Rising Action of a Story

August 26, 2020 by Julie Eshbaugh in Drafting, Revising

Rising Action is the part of your story that begins after the inciting incident and ends at the story's climax. This is the part of the story where your main character encounters a series of increasingly formidable obstacles.

Creating Conflict for your Characters Using Conditioning Forces

August 23, 2020 by Julie Eshbaugh in Drafting, Revising

Creating conflict isn’t just about creating obstacles. Conditioning forces are one kind of obstacle that writers can use to create conflict for their characters.

The concepts in this post come from Uta Hagen’s great handbook, Respect for Acting, first published in 1973. Though Hagen’s book was written as a guide for actors, many of its ideas on creating a character can be applied to the art of writing.