In understanding try/fail cycles,

[JustSarah]

Is there a way to increase the difficulty without making the character seem hopeless? At the moment I'm tweaking the next outline for a new novella.

 

One of the things I'm noticing, is despite a sense of progression the difficulty remains largely the same for the main characters. But I'm not sure if increasing the difficulty in a steady progression would be advised.

 

I've considered having them fail five or seven times before they succeed, then in the in between arcs balancing it out with succeeding several times before they fail.

[Endurant Archivist he/him]

That is a lot of try/fail cycles for a novella. It's possible, I suppose, in some small ways. But if it happens too much, it might bog down the story.

 

Could you be more specific with what you mean about the difficulty? Do you mean levels of difficulty in each try fail cycle?

 

In general–for me–I keep the difficulty the same, but after each cycle, I raise the characters skill and ability to meet the difficulty.