The Gentle Art of Escalation

A throwback writing article

This article was originally published at the Mad Genius Club on January 14, 2017. Dear Reader, I did get that job, my first lab job following college graduation. And escalating the stakes in a story still follows these general lines, only usually higher stakes!

There are many ways to create conflict in a story. In life, we tend to avoid conflict as much as possible, if we aren't looking for trouble with a chip on our shoulder. But as an author, we know that if our story is to be interesting, stuff has to happen. A story in which there is no conflict is not a story. Yes, I know someone can likely name a book in which there is no conflict, but I stand by my assertion - I wouldn't want to read it!

Now, the conflict doesn't have to be huge. You don't start out with "and then, she had to save the universe." No, you reach that through the gentle art of escalation. My common shorthand for plotting is 'chase your hero up a tree, and then throw rocks at him.' Being me, I also let him figure out how to get back down and save the day, but I'm not a horror or Literary writer.

I had a classic case happen in my life yesterday, which led me to thinking about this, as I'm also working on scaling up the final conflict and climax in my work in progress. Picture this: our character has a job interview. And a dinner party later in the day, which she is hostessing. No problem, there is plenty of time for both. She can't find her suit slacks, as her daughters wear the same size she does, but again, rolling with it and heading out the door. Finding the location of the building, buzzing in and obtaining a badge, goes smooth. Eventually someone comes out to greet her, our character remembers her name, follows her around the corner and...

Into a room where two other people are sitting. Unprepared for a committee interview, this is the first step in escalation. They sit, she sits, and looks down at the table. There's a sheet with a familiar math problem on it. The first step of the interview is for our character to do math, with three strangers staring. She chokes.

Escalation is intended to put our hero in a book into positions where he can dig himself a hole, and try to get back out of it. The classic try-fail sequence is usually repeated in three's, allowing for the final triumph to have that much more impact as he finally learns, grows a strength he didn't know he had, and wins the day.

The math? Well, telling funny stories, getting it about half right even without a scientific calculator to use (classic double take and lifted eyebrow made the whole team bust up) and going on to geek out the quiet member of the team talking instrumentation and accuracy may have won the day. It certainly made our example of escalation feel better on leaving the building.

Giving the character in our book the false feeling of confidence is a great way to set up a secondary conflict, as he trips gaily along the path to home and dinner, having escaped the tree with the rock-thrower (who probably got bored and wandered off), and steps right into a pit in the middle of the path. Oh, Hero! Why don't you look where you are going?

Real life? Leave the interview feeling like it was good in the end, run through the grocery, get home, pull into the driveway... And get a phone call. It's a recruiter for a different job, could you please email me... Cooking, emails, phone calls. Dear sweet fuzzy Lord above, why the he*% am I getting four calls from different recruiters about the same job in one hour?!

A great way to escalate conflict in a book is to make one conflict into two, oh, wait no, it's three now... Suddenly our hero is juggling a fall into a pit, the previous occupant being a hungry tiger, and his wife is home in their boma slapping a cooking pot against her palm suggestively while food is getting cold.

And then, in the real world, just when you have the bread sticks final rising, the phone rings again. It's the first recruiter. Do you have time for a short phone interview? Oh, sure, why not, company isn't due until 7 and it's not 5 yet. As our character is hanging up the phone and printing out paperwork, there's a knock...

Our hero in the tiger pit has to claw, bite, and scratch his own way out. If that is through a superhuman burst of strength and ability due to his love and respect for the woman tapping her toe impatiently next to her ruined dinner, all well and good. But having someone else happen along and scoop him out is never a satisfactory ending. The cake has to be real, not a phantom lure which vaporized when your reader reaches it.

The dinner was good, the cake was real, and our hero was forgiven when he arrived with a new tigerskin rug.

Go see how you can practice the gentle art of escalation in your stories. Remember, dropping a mountain on your hero right out of the box just breaks the poor unsuspecting souls. Build up to it, and you'll have something worth reading.

The cake is not a lie