Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Character is onscreen for three seconds

I think adding more text about an anonymous and irrelevant character would destroy any tension you may have built. You have some anonymous character, who is taken prisoner in the event that MC's pa...

posted 6y ago by _X_‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-18T21:34:22Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40985
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:27:49Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40985
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T10:27:49Z (almost 5 years ago)
I think adding more text about an anonymous and irrelevant character would destroy any tension you may have built. You have some anonymous character, who is taken prisoner in the event that MC's party need a bargaining chip. This anonymous character is thus defined enough from the perspective of the story, and as long as it does not serve any other purpose in the plot, it could be temporarily replaced by a bag of potatoes as a placeholder.

However, there is another place where you can add excellent tension. In fact, you have the conflict within the MC's party on whether to kidnap Bag-of-Potatoes or to kill it. You can write down the heated argument in favor of either solution, and even use the grudge that may linger afterwards to create some cracks in the unity of the party.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-01-02T17:16:10Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 3