![]() Tension and suspense keep readers turning the pages. If your detective is close to finding the killer, have the key witness murdered. If your CEO is late to an important meeting, put her in traffic. Determine what your protagonist wants most, and put something or someone in the way. Several ways to accomplish this:Ĭonflict creates tension, while Roadblocks create seemingly insurmountable problems for your character. To accomplish that, you need enough setups and payoffs to bear all that Rising Action and carry you all the way to the end.Įffective Rising Action should build enough conflict to keep your readers with you until the climax. The problem? A lack of Rising Action and conflict.įor fiction, most agents and publishers require a complete manuscript because you must prove not only that you have a great idea and beginning, but also that you can finish. That constitutes the Rising Action that should carry you through what I refer to as the Marathon of the Middle, where too many novels fizzle out. When you reach the climax, everything your character has done to solve the conflict has failed, and things appear hopeless. Once your main character is introduced, and enough is revealed to invest your reader into them, your setting and time are established, and the reader learns your protagonist’s situation, your inciting incident should plunge your character into terrible trouble. *Occasionally, sad endings resonate with readers. Reward readers with the payoff they expected by keeping your hero on stage, taking action.
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