What does the protagonist want?” and “What if the protagonist fails to get it?” For example, in Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation,” the character Salvor Hardin wants to ensure his home planet of Terminus (one of two depositories of scientific knowledge and reason in which humanity’s future depends) survives the collapse of the Galactic Empire, which is fragmenting into several war-like kingdoms. If he fails, Terminus will be taken over by the warrior kingdoms – and humanity will fall into a dark ages that lasts thousands of years. Those are high stakes.

Remember that virtually all stories center on a character that possesses some want that if unfulfilled means some disaster. The plot of the story is little more than the obstacles that the character must overcome as trying to fulfill this want.

Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell

Tags: characters, conflict, plot, protagonist, rising action

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Sometimes when attempting to create tension and suspense in a story, writers can undercut their own efforts by adding “organ music.” A term coined at the Cambridge Science Fiction Workshop, organ music us providing “details that countersink an emotional response before anything happens.” An example is crackling lightning before a character is murdered. Avoid foreshadowing as a way of creating suspense, however; foreshadowing actually gives away what is about to happen. It’s akin to the villain telling the hero, “And now I will shoot you.” Just have the villain fire his atom blaster.

Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell

Tags: foreshadowing, plot, rising action, suspense, tension

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Many science fiction and action-adventure tales give their main character a finite amount of time to solve a problem. The ever-accelerating starship has only so many minutes before its structural integrity will fail. The terrorists’ nuclear bomb will explode in so many hours. Only a few days remain before the asteroid strikes the Earth. These time limits are called “ticking clocks.”

To some degree, all stories employ a ticking clock as part of their plot. If they didn’t, the tale would careen aimlessly. Because the story must end, it must reach a breaking point, or climax, where the problem either is or isn’t solved. That climax is when the ticking clock strikes twelve.

To increase dramatic tension, the main character should recognize throughout the rising action that time is running out for him. His sense of urgency should increase as the time available to him diminishes.

Tags: climax, main character, plot, rising action

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Sometimes for dramatic effect, writers employ a “false ending.” In this technique, after readers think the climax has been reached, the villain comes back one last time for a confrontation. An example is the first “Terminator” movie in which Sarah O’Connor apparently has destroyed the robot from the future in a steel factory. The Terminator’s metal skeleton rises from the flames, however, to pursue Sarah. The false ending actually is the last scene of the rising action.

Tags: climax, false ending, main character, plot, rising action, villain

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An excellent example of a climatic scene is the rebel’s attack on the Death Star in “Star Wars IV: A New Hope.” As the scene begins, the tension has built to the point where if the rebels do not destroy the Death Star, they are doomed. Faster and more dramatic than any other scene in the movie, the assault on the Death Star even appears as if it will fail. Using the lessons learned through the story about the Force, however, Luke Skywalker succeeds in a climatic moment by firing the one in a million shot that destroys the Empire’s weapon of ultimate destruction. In doing so, the threat of the Death Star disappears, and the rebellion is saved.

Tags: plot. climax, rising action, tension

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In every story, there comes a turning point or an ultimate moment in which the situation has become so intolerable that the main character must take a decisive step and emerge victorious. This scene is known as the climax.

Also called a “final obstacle,” the climax comes at the end of the story’s rising action. The main character metaphorically has reached the mountain top and either must push off the antagonist or be pushed off. Because of this, the climax is a scene of escalated action. It is that part of the story when the main character resolves the story’s central problem.

Tags: climax, final obstacle, main character, plot, rising action

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When developing the rising action section of your story, there a few simple guidelines to follow. Ensuring these guidelines aren’t violated will help keep the story moving forward and increase the dramatic tension:

n Our hero never can give up – If he stops trying to overcome the central problem, the story would end. There may be moments where he doubts his abilities or the solution, but he cannot stop his counterthrusts against the protagonist until overcoming the central problem.

n The plot must thicken - With each level of rising action (or each effort to overcome the antagonist) ultimately solving the problem should become more difficult. This is known as a “thickening” of the plot. If each level or effort becomes less complicated, then the reader will know the story’s outcome and become less invested in the main character. Facing the biggest, most powerful monster first then a less powerful dog-sized monster and finally a virtually powerless bug-sized creature is anti-climatic.

n Good plotting involves “planting” - As developing the rising action, the author should reveal certain facts that later allow for plot twists. If this isn’t done, then the twist probably will appear artificial or forced. The trick to planting is ensuring that the upcoming twist doesn’t become so obvious that the reader knows it’s coming. It wouldn’t be a twist then.

