I’m prone to migraines and when one hits, I’m pretty much down for the day (or longer if it’s bad). As you can imagine, that puts a bit of a crimp in my day. It’s hard to get much writing done when you can’t stare at a screen without pain. Annoying little issues are things we deal with every day, so why not make sure our characters also have to deal with them?

When you’re creating your characters and their lives, don’t forget to add in the little things that can cause them trouble, even if it’s not earth-shattering trouble.

Think about the bad days you’ve had, where nothing went right, and how that escalated into you snapping and yelling at someone who didn’t deserve it. Or caused you to do something you wouldn’t have ordinarily done had you not already been stressed by stupid little things.

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In other words, pile on the problems.