Imagine if Star Wars began like this: EXT. OUTER SPACE A Corellian blockade runner sails peacefully across the stars. C-3PO Oh dear! Princess Leia, if Darth Vader attacks us, what will happen to the Death Star plans? LEIA I don’t know, Threepio. I guess we’ll just have to try to safeguard them somehow. Captain, are [...]
Two Kinds of Obstacle-Stacking
by 7 Comments
The basic unit of the dramatic scene is this: give a character a goal to pursue, have them pursue it, then move that goal further away. Rinse, raise the stakes, repeat. The harder your characters fight to reach their goal (and the further they’re driven away from it), the more your readers will love it. [...]
