Take the Hard Road – the Key to More Exciting Writing

The protagonist plans a difficult, daring heist… and everything goes smoothly.

The protagonist wants nothing more than to land the coveted promotion they have worked for… and they do.

The protagonist is terrified of screwing up this all-important date… but it’s all rainbows and unicorns.

Hmmm… what’s wrong with this picture?

You guessed it: a lack of tension and drama.

Way too often in spec scripts from up-and-coming writers (and sometimes even pros), protagonists are helped along by coincidence or, worse, don’t encounter any problems at all. We sometimes even forget about or go out of our way to ignore the problems and obstacles that would realistically pop up in any given scenario.

That difficult, daring heist? There is no security guard or guard dog who could make our character’s life difficult. Our protagonist disables the highly advanced security system in under a minute and then finds what he or she is looking for right away. There isn’t even a Ring camera who could spot the getaway vehicle. The coveted promotion? There’s nobody else who vies for it. The boss loves our protagonist. And they’ve just landed a big account and are clearly the most competent person around. This all-important date? The restaurant is perfect, the food is delicious and the conversation is scintillating.

From a life perspective: awesome. But from a story perspective? Ugh.

Why would we let this happen? Because often, as writers, we want the story to go a certain way—no matter if it really makes sense or not—and thus we move our characters around from one deus ex machina scene to another. The shows the hand of the writer at work, and seldom feels realistic. Not the best way to keep an audience engaged.

Let’s remember that there MUST BE CONFLICT IN EVERY SCENE. And, no, that doesn’t mean that the characters constantly have to get into fist fights. Conflict comes in many shapes and sizes from outward to subtextual, from screaming matches to backbiting, from debate to manipulation. The important aspect here is that our protagonist has to work hard for what they want, they have to overcome obstacles to get to that all-important goal.

Here is a good rule of thumb:

IF IT CAN GO WRONG, THEN IT SHOULD GO WRONG.

Let’s take BREAKING BAD as an example, because… well, always use the best. And if you haven’t yet watched BREAKING BAD season 5, spoiler alert, and: get on that.

Walt has come up with a brilliant plan to steal methylamine from a freight train. In fact, it’s bulletproof and nobody will even know that anything was stolen. What happens then? One obstacle after another: some goody two-shoes shows up and pushes the stalled car off the tracks, thus freeing the train to continue on its way before the heist is complete. Now we suddenly have a loudly ticking clock. Can they pull this off in time? And… foot-stomping, heart-pounding… yes, they do…

BUT… a little kid shows up on his dirt bike and gets a good look at everyone. What happens next sends the entire story onto a very different path for the rest of the series.

And it’s dealing with those realistic consequences, rather then shying away from them, that makes this writing pop.

Rather than avoid the conflict, embrace it. Even if it takes you and the story in a direction you didn’t want to go. Be open to allowing the action to unfold organically. How does your hero deal with adversity? Can they think on their feet?

Remember as a writer, it’s your job to put your protagonist in the tree… and then you must continuously throw rocks at them.