From the course: Writing: The Craft of Story
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Story check: What can go wrong, must
From the course: Writing: The Craft of Story
Story check: What can go wrong, must
- [Instructor] To make sure that your story builds and the tension escalates, ask yourself has everything that can go wrong gone wrong? Don't be nice to your protagonist even a little bit. Take the gloves off and throw social conventions out the window. Make sure your plot continually forces her to rise to the occasion. Second, have you exposed your protagonist's deepest secrets and most guarded flaws? No matter how embarrassing or painful the revelation, have you forced her to fess up? Have you made her confront her demons? After all, how could she possibly overcome them or realize they aren't so bad after all unless your story forces her to. Third, does your protagonist earn everything she gets and pay for everything she loses? This is another way of saying that there must be a consequence to everything that happens. Ideally a consequence that forces your protagonist to take an action she'd really rather not. Fourth, does everything your…
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