Plot Difficulty

I wonder: is making the conflict of a story harder to solve always a good thing? Because that's what I've been doing to my first book, more or less.

Usually, since it forces the characters to get more creative to solve it, and creativity is normally a good thing to have in a story.

edited 5th Oct '11 7:31:30 PM by tropetown

Beware that the story doesn't seem to get confusingly convoluted, or that it feels like it drags on. Usually with a higher "plot difficulty", the stakes are higher and readers will expect that your characters will pull out something to match.

Usually, raising the stakes by making the possible outcomes more dire is good. Making the conflict harder? It's based on complexity.

edited 5th Oct '11 7:54:03 PM by chihuahua0

I think getting the plot to a point where the reader thinks "How the heck could I get out of this?" is something writers should do because it adds to the suspense. It makes it more compelling because the reader is constantly processing while reading, rather than figuring out an easy solution and then waiting for that to play out. It keeps them enthralled. But making the plot too convoluted can end up like LOST where you're just thinking "Put me out of my misery."

In short, build the plot up to a good plateau where they're scared to jump off, but not so high where the reader wants to jump off to commit suicide.

OP: Not if you take it too far.