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Falling Action and Resolution Part Three

© Kelli Brooke Haywood

The next thing that you will come upon when writing about your characters is the conflict in your plot. It is the top point on the plot triangle. If you continually think of your characters as what would be the cake and your plot as the icing, then writing the conflict and the elements of plot that follow can be fun. Don’t be surprised if the majority of your work consists of the exposition and rising action. Think of conflicts in your own life. How long did the conflict take to build up? Probably a lot longer than it took to actually experience the conflict. It usually lasts longer than it takes to resolve it too. So, the conflict part of your work could end up being short, but it is where the action is. It is where your characters are fully revealed.

If you have built up the conflict appropriately, then writing it should not be hard. For instance, if you have established your character as an abuser, then it will not be completely unbelievable if the character begins hitting his wife. As a writer, you must make a point to develop a situation fully before revealing how all of the development becomes a conflict.

The falling action is all of the events leading to the resolution. The right downward slope of the triangle represents the falling action. This is where you will find a way to resolve the tensions of the conflict for your characters and your reader. The falling action has to coincide with the feelings of your character. For example, if your character has been wronged, do they hold grudges? Will it be hard for them to resolve the conflict with the wrongdoer? If so, then maybe the resolution will simply be that the conflict has already taken place and there is a breech between the people involved.

The resolution as represented by the last point of the triangle can be a short or long piece in your work. You know when you have reached that point when the events in your characters life have been pushed to the limit. Your characters can no longer react to the situation you provided for them. You have everything you need to end the work.

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