Falling action is the stretch of a story after the climax, where consequences play out and tension eases on the way to the ending.
Where the term comes from
Merriam-Webster defines falling action as the events in a novel, play, film or similar work that follow the climax. It sets the term beside rising action, and the pair come from a model of dramatic structure credited to Gustav Freytag. In Wikipedia's account of Freytag's pyramid, Freytag's pyramid has five parts: introduction, rise, climax, return or fall, and catastrophe. The fourth part, the return or fall, is the ancestor of what teachers now call falling action. The denouement is the closely related last stage in which the story is tied off.
An example
In a novel about a flood, the climax is the night Lorcan opens the sluice gate and saves the lower town. The falling action follows over several chapters. The water drains and reveals the damage. The council meets to count the cost, and Lorcan's brother, who opposed him, speaks first. A neighbour thanks him in a way that sounds like a reproach. His daughter, who watched from the roof, asks one question he cannot answer. None of these scenes has the speed of the climax, and none needs it. They show what the climax changed, and who Lorcan is now that it has happened.
Common mistakes
- Running too long. After the central question is answered, readers want a clear path to the end.
- Rushing. A climax followed by one summary paragraph can leave the reader without time to feel the result.
- Introducing a major new conflict, which makes the story feel as though it is starting again.
- Forgetting the subplots. Threads left open at the end read as a lapse.
- Summarising what the reader already understands, instead of dramatising what remains.
How to check your manuscript
Mark the exact scene where the central question is answered. Count the pages after it and compare that with the book's overall length. Then list each remaining thread and write the scene or line that closes it. For each scene in the falling action, ask what it shows that the climax did not: a cost, a change in a relationship, a new situation. If a scene shows nothing new, trim it. Finally, read the last pages aloud and notice whether the pace slows at a rate that matches the story's tone. The entries on the climax and the denouement sit on either side of this stretch.
In Musael, the plan board shows acts, chapters and scenes in one view, which makes it easier to see how much of the book comes after the climax.