Tags: central problem, planting, plot, rising action, thickening

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As writing the rising action portion of your story, be aware that the main character must attempt to resolve his central problem yet always fail. There are several ways this failure can occur:

n Barrier - In this case, the main character’s solution is inadequate to the task at hand. For example, he may try to blow up a bioweapons, facility but his explosives are unable to penetrate an undetected force field.

n Misjudgment - The main character may misjudge what the problem is to be resolved. For example, the main character may give his girlfriend flowers in an attempt to make up after a fight, but she doesn’t accept them because she no longer has feelings for him so the gesture is meaningless. When the main character is guilty of misjudgment, often the problem moves even farther away from his solution and becomes more difficult to resolve.

n Partial solution - Sometimes the main character only solves elements of the problem. For example, when sent to assassinate a pair of scientists working on a biogenic weapon, he kills one but the other escapes.

n Temporary triumph - On occasion, the main character’s solution may only be a temporary fix. For example, the main character may succeed in destroying an invading alien race’s scout ship. Then a larger, more powerful scout ship arrives.

n Complication - The main character’s solution may work but has no immediate payoff. For example, to determine how to get home when lost, one needs to know where he is. The main character may discover that information, but he still needs to make the journey home.

n Reversal - There are instances when the main character’s solution actually makes the situation worse. For example, while destroying an enemy’s bioweapons lab, he accidentally releases deadly bacteria into the atmosphere - and the winds are carrying the germs right toward his nation.

Tags: central problem, counterthrust, main character, plot, rising action

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When the main character attempts to take charge of a situation and overcome his central problem, the author has created a scene in the rising action. This effort by the main character is called a “counterthrust.” In many ways, a story’s rising action is a series of thrusts and counterthrusts – the antagonist attempts to create an intolerable situation, or makes a thrust, and the protagonist (the main character) counters to restore a tolerable order.

Tags: antagonist, counterthrust, plot, protagonist, rising action, thrust

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To better understand rising action, consider the “Star Trek: The Original Series” episode “Mirror, Mirror” in which Captain Kirk and his landing party are transported into a mirror universe where the Federation is an empire and people behave more like pirates than civilized men. The opening few minutes of the episode in which Kirk and landing party, as being beamed aboard during an ion storm until realizing they’re no longer on their own Enterprise, marks the inciting incident. The rising action immediately begins as they try to resolve the problem of how to get home. First they must figure out where they are. Then Kirk must avoid an attempt on his life. Next his landing party must jury rig the transporter so they can be returned to their own universe. A race against time begins as they have a window of only a few hours to make the return beam out and as the mirror Spock has orders to kill Kirk by dawn. Then the mirror Spock and the mirror Sulu each try to kill Kirk. We reach the climax of the story when the mirror Spock cuts off their transporter power with only moments to go before their beam out window closes.

Kirk and his landing party face a number of obstacles that prevent them from resolving their central problem. Twists and turns, such as the attempt on Kirk’s life, add dramatic tension to the story. This tension grows until our heroes are faced with only two possibilities: either they will solve the central problem or utterly fail. At that point, the story enters its climax, usually near the story’s end.

Tags: central problem, climax, dramatic tension, inciting incident, plot, rising action

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In a sense, every story is a race against time. The main character ultimately must reach a point where the situation he finds himself in is unbearable, where a turning point or a final decision must be reached. The space between when this situation or crisis is introduced (the inciting incident) until when the turning point or final decision is reached (the climax) is known as rising action. Sometimes this part of the story is referred to as “complications.”

During the rising action, the main character tries to resolve his central problem but is unable to. The rising action includes the twist and turns of the story. In many ways, for the man character the rising action is like going up a hill - hence the “rising” – but he faces obstacles as doing so – hence the “action.” Each instance of the main character attempting to solve the central problem but failing is known as a “dark moment.”

