Rising action is the part of a story between its setup and its climax, where complications and conflict build tension toward the turning point.
Where the term comes from
Merriam-Webster defines rising action as the events in a novel, play, film or similar work that build to the climax. The idea sits within a model of drama credited to the German playwright and novelist Gustav Freytag. According to Wikipedia's account of Freytag's pyramid, his Die Technik des Dramas set out a five-act structure that has become known as Freytag's pyramid, with five parts: introduction, rise, climax, return or fall, and catastrophe. The second part, the rise, corresponds to what is now called rising action. The same account says Freytag argued for tension created through contrasting emotions.
An example
Marguerite inherits a failing bookshop. The story opens with an eviction notice. Each following step raises the pressure: a landlord offers a buyout, a friend lends her money, a rival opens across the street, someone slashes the stock in the night. A neighbour whom she trusted turns out to be the landlord's cousin. Every complication costs her more and removes an easy escape. By the time the shop faces its last open-house weekend, Marguerite has lost her savings, one friend and the belief that this can be solved by working harder. The climax can now ask her to choose what the shop is for.
Common mistakes
- A plateau. Several scenes at the same intensity can feel like waiting.
- Repeating a complication in new clothes, such as a second eviction notice, instead of escalating.
- Raising the difficulty without raising the cost to the character.
- Filling the middle with subplots that do not press on the main question.
- Ending the rise before the character has been truly tested, so the climax arrives without weight.
How to check your manuscript
List the main complications in order. Beside each one, write what it takes from the main character and what choice it forces. If two neighbours on the list read the same, one may need to change or go. Then rate the pressure of each step on a simple scale and look for dips where the line flattens. A dip can be a breather, which helps, or it can be a sag, which loses readers. Also check that the rise leads toward the right climax: every complication should make the final question harder to avoid. The entries on the inciting incident and the climax mark the two ends of this stretch, and the three-act template shows where it falls in a full book.
In Musael, the plan board shows acts, chapters and scenes in one view, so you can read the middle of the book as a single run and see where the pressure rises.