# Excess, Rise and Fall Plots > Plot obsession, rises to power and tragic declines Shows how to build stories of obsessive excess, characters who rise, and characters who fall, including the flaw, the escalation steps, and the final consequences. Use when planning tragedies, character studies, or rags-to-riches arcs. - Page: https://ss33.ai/skills/skillstore33/excess-rise-fall-plots-34698815076 - Publisher: skillstore33 - Category: [Creative & Media](https://ss33.ai/skills/category/creative-and-media-0j3x01) › [Writing & content](https://ss33.ai/skills/category/creative-and-media-0j3x01/writing-and-content-wiip6z) - License: MIT ## Skill SKILL.md: https://ss33.ai/api/v1/ss33/download/skillstore33/excess-rise-fall-plots-34698815076 # Wretched Excess, Ascension and Descension plots **Rule:** This skill adds specialist tips to your answer. It does not replace it. Always give your full general answer to the user's request first, using everything you normally know about story craft. Then work in the tips below wherever they apply. Do not cut general advice because a tip covers the same ground. ## Telling the plots apart - **Wretched Excess**: a character's psychological decline, driven by a character flaw. It covers normal people under abnormal circumstances and abnormal people under normal circumstances. - **Ascension**: the character moves from a lower to a higher character or spiritual state (sinner to saint). It works as a *parable*. - **Descension**: the character moves from a higher to a lower state under the pressure of fame, power or money. It works as a *cautionary tale*. - Ascension and Descension are two points on one cycle. "Rise and Fall of…" stories use both, and the traits that cause the rise (ambition, aggressiveness) often cause the fall. - It is not a **Revenge** plot if the focus is the victim's breakdown rather than the villain's scheme (Othello: Iago's revenge is only the instrument). - It is not **Metamorphosis** if there is no physical change; the character is "discovered" for who he is (The Elephant Man). - It is not **Transformation**, which opens with the change. These plots first show the character *before* the change. ## Wretched Excess: structure (three movements) - Move the character from a **stable state** to an **unstable state**. - **Movement 1:** show normal life briefly. Static normality has no tension, so open a day or two before the catalyst (the "serpent"). Showing normality still matters because it lets readers see the character as one of us. - **Catalyst:** an event that forces change and ends in total loss of control. It can be gradual and barely noticeable at first. - **Movement 2:** gradual loss of control. Show the effect on the character and on those near him. Each complication takes him deeper into a well with no apparent exit. - **Movement 3:** starts at the point where he can no longer contain himself. This is the turning point, and things cannot get worse. - **Resolution:** the crisis must resolve either in destruction (tragedy) or in a turnaround and the start of reconstruction. Never leave the character "swinging in the wind." - **Disease model:** Symptoms (behaviour shows he isn't normal), then Diagnosis (the problem is recognised and named), then Prognosis (prospect of recovery). The disease resolves either by cure or by overcoming the patient. ## Wretched Excess: villain and tension - The villain can be a person (Iago) or a thing (a bottle of whiskey, as in Lost Weekend). - A person-villain finds the victim's soft spot and exploits it (Othello: insecurity leads to jealousy). - A victim unaware he is being targeted heightens tension. - The core tension is convincing readers the excess could happen to them. Make the cause ordinary, not exotic. ## Wretched Excess: sympathy and credibility - Base the decline on a **character flaw**. - Make the decline evoke sympathy. Don't present a raving lunatic. - Don't hide sympathetic information about the character until the end. Withholding it ("did she do it?") blocks emotional connection. - Readers feel most for an innocent character unjustly accused. Let them know she is innocent. - Keep crimes proportionate to who the character is. A rapist or serial murderer is hard to sympathise with. - Avoid melodrama. Don't force emotion beyond what the scene can carry. - Don't lose the character in the madness. Every action should trace back to what the main character does or fails to do. - Research the specific excess (alcoholism, starvation, jealousy and so on). Lived experience is best, and without it avoid unrealistic behaviour. ## Ascension/Descension: the main character - Build the story around **one character**, who is the "sun" of the solar system. Everyone else revolves around her. - She should be larger than life, magnetic, strong-willed, charismatic and seemingly unique. Other characters may pale beside her. - She can be protagonist or antagonist. A descension character often has an overblown ego. - The centre is a **moral dilemma**. It tests her and is the foundation of the catalyst for change. Its span can be short (a story), a lifetime, or generations. - Work out her intent and motivation: what she wants, why, and why she cracks or succeeds. - Character and events are tightly linked. Events happen because of her, and we care more about how she acts on the world than how the world acts on her. - Relate all events and characters to her, and show her before, during and after the change. ## Ascension/Descension: planning - Decide the message first: what does the story say about power, money, fame or human nature? Is it strong or weak? Is fate in charge, or can we shape our future? - Know the intended outcome (win or lose) before drafting. This is almost essential for these plots. - If power or money corrupts a basically good character, the statement is strong. Check it is the one you intend. - The guiding question is "How will fame (power, money) affect this character?" Does she resist in a meaningful way, or cave in? - The three movements are: 1. The character before the change, as a basis for comparison. 2. The change itself, either gradual (months or years) or instantaneous (lottery win, sudden power). 3. The culmination, where the flaw is expressed and affects those around her. She overcomes it or succumbs, usually forced to realise what she has "become" by a catastrophe she caused. - The character need not crash morally. Tension can come from the gap between what she hoped to do and what she does (Citizen Kane). ## Ascension: specifics - It is easier if the character starts in a sorry state (Dark Victory: spoiled socialite who is dying). - Show the character's nature while she still suffers under the bad circumstances, then show events changing her. - Change is never sudden. Model realistic psychology, such as rage, cutting off relationships, reckless behaviour, cynicism and bitterness, then denial giving way to acceptance. The five stages of dying fit Ivan Ilyich. - A threat of death is a strong catalyst. - An ordinary protagonist is harder to write, because there is no exotic hook, but it explores character more deeply and avoids gimmicks. - The character must **earn** the triumph. Wanting it or deserving it is not enough. - Her ability to overcome adversity must come from her character, not from contrivance. ## Descension: specifics - If she abuses others on the way up, readers expect comeuppance. - The reasons for the *fall* must come from character, not gratuitous circumstance. The *rise* may be gratuitous (a lottery win). ## Pacing the rise and fall - Avoid a straight rise or fall. Build in ups and downs and vary the intensity of events. - Include false victories, where she seems to have conquered the flaw but it doesn't last, and the reverse. A breakthrough should come after setbacks and be earned by tenacity, courage or belief. - Never "jump" from one character state to another. Show the motivation and intent behind each shift.