Letting your heroes relax is lethal to fiction:
Your characters are at their best only when they are in trouble.
Let them let down their guard and your story is dead.
That’s because the tension is gone and the reader does not feel like turning the pages when everything is rosy and cozy.
When your hero is in trouble, see if you can add more trouble to it.
If the character has been told many times not to go near a cliff, make sure your character go over to the cliff and falls over it.
If a character has been told not to be friends with someone, show the character making friends with this person. The more problems you create for your character, the more exciting the story will be. Why? Because you are creating conflict and tension.
Conflict is about putting two people together with opposite goals.
One person wants to keep your hero from the dangerous cliff. This person will clash with the hero who is fascinated by the cliff. You get conflict. A conflict of interest.
External events do not make conflict because you cannot change them. Bad luck will never replace the excitement of a fight.
Your characters are at their best only when they are in trouble.
Let them let down their guard and your story is dead.
That’s because the tension is gone and the reader does not feel like turning the pages when everything is rosy and cozy.
When your hero is in trouble, see if you can add more trouble to it.
If the character has been told many times not to go near a cliff, make sure your character go over to the cliff and falls over it.
If a character has been told not to be friends with someone, show the character making friends with this person. The more problems you create for your character, the more exciting the story will be. Why? Because you are creating conflict and tension.
Conflict is about putting two people together with opposite goals.
One person wants to keep your hero from the dangerous cliff. This person will clash with the hero who is fascinated by the cliff. You get conflict. A conflict of interest.
External events do not make conflict because you cannot change them. Bad luck will never replace the excitement of a fight.