Failure is an Option

One thing that always bugged me about a lot of Scifi is that they win. Nothing wrong with winning mind you. It’s just you usually end up winning in a different way. A nice linear progression as the plans come through is boring.

I always like a good monkey wrench. It gets tossed into a story and things begin to change. Sometimes it’s subtle, a shift from one goal to another. Other times it’s utter violence.

When I’m writing a chapter and it’s flowing too nicely I make sure something bad happens. Bad things are interesting. Most days at work are boring, the only interesting days are usually when something bad happens. The kind of stories you answer your spouse with, “Whew, it was one of those days!” Not a boring day, but an interesting day.

In the particular scene I just finished writing everything was going well, a bit too well. The outline tied it together but I needed to liven it up. So I tossed in a super-heavy mech that shreds its way through everything. So how do you stop that Mr. Protagonist? Ahh, that makes it entertaining!

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