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Just because The Crunch happens doesn't mean that your protagonists all lose. Yes, the obvious antagonist is The Crunch. But is that all your heroes are fighting? Is that all they're striving for?...
Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-13T12:00:45Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28420 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T06:33:51Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28420 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
Just because The Crunch happens doesn't mean that your protagonists all lose. Yes, the obvious antagonist is The Crunch. But is that all your heroes are fighting? Is that all they're striving for? All your heroes are facing imminent doom. That does things to people. They may lose faith, or gain it (the religious folks — and they can have diverse reactions). People cling to routines (the boss) or descend into hysterical nihilism (the maniac). You don't have A Plot as much as A Series of Character Arcs. Those individual conflicts are interesting and worth exploring. The Series of Arcs is the point of your story, not the Inevitable Crunch. Also, who says The Crunch has to kill everyone? Maybe you have a side thread of a ship rushing to save everyone, or somehow divert The Crunch, or The Crunch is actually a way to pass into another universe. et cetera. Then you have both the resolution of the various Character Arcs _and_ the exploration of what happens when people prepare themselves for death but it doesn't happen. If your givens aren't working, change your givens.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2017-06-02T12:10:54Z (almost 7 years ago)
Original score: 30