I know we have a topic for this already, but this is more like something that would go in a manual of style than a writing tips topic. Not to mention that the last post in that topic is mine and I don't want to double post... Anyway, today I am going to teach you all about the progression of a story. In other words, I'm going to break down a story into five parts.

Like any good teacher does, I will start my lesson with a diagram. Just pretend I'm doing this on an overhead projector, and this isn't a crudely-drawn text diagram.

                                  Climax

                                /         \

               Rising Action            Falling Action

             /                                               \

Exposition                                                  Resolution

Beautiful diagram, I know. What it means is that with each part of the story, the excitement builds until the climax, where it starts to fall until the story is over. Let me explain what each of those mysterious words means. (Actually, I'm sure most of you have learned this already. But it never hurts to review.)

Exposition: The introduction to the story, where the characters, setting and conflict are introduced. It's brief and usually is all taken care of in the Prologue or Chapter 1.

Rising Action: The rising action is the meat and potatoes (or asparagus and potatoes, for you vegetarians) of the story. Basically, it's the stuff that happens while the protagonists (good guys) try to solve the conflict.

Climax: The most exciting part of the story. The climax is the final struggle to solve the conflict. The final battle, if you will.

Falling Action:This part is where the story starts to get boring. Peace and order have been restored (or at least the heroes have made a leap towards it, if this is part of a series), and now the story explains what happens after the final battle. If it's a Metroid game, the falling action will include a race to get off of the planet in a few minutes before it explodes. But if it's not a Metroid game, you probably shouldn't do that.

Resolution: The resolution is basically the lowest part of excitement, as the conflict is finally resolved and the heroes get on with their lives.

Of course, this formula does not always apply. Take my second book, for example. Of course, it's not done yet, but it sort of goes like this:

                                                                   Climax                     Cliffhanger Ending

                                                                 /         \                  /

                   Climax                     Rising Action            Falling Action

                 /         \                  /                                               

Rising Action            Falling Action                                                  

As you can see, there is no exposition, because I expect you to know the characters already from the last book. It starts right away with action, introducing the conflict that the island of Dyteeli is 500 feet underwater. The first climax is in Chapter 9, where the whole "Dyteeli is underwater" thing gets resolved. There's some falling action. But then the second conflict comes up. I don't want to spoil it yet. There's more rising action, which is the part I'm writing right now. There will be a second climax (though it isn't a battle; the final battle was actually in the rising action in this story), and then there will be some more falling action, for about one chapter. Then the excitement rises again at the very ending, as the story takes a surprising twist that will hopefully leave people dying to read the last book of the trilogy.

And there's your lesson. I might do stuff like this again sometime, but right now I have to go finish up my story's rising action!