Brainstorming session from this morning: situations v. complication

Read in The Pocket Muse about the difference between situation and complication. Stories can grind to a halt if you mistake a situation for a complication. A situation, however complicated, is self-contained (situation: someone is contemplating suicide and holds a gun to his head. Only one way out of the story: either he pulls the trigger he doesn't). A complication, however simple, opens up, affording a way out. (Person holding the gun to his own head gets a wrong number cell phone call, from someone who needs help. Now what happens?) Excellent complications offer several ways out.

A good complication illuminates, thwarts, or alters the character's desire
A good complication forces the character to act
A good complication offers the story a point of departure
A good complication raises the stakes
A good complication thickens the plot

Ex: Miles' parents are stuck in a standoff in the civil war in Barrayar. But then Miles' uterine replicator is kidnapped and held hostage by the enemy, and there is a time limit to how long it can support him. Cordelia's husband won't negotiate to trade hostages. What does Cordelia do?

( Brainstorming session from this morning )

Peg

Resource for fiction writers, esp. historical

So I was poking around my favorite website Refdesk.com because that's a good thing to do when things are slow at work. I found a site called Time Capsule. Oh my lord, I wish I'd known about this when I was writing Swans, at least for the 1980s sections. Put in any date from 1800 to 2001, and it will spit out the newspaper headlines of the day, popular songs, movies, toys, prices, etc. Great for historical verisimilitude.

Peg

Sometimes, words fail me

What country am I living in? A man was arrested in a public mall in upstate New York for wearing a t-shirt that said "Give Peace A Chance" and "No War In Iraq" -- handcuffed and led off to jail and night court. Even better is the fact that the man -- Stephen Downs -- is the director of the Albany Office of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates complaints of misconduct by judges...

Thanks to sleigh for the link.

Added later: charges have been dropped. Sometimes, sanity actually wins out.