Tags: central problem, climax, complications, dark moment, inciting incident, plot, rising action

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Not all stories are about restoring order in the universe or overcoming some personal conflict. Sometimes the plot revolves around the search for an item that will elevate the main character’s position in the world or will prevent an evil force from gaining the upper hand. This item is called a macguffin, a term coined by Alfred Hitchcock.

The macguffin could be a chalice that promises immortality (King Arthur’s holy grail stories), the One Ring (“Lord of the Rings”), a valuable piece of art (“The Maltese Falcon”), a magic jewel, a secret formula – anything that is so highly desired that it creates obstacles and challenges for the main character who tries to obtain it.

If using a macguffin in your story, two questions must be answered. First, why is the object valuable? If the importance (and usually the exoticness) of the object is explained, the reader will quickly lose interest as the story has little point. After all, every one of us spends time looking for mundane objects. A second question to answer is why are the characters motivated to obtain the macguffin? To say the object is valuable is not enough, for one man’s treasure often is another man’s junk. Usually a character needs some overwhelming reason to desire an object, such as the thirst for immortality or a desperate need for money.

Tags: inciting incident, main character, opening, plot, rising action

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When writing action scenes, avoiding rear-view mirror descriptions typically is a good idea. In such a description, an object is described only after they’ve been part of the action. For example, “He slid into the cave hole that his foot had just felt.” This type of writing allows the reader to see the setting only after the character has interacted with it – in short, it’s like looking at a landscape through a rear-view mirror.

Such writing diminishes the reader’s ability to feel the story’s dramatic tension and to feel the character’s urgency. It strains the story’s verisimilitude because the character appears to be extremely lucky as he is able to get out of any jam thanks to the author’s good blessings.

This type of description is a common error of novice writers, so not surprisingly this term often is most heard is writing workshops. In fact, it was coined at the Cambridge Science Fiction workshop.

Tags: description, rising action, setting

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Most stories unfold in the same way: the main character encounters a problem, he attempts in various ways to overcome the problem, and ultimately he succeeds.

For example, in the “Star Trek: The Original Series” episode “Devil in the Dark”, Captain Kirk faces the problem of stopping what appears to be a monster that is killing miners on the planet Janus VI. He attempts to solve the problem by hunting down the creature. He ultimately succeeds in stopping the murders by making contact with the creature and coming to an understanding of and agreement with it.

Of course, the plot of a story is more complicated than this. But the way action unfolds in most stories can be divided into distinct parts. Being aware of these parts can help you better develop a story.

There are five general parts of a plot:

n Opening - During the first paragraphs of a story, the main character, the problem he faces and the setting is introduced. This part sometimes is referred to as the “introduction”. In “Devil in the Dark,” we also learn that some of the miners doubt Kirk’s ability to solve the problem, which will complicate his efforts later in the episode.

n Rising action - The bulk of the story consists of the rising action, in which the main character attempts to solve his problem. He repeatedly fails, however, causing the situation becomes even more dire for him. This part also is known as the “complication”. During the hunt, Kirk loses a man, finds the station’s nuclear reactor pump has been stolen, almost dies during a cave-in and then is cornered by the creature.

n Climax - Ultimately, the main character solves the problem through some great, dramatic effort. Discovering the creature is intelligent, Kirk orders Spock to mind meld with the creature and Dr. McCoy to heal its wound; this allows Kirk and the creature (which calls itself a Horta) to come to an agreement: the miners will stop killing its young and it will stop killing the miners.

n Falling action - This extremely short section of the plot occurs immediately after the climax. It deals with the effects of the climax on the main character. Kirk now champions the Horta’s cause and stops the miners from attacking it.

n Denouement - The “conclusion” occurs in the last few sentences of the story. The loose ends of the story are tied up at this point. Back aboard their starship, Kirk, Spock and McCoy discuss (er, joke) about the philosophical implications of the Horta’s intelligence; we also learn that the miners and Horta are getting along fine.

Look back at the piece you wrote for the "Main character" entry. Based on that problem that your main character faced, create an outline of a story that uses eachof the five parts of plot.

Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.

(c) 2008 Rob Bignell

Tags: central problem, climax, plot, rising action

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