If you’re a new writer and you’re asking yourself “is this too personal, is this too much, will people think this is weird” that feeling is the exact location of your actual voice. The stuff that makes you want to close the laptop is the stuff nobody else could write. The safe version is always worse. Always. I have never once read something and thought “this would have been better if it was a little less honest.” go further. It’s always go further.
It hasn’t been that long since the last media roundup and I haven't read that much but I had lots of thoughts that I wanted to share, so have a post:
Hirayasumi, vol 3+4 by Keigo Shinzō— This continues to be very charming. I’m loving all the little details.The cityscapes here feel so warm and lived in! I'm not sure if it's a slice of life manga thing, a manga thing or just an artifact of my limited selection but I've been really enjoying the land/cityscapes in the slice of life manga I've been reading recently Content note: fatphobia/diet culture
Silver Spoon, vol 14-15 by Hiromu Arakawa— I’m working on a rec list of slice of life manga and I was reminded that I’ve never read the last two volumes of this series. I'd always meant to reread the rest of the series but that felt like too much of a project. So I ended up just reading these last two volumes – it wasn’t that hard to pick up, there’s helpful story summary in the front of each volume.
This is a charming story about a city kid who goes to an ag high school to get away from everything. I love all the details and about farming, food equipment and rural life. I thought it wrapped up nicely!
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures, Vol. 1 by C.R.C. Payne, StarBite, et al— I’ve been meaning to read this for a long time, and it was mentioned in the comments of my superhero comics rec list, so I finally got around to it. I ended up getting it on paper because the endless scroll webtoon format isn’t great for my hands.
It’s like a cute slice of life comic about the batfam. It’s got a very fic vibe, things are chill and everyone more or less gets along. Which sounds like exactly what I want in a batfam comic but for this first volume at least, felt a little flat actually. I wanted a bit more conflict or angst or something. I’m generally pretty happy with low conflict personal stakes stuff, but I guess these versions of the character feel a little shallow. Each story is so short, like five pages, its just hard to get much depth in that length.
(I’ll probably read some more of this because it is cute and free online. Maybe if I space out the episodes more it will not only not bother my hands as much but feel less bland.
X-men: The Animated Series season 1— Since I'm more open to Superhero media these days, R suggested we watch this animated series from the 90’s. It’s fun! I like that it's got a big team, though it does mean most characters don’t get much screentime. I also like that they are pretty much just fighting for mutant civil rights. There’s a lot less for me to suspend my moral disbelief about here than in most superhero stories I’ve encountered recently.
The try/fail cycle is a writing approach where a character attempts to achieve a goal multiple times and fails at least twice before succeeding.
For example, our child protagonist may have the goal to own a bike. She goes to a neighbor who has outgrown hers, and asks if she can have it (try), and the neighbor says no (fail). So, then she decides to do a bake sale on her sidewalk to earn money to buy a new one (try), but it rains, so no one shows up (fail). She learns about a contest that has a new bike as a prize, so she competes (try), and wins (success). She now has her own bike.
This is a very simple example, but the try/fail cycle is simple in and of itself (which is simultaneously a strength and a weakness).
The try/fail cycle approach was common in the 1950s, and taught by author, editor, and critic Algis Budrys. Unfortunately, though, no one seems to know who originated it, since it wasn’t Budrys himself. I first learned about it from David Farland, who was mentored by Budrys, but I’ve never been able to track down the original source (though David talks about it in his book, Million Dollar Outlines). David himself mentored many writers who went on to become best-selling authors (like Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells, to name two). And in more recent times, some of those writers (and others) have evolved the concept. For example, Mary Robinette Kowel pairs it with the “No, and” vs. “Yes, but” rule. And I’ve seen others relate it to Orson Scott Card’s M.I.C.E. quotient.
In its initial form, though, the try/fail cycle is that simple. The character tries and fails at least twice, before succeeding.
Why Write Failures?
A story where a character fails is more interesting. If the character succeeded on her first try, then the antagonistic forces weren’t formidable. They were weak or nonexistent. It also, in some sense, isn’t much of a story.
At the most basic level, a strong plot needs to have a goal, antagonist, conflict, and consequences. But if little Suzy wanted her own bike, went and asked a neighbor for one, and the neighbor said yes, we would be missing the antagonist and conflict. The plot would be unsatisfying.
And not only does it weaken plot, but it weakens the character. It’s only through antagonistic forces and conflict that we can truly show how badly little Suzy wants this bike and what it means to her. If she fails twice and keeps trying, we know it’s that important to her.
Also, without opposition, we can’t have much of a character arc, because Suzy can’t grow. She’s not being challenged to change or remain steadfast. Likewise, we can’t show much depth with her, because a person’s layers usually come off only when facing difficulties. The easy road rarely reveals true character. The hard road does. The hard road reveals things about Suzy we wouldn’t know otherwise.
If the character succeeds on the second attempt, the story isn’t much better. It takes three attempts to convey the difficulty and test the character’s perseverance. (There is also something about the human mind that prefers the number three in general.) It also makes the final success feel “earned,” and therefore more satisfying.
