It's a trap!

One of my favorite storytelling techniques is setting traps. For the hero, or even for the audience. Make something too easy, or too simple, or any kind of exaggeration. Give someone a real reason to believe, and then pull the rug out from under them. It's probably safe to say that audiences are used to this tactic, but it's still fun to ride the crisis wave to whatever conclusion the storyteller has in mind. A good trap can change a mediocre story into a sizzling page-turner and have people banging down the door of a movie theater.

This is similar to the twist ending concept, but doesn't have to be at any particular part of the story. It could actually begin this way, or end it. However it's used, a good trap complicates everything and changes the landscape completely. Think about how incredible the opening scenes of the first Indiana Jones movie would be without the sequence of traps within the Peruvian tomb. That's probably my favorite opening for any adventure story. I still can't get enough of it.

When I was a kid, I drew traps for stick figures who were running down a never-ending hallway. Pits and spikes and cannonballs and all sorts of crazy things. All I really cared about was designing neat ideas and playing with them. Growing up hasn't really dimmed that creativity, though I've maintained a playful streak of practical jokes. The practice also helped teach me the value of false leads and misleading trails. Above all, traps prevent things going stale.

- M