Literature Glossary
Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Rising Action
Definition:
Nobody ever said that riding off into the sunset would be easy—especially when there's rising action to get in the way.
In a plot, the rising action is the road to the climax. It's all the stuff that sets the stage for biggest, most exciting moment in the book.
In Ender's Game, for example, Ender's training and everything that it involves is the rising action. It all leads up to Ender's final Command School test.
(Of course, if you've read Orson Scott Card's book, you know that it's much, much more than a final exam. And if you haven't read it yet, you totally want to now, don't you?)