The hardest questions

Finally, there’s these, which will really make you (and me!) think:

1. What isn’t being seen?
2. What’s the most important question?
3. What’s dangerous in this world?
4. What problem (external conflict) does the external situation present? How can the protagonist eventually resolve that conflict?
5. List three obstacles that stand in the way of the protagonist resolving this conflict.
6. How will the protagonist grow because of confronting these obstacles?
7. What do you want to happen at the end of this book?
8. What will have to happen to the protagonist against his/her will to make your ending come about?

My answers:

1. This is another tough one for me, since it’s pretty obvious what’s going on. The end of the world is coming and things are going to bad, worse than they are, which is already bad. But. What I’ve discovered thus far is that sometimes secondary characters surprise you, and by digging into their motives, you can see things from a new and interesting perspective. I’ve got two characters like that and I’m still learning about them.
2. Ah, the most important question. For which I have no answer – yet!
3. Everything is dangerous in my world. The whole world has gone to hell and leaving the sanctuary of the designated safe towns (DSAs for designated safe areas in my story) would be extremely unsafe – not to say there’s any guarantee inside a DSA. After all, it is the apocalypse…
4. The apocalypse presents the main issue of survival. When the world ends, how does the government function? Can it? And how does everyone who’s left mange without the convenience of electricity, the local grocery store, heat, not to mention all the unpleasant people left who don’t care about getting along or working together. The problem is Seth can’t resolve the apocalypse or make it go away, he and everyone else are going to have to try to survive it.
5. I do have some obstacles in mind for Seth but I’m not going to reveal them since that would be a total spoiler. But this is an easy question for me. I can always think up bad things to do to my characters.
6. I’ve designed these obstacles to be growing experiences for Seth. I mean really, everything that happens has to change him, and hopefully those changes will enable him to survive.
7. That’s another one I won’t answer so not to spoil things. But I do have an answer!
8. Bloody Hell. Back to a tough one again. I have to admit, I often have a hard time with this question. One thing I do know, Seth is going to have to make some hard choices if he wants to live, the kind where something bad will happen no matter how he chooses.

Now it’s your turn and feel free to share as much or as little as you like.