rising action

It’s just the preceding rising action that feels a bit underwhelming.

In another moment of rising action and a plot “twist” and non-surprise, also on Monday, Judge Cannon threw out Donald Trump’s trial in Florida for stealing classified documents.

He meticulously plans his sets — each one has a beginning, establishing action, rising action, climax, falling action and ending, as he instructed his MasterClass — but knows how to read the room.

I’ve taught it to writing students numerous times since it was first published in The New Yorker in 2018, in an attempt to disprove truisms about “rising action” and characters “needing to change.”

The Age of Trump is all rising action.