Petra spent 6 months writing a novel and finished feeling like the ending was somehow unearned. Her beta readers agreed. The culprit was almost always the middle.
Rising action is not just filler between the opening and the climax
Rising action refers to the section of a story where pressure builds. A character faces a series of complications that grow harder to manage. Each obstacle should feel connected to the last, not random. Think of it as a staircase, where each step is roughly 15 to 20 percent harder than the one before.
What makes it work
- Complications come from the character's own choices, not outside coincidence
- The stakes are visible and specific, not vague or emotional shorthand
- At least 1 reversal happens before the climax
What makes it fail
- Scenes repeat the same tension without escalating it
- Characters become passive and wait for things to happen to them
- Writers skip ahead to the climax because the middle feels slow to write
The rising action in most published novels spans roughly 55 to 60 percent of the total word count. Rushing it leaves readers with a climax that lands flat, no matter how dramatic that final scene actually is.