Strengths of the Try/Fail Cycle
As I alluded to above, one of the strengths of the try/fail cycle is its simplicity. It’s easy to teach. It’s easy to learn. It’s easy to plot with (though it won’t guarantee you’ll never have problems). It also inherently ensures you have a goal, antagonist, and conflict in your story.
And like most approaches to story structure, it can work within scenes, acts, or the whole narrative arc (the whole story). However, it’s most frequently referenced in relation to the narrative arc.
Most stories follow the three-act structure, with the second act taking up about 50% of the story (though often that second act gets split in half by a major turn, the midpoint). I like to diagram it like this:
When the try/fail cycle is applied to the whole narrative arc, it shows up like this:
As a note, the first major peak in the story, Plot Point 1, is often neither a success nor failure, but rather used to get the protagonist into the main conflict. However, it can appear as one or the other, so with the try/fail cycle, it can show up as a fail, like this.
The idea behind the try/fail cycle is that the character is failing two or more times, until he succeeds at the end.
I keep forgetting* to post about this, and now Readercon is starting uhhh tonight, but I'll be at Readercon this year! And on some panels! On Friday and Saturday morning, after which I will be spending most of the weekend looking at the tall ships parading majestically around Boston, but I'm going to cram as much con fun as I can into that time.
*"Forgetting" is mostly "being too busy to have bandwidth for things" really, but who's counting?
Here are my panels (ETA: now with 100% less messed-up html!):
Faux-Victorian Scientists in Fantasyland (Friday 1pm)
In a review of A Letter From the Lonesome Shore by Sylvie Cathrall, Abigail Nussbaum notes that it is part of a "recent trend for tales about cod-Victorian scientists in fantasyland (a group that includes Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde series and Malka Older’s Mossa and Pleiti novellas)." What's behind this trend and how does it approach the complicated legacy of the Victorian Era?
Secretly Brilliant Strategists (Friday 2pm)
Ivan Vorpatril of Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga is handsome and vacuous: a himbo. And yet, despite his seemingly unimpressive mental faculties, Ivan repeatedly makes good strategic choices—even when they don't initially appear to be. What do we love (or hate!) about characters whose intelligence is camouflaged? What do they do for their narratives that more obviously clever characters can't?
SFF Spanning Cycles of History (Saturday 11am)
There was a time when SFF narratives spanning whole historical cycles, such as Foundation, A Canticle for Leibowitz, and the Dragonriders of Pern, allowed readers to follow whole civilizations as characters, watching as situations go from current and urgent to historicized and mythologized and become the cultural context for new urgent problems and events. Has this style of storytelling become less popular, and if so, why? What challenges and opportunities do such longitudinal narratives offer?
For this month’s prompt, I went a tad angsty. Sorry, some of the text is small, but there’s a good reader view at the bottom of the post. It is, in fact, a pun (ju-“lie”) ehem…please don’t hate me for that 😅
As usual, please feel free to do them out of order, and I have an AO3 collection here.
What’s that? A completely new Stucky event?? In 2026??? It’s more likely than you think! Because this thing is HAPPENING!
We’re very excited to reveal this month-long secret. A lot of work has been put into this event, and we can’t wait to see what everyone creates. The whole purpose is to bring creative people together and spread the love for Stucky. After all, it’s what keeps this fandom alive!
Now… Mark your calendars because sign-ups will open two weeks from tomorrow, July 4th. Yes, on Steve’s birthday! Sign-ups will stay open for another two weeks before we prepare for the start of the round on August 1st. The full schedule, along with event rules and Discord information, can be found in the event info post.
Spread the word! The Stucky fandom is alive, not dead!
Make your hero act on their deepfelt emotions. This not only adds meaning to their actions, but also helps communicate to readers your hero’s core emotional struggle.
2. Actions trigger consequences.
When your hero acts, give their actions consequences that affect the plot, themselves, and/or the surrounding characters. For example, driven by curiosity, maybe your hero opens Pandora’s box; maybe they act recklessly and someone dies; or maybe they stand up for what they believe in, but at great personal cost. Consequences raise the stakes and empower your hero with agency.
3. Consequences compel change.
Use the consequences of your hero’s actions to create a crucible of growth — challenges and situations that force them to take the next step on their character journey. That step may be forward, or backward, and it may be large or small; but something inside them changes.
4. Change influences emotions.
When a character goes through a change, even a small one, allow it to affect them emotionally. Maybe they feel increasingly frustrated or guilty. Maybe they’re afraid, having just taken another step closer to abandoning their old way of seeing the world. Or maybe they finally feel peace.
Regardless of the form it takes, remember to reflect your hero’s change in their emotions. Then let their emotions drive action, to trigger consequences, which will compel further change.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
And there you have it! That’s how you write a character-driven plot.
So what do you say?
Give the wheel a spin.
— — —
Your stories are worth telling. For tips on how to craft meaning, build character-driven plots, and grow as a writer, follow my blog.
I’m thinking about character development and I wanted to know, can a character make the same mistake more than once? One of my characters made a mistake because he’s insecure. He’s aware of this problem and has said he wouldn’t do it again. But then, when pushed by another character, he makes another mistake for the exact same reason! Is this going to feel repetitive or suggest that he has no character development?
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