Making a plot diagram, like the one above, will also help with planning out your story.
The beginning is always tricky to get the ball rolling and your reader interested in the story you have to share, whether it’s nonfiction or fiction.
The rising action is there to help build drama, conflict, and thicken the plot. It’s good to let those things ferment to help it boil over when it comes to the climax.
A climax does not always have to appear in the middle of the story, and I believe that sometimes there are more than one climaxes in a story. It’s when all that drama, conflict and other fermenting things explode and flip the story to the good of the hero (sometimes).
After the climax the falling action leads the reader to the conclusion or the resolution. During the falling action conflicts and drama begin to fade away and get resolved.
In the end or resolution of the story, the reader needs to come to a sense of finality, which can consist of a cliff hanger, or a fully thought out ending that leaves the reader feeling empty inside or happy that an ending closed nicely.