Try/Fail Cycles

I was deeply inspired by Mary Robinette Kowal's discussion of try/fail cycles during her guest lecture in Brandon Sanderson's writing class (Watch the full talk).

It's become one of my favorite tools for teaching story structure—not just for complete stories, but for individual scenes and acts. Whether you're writing a novel or crafting a single scene, understanding this pattern helps create compelling dramatic movement.

In the beginning, your character has a problem they need to resolve. This is your story's dramatic conflict.

As they move towards it, they must encounter try/fail cycles. Your character will try different actions to solve their problem, but they must continually fail. If they don't fail, they resolve the conflict and the story ends.

Try/Fail: Keeps the Story Moving

  1. yes/but
    • yes, their action succeeds
    • but a new problem happens
  2. no/and
    • no, their action doesn't succeed
    • and a further complication occurs

Try/Success: Moves Toward Resolution

  1. yes/and
    • yes, their action succeeds
    • and an additional thing now happens
  2. no/but
    • no, they don't succeed
    • but something occurs to move the story forward

Each try/fail cycle can either open new story elements or work toward closing them. Think of these as story brackets - when you open one, you'll need to close it at some point. The closure doesn't have to be complete, but there needs to be some sense of resolution. These elements can play out in sequence or nest within each other, like layers of a story unfolding.

Example: A Detective Story

  1. Does the detective break into the place?
    • Yes, but someone is waiting there to kill him
  2. Does he escape?
    • Yes, and he finds a clue
  3. Does he leave with the evidence and avoid getting killed?
    • Yes, but the police show up for the break-in and confiscate his clue