The Value of Failure

I recently looked back on my very first novel, written many, many moons ago to impress a girl I had NO chance with (Hi, Allison!). One of the things that struck me as good in that giant morass of crap is that the hero, who looked nothing like me whatsoever, failed a lot. It was the first time I realized that tension and conflict were part of the formula for good storytelling, not “And then Captain Big McLargeHuge fired the mega-proton-totally-not-a-euphemism-for-my-penis cannon and obliterate...