Fast. Possibly useless.

Storytelling failures #1

“Despite being present at some of the greatest archeological finds ever made, he had never lost the thrill that came with every new discovery” (*)

When introducing the hero of the story, overdo. Grandly.

If she’s a writer, she wrote a gazillion bestsellers which sold more than all the other books ever published. If he’s a scholar, he has an extraordinary IQ, