What is rising action?

Rising action describes part of the progress of a plotline.

Plots often focus upon "unusual" events, things that are out of the ordinary which distinguish heroes from villains and so forth. In order to do this they must first establish the status quo, such as by using setting and tone and crafting an introduction. In Star Wars, for example, the status quo is Luke Skywalker working on his uncle's farm and dreaming of something more exciting. There isn't very much action going on here.

"Rising action" begins as soon as anything out of the ordinary starts to take place. Sometimes it's difficult to pin down precisely when this is; for example, in Lord of the Flies, the rising action (the war and the plane crash) take place before the book even begins. However, the beginning of the rising action is usually pretty clear; in Harry Potter, it's the arrival of Harry's acceptance letter to Hogwarts, in Fahrenheit 451, it's Montag's theft of a book, and in Beowulf, it's Grendel's attack on Heorot.

We should note that, despite the name, rising action does not mean that the action necessarily increases as time goes on, or that it's tied to a conflict, but this is often the case, and the point to which the action is rising is the climax of the story.