JOSH-THE DEGREE GUY

Every story needs a bad guy. Not necessarily a villain, just something that will establish tension. It's a barrier to the mission. Something that will put the mission at risk.

It's the first "but" moment in your story.

"Little Red Riding Hood went to give cookies to ...

Epic tales like the Mahabharata or Hamlet, do not classify people as a group of good or bad teams, but as multidimensional characters in conflict.

Modern stories group a set of people into a certain category, and subconsciously influence people into thinking of entire races or classes as th...

This manipulator might be helpful and do a lot of favors for other people, but they have secret expectations and not meeting them makes you out to be ungrateful.

Exploiting the norms and expectations of reciprocity is one of the most common forms of manipulation.