So, once you have established your situation, you start sending your protagonist forward while hurling obstacles at her. Once you put the first obstacle before your protagonist, you can think about Try/Fail and Try/Succeed cycles.

One way to implement those try fail/succeed cycles is to use the following prompts whenever your character faces obstacles. It’s a choice that helps you modulate the amount of barriers you use and how the story progresses or stalls.

Let’s see a scenario. Your protagonist rides his bicycle, takes the wrong turn, and falls and breaks a leg. From that situation, you ask, what’s next? Does she get up and walk away?

• Yes, but
• No, and furthermore
• Therefore

Let’s start with some questions right off the bat(initial situation)

Does she get up and walk away?

Yes, but the pain is so intense she falls again.

Does she endure the pain and move forward?

Yes, but it starts raining, and the municipal lights go off.

Will she keep going through the darkness?

Yes, but her flashlight only lasts 30 seconds and has to recharge for a minute every 30 seconds.

Does she move forward every 30 seconds?

Yes, but she reaches the street corner, and her flashlights die for good.

See how easy it is to connect the links of the chain of conflicting events. One complication was progressively more complex than the one that came before. Let’s try the opposite, no, and furthermore.

No, and furthermore

Does she stand up and cross the street?

No, and the rain pours and floods the street.

Does she swim across?

No, and she starts drowning.

Does she find a tree branch and make it across?

No, and the rain gets worse when the storm takes a turn for the worst and lightning starts falling on the street where she is.

You see how No and furthermore works on the negative. It answers the question: what could go wrong as often as you want?

I’ll leave “And therefore” to you. Use it with this scenario or one of your ideas. Try to figure it out on your own.

Best of luck.