From the course: Writing: The Craft of Story
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Explanation: What can go wrong, must
From the course: Writing: The Craft of Story
Explanation: What can go wrong, must
- Okay, there's an old saying: "Good judgment comes from experience, "experience comes from bad judgment." But since bad judgment can be deadly, scientists believe that the reason the brain allows us to get lost in a good story is because sometimes the best experience to learn from is someone else's. For instance, your protagonist's. That's why when you're writing a story, everything that can go wrong must go wrong, and then some. Your protagonist has to work hard to earn her victory, and the only way she can do that is if you construct a plot that forces her to face things she's probably sent her whole life trying to avoid. This means that everything she tries to do to solve the problem is only going to make it worse. That's how the stakes escalate and the story builds. Your goal, therefore, is to undermine your protagonist's best laid plans at every turn, forcing her to dig deep and discover what she's really made of. Anyone can say…
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