ON THE VERGE OF A RESOLUTION

For as far back as I can remember, I haven’t been the best when it comes to drawing. It was no surprise, then, that my drawing of the story mountain didn't look quite right. I did, however, comfort myself with the fact that it didn’t matter whether or not I knew how to draw a perfect story mountain; all that mattered was that I could attempt a look-alike of the mountain and remember how to label it properly.

Here's a picture and brief explanation of what the story mountain looks like for the sake of non-Literature students.

From it, we see that the story begins with the exposition. Here, we’re introduced to characters, settings, and so much more. Shortly after, comes the rising action, where events begin to build up, things begin to happen, and the readers or audience begin to discover facts about the characters that had been introduced previously. Along the line of the rising action, conflict sets in. It is at this point that issues begin to arise, tension creeps in, and fights break out, leading to the climax—the peak of the story. Immediately after the climax, we have the falling action, where things begin to get better, and then the resolution, where conflicts are settled.

How does the story mountain relate to us? I’ll explain. When we’re born, we are at the bottom left of the story mountain—the exposition. We’re introduced to places, people, and things around us. The rising action sets in not too long after the exposition. At that point, things aren’t the best, but they aren’t the worst either. A little trouble here or there, but nothing more than we can handle.

The progress of the rising action amounts to a not-so-fun stage: the conflict. Things start getting complicated; those tiny dots of trouble get bigger; we’re faced with difficult choices; things don’t go according to plan; hurt, frustration, and others set in. Although this stage helps us become better people, nobody really likes this part.

At the point of the conflict, we think we’ve seen the worst life has to offer, and we’re desperately looking out for the light at the end of the tunnel, but the next point on the story mountain doesn’t come with the relief we so desperately crave.

The next point is the climax. Here, it seems like everything is falling apart; the situations we find ourselves in are overwhelming, and nothing seems right.

The climax is usually the toughest point on our story mountains, and more often than not, we’re not sure we can go any further. We’ve experienced so much strain on our emotions that giving up seems far more convenient.

Luckily, right after the rising action and climax come the falling action and the resolution. In the falling action, we begin to catch glimpses of the light at the end of the tunnel; things begin to get better, and life seems far more bearable. Here, we think things can’t get any better, but we step into the last part of the story mountain (the resolution), and we’re almost on top of the world; things are going so well.

Scaling through one story mountain doesn’t mean we’re finally free and bound to leave "happily ever after". It means that we’ve successfully completed a phase (childhood, adolescence, school life, etc.), and sooner than later, life will drop us at the bottom left of another story mountain, which tends to have a longer conflict and climax period as we go farther in life.

My blog post today is to that one person that’s been dealing with a lot lately. You’ve been at the "rising action" and "climax" for so long that you’re finding it really difficult to believe there’s a "falling action" or "resolution" point on your story mountain. I certainly don’t have the details of what you’re going through, but I want you to paint a picture. Imagine you’re at the top of your story mountain, battling more than you believe you can handle. A single step away from where you are, (not in the direction you’ve come, but in the other direction) and off you go to a different phase of your story mountain—a far more desired phase.

Too many times, it's difficult to take that single step away from where you are. Wallowing in self-pity or having a meltdown is often easier. But you have to take that single step, or multiple steps, as the situation demands. Why? Because, the most difficult phase of your story mountain is also the phase that precedes the resolution. If you open up your mind to see it, you just might realize that you're right on the verge of a resolution.