Timing/Transitions

[sunstruckdream]

Grar. I have the plot of the novel I'm working on all planned, and I really like it. Thing is, I'm an uber-busy student, so I write in increments whenever I can wrangle the time and am awake enough to do so. This past month has been absolutely nuts, though, and I'm having a hard time getting back into things. I know I'm at the point where I really need to step up the "rising action," as they call it. I've got a lot of exposition and tension, and something big (I'd say what, but it wouldn't make sense without context) needs to happen very, very soon. I'm struggling with how to time it out and transition it, though. Basically, I need to go from a gradual build-up - of which I'm quite proud, at least of what I've got so far - to a big bang of an event. How do you guys handle transitions like this? Do you ever struggle with it, or does it come naturally? General thoughts? Thanks
*Sunstruck*

 

[comana]

I tend to write where the story takes me but I thought of an idea you could try. Write a scene that has your characters in the middle of this big thing you have in mind and then try to work it backwards. Looking at it from a different angle might help you find that transition.

 

[Tariel]

I would probably keep working with the buildup until the Bigthing just explodes out of my characters and it's inevitable for anything else to happen. It's worked well in the past, though it also tends to make me want to murder every single one of my characters. They frustrate me sometimes.

 

[avatarblade2000]

I've found while studying classic films and books that the best rising actions are personal and/or personally driven, so that the audience connects with the character or characters as they succeed at whatever it is they are doing (empathizing, so that when the falling action comes the loss is all the more painful). Problem being, if you're not careful, the rising action can be pretty predictable, foreshadowing the fall almost treacherously. I've had that problem more than once.

Transitioning...I'd suggest that you don't lay on the successes too thick, too close together. Regulate. Misdirect, if you will, lead your audience away from more obvious signs of things getting better or clearer. And it really helps if your falling action - the punch to the gut, you might say - really comes out of left field. It helps if it happens in such a way that no one sees it coming. I know you're talking about the rising action, but if you really get a good falling action to build toward, then that only accentuates all that comes before it.

Hope that helps, Sunstruck. God knows you've helped me with my writing snafus.

 

[janny108]

Sounds like something I'm doing right now, building up into a storm, but I don't want to rush it nor dawdle with it either.
Jan