What to do when inspiration fails? I have a deadline for a short story looming, with a character who doesn’t know how to get from here to there. To increase the beats, I need a challenge to throw at my protagonist that isn’t a trope. I suppose I could use a trope (evil family member, random attack by killer cyborg, getting in the way of an assassination/hacker attempt, love/hate interest) but that seems kind of lame in context of the story. What to do? I could go with the tried and true Vorkosigan method – full steam ahead and damn the torpedoes – but it’s an urban fantasy where there are no evil government agencies standing by to act as a backdrop. I have two days to go – ideas from the gallery gratefully accepted.
- My main character is sixteen, a mage, and a web designer
- She’s being asked to skin a web site and add some magic to it | someone else is doing the security
- Some something gets thrown at her as a challenge (not the web site)
Maybe it’s the security person? Maybe there’s a cyber attack? Maybe I torment her with new magic waking up inside her? Security person ends up being a cute guy? Better yet – a cute girl.
Thoughts?
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Sometimes the terrain can be the biggest foe. No guns, no monsters, just and embattlement of loose soil, rolling rocks, cliffs edge, or tromping in snow. If you have a character that is use to fighting in combat, the struggle with out a tangible foe to actually fight can be the struggle. Hope this helps, and good luck. Hope to see the finish work on here 🙂
Thanks Steven for the thoughts. We have an urban environment, so no rocks and sticks to battle. However, you do give me some good ideas about the job itself having obstacles (the design is not good, there are too many colors, conflicting people’s ideas to accommodate, disagreement with other people working on the web site – that could be good – balancing internal and external strife). Thanks for the feedback.