A novel or any story is about Incremental Perturbation - that's conflict escalating over time.
Escalation works because stakes are relative, not absolute — a reader calibrates tension against what came before, so each complication needs to outweigh the last one to keep registering. Flat or repeating conflict trains the reader to stop flinching. Take a character hiding a secret: first they dodge a question, then they lie outright, then someone almost catches them, then the lie forces a bigger lie that costs them something real. Each turn raises the price of the last one. The caution is that perturbation isn't the same as volume — cranking every scene to crisis pitch just resets the baseline and numbs the reader faster. Real escalation needs valleys too, quiet stretches where pressure can visibly build back up before the next break.
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