Falling Action- Podcast Version

Podcast:

Podcast Link: Season 2, Episode 12;  11/4/23- Falling Action

Word of the Week: 

Falling:

To move to a lower level from a high point; decrease in intensity; rapidly move downward.

In writing, falling action refers to what happens between when the conflict is resolved and the story wraps up.

Reading:

Grimm’s Brothers Little Red Riding Hood; The Project Gutenberg eBook of Grimms’ Fairy Tales, by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm

9 Tips on Writing Falling Action:

The falling action of a story is what happens after the conflict has been resolved and the story is beginning to wrap up.  The characters have changed and may have grown, the tension from the conflict is less, and the story begins to move towards a conclusion.   In Little Red Riding Hood, during the falling action, the huntsman comes in to free Little Red Cap and the Grandmother.  The story begins to wrap up, and the reader prepares for everything to be resolved.  To write the falling action within a story, the main conflict should be wrapped up, and the rest of the story is moving towards the end.

Here are 9 tips on writing falling action in a story:

1. Tie up any loose ends.  Make sure the reader has a sense of finality, that everything has been resolved and the story has ended. 
2. Provide an emotional release.  The story has been tense with conflict up to this point.  Now it’s time to begin to wrap everything up, but not too quickly, or the falling action will feel jarring to the reader.
3. Carefully consider how the character is going to react.  If the conflict was resolved in a positive manner, the character may begin to feel happy and excited.  If the conflict was resolved, but not in a way the character may have wanted, they may be left feeling sad or angry.  Show the character’s reaction to the climax in the falling action.  The reaction should match the tone of the story.
4. Use dialogue to show what the characters are thinking and feeling as the conflict resolves and the story draws to a end.
5. Introduce a smaller conflict during the falling action that will likely get resolved during the resolution.  Stay away from adding any major conflicts. 
6. Show the consequences.  Along with showing how the conflict was resolved, show the consequences (good or bad) the character faced as a result of the climax.  
7. Allow for reflection on the story and events that have taken place, and set the stage for the final message within the story.
8. Foreshadow the resolution.  Give the reader a hint of what is to come.
9. Keep things interesting.  Add a surprise or two for the reader, something unexpected.  

Prompt: 

Rewrite the falling action of Little Red Riding Hood.  How else could the story have begun to wrap up?