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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38035
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38035
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

At the core of every story, there is a moral choice. That is, a choice between values. Circumstances force the protagonist to the point where that choice must be faced and made and lived with. Such choices can obviously end well or badly, and can involve triumph or sacrifice or defeat for the main character. But always there is the choice to be faced.

But your scenario does not seem to leave a lot of room for a meaningful choice. Death is certain, not just for the character, but for everybody the character cares about. How can one have a choice of values in a situation in which all values are about to be extinguished?

Certainly, if you are going to find one in such a situation, you will have to look inward. Perhaps the protagonist has been feuding with his father and he decides to overcome his resentment, swallow his pride, and make peace before they both die. But if you want this to be a story, not merely a history of destruction or a nihilist character study, there needs to be that element of choice at the heart of the narrative.

To put it another way, all stories are in some sense redemptive. They are a rebellion against the apparent meaningless of the universe in which we are all bound to die and the material universe itself is doomed to burn out and fade to black. Stories assert that there is actually a shape and a purpose and a dignity in our lives and in the life of the universe. They stick a thumb in the eye of nihilism and despair and say, no, this all means something, it has purpose, it has value. All stories are a rage against the dying of the light, and since yours is a tale of the dying of the light, you will need to find that rage, that hope, that belief in order and meaning, if you want your reader to feel there is a story here worth reading.

Original score: 13