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Q&A Does my protagonist *have* to succeed?

I'm thinking about a YA dystopian novel and have planned it quite thoroughly. However, when I look back, the antagonists tend to always be a few steps ahead of my protagonist, and my protagonist is...

6 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Adi219‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question ending trends
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:16:06Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/34186
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Adi219‭ · 2019-12-08T08:16:06Z (almost 5 years ago)
I'm thinking about a YA dystopian novel and have planned it quite thoroughly. However, when I look back, the antagonists tend to always be a few steps ahead of my protagonist, and my protagonist is always _just_ too late to stop the antagonist. This happens multiple times during my novel, and even at the end, my protagonist fails to achieve his main goal (but he _does_ wound one of the antagonists fatally).

In the sequels I've planned (if my novel is a hit), the protagonists still keep on failing, only ever winning the final battle of the series (so they continually fail but win the most important battle).

My question: Is this bad? Should I make my protagonist triumph fully at the end of the book?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-03-11T17:56:06Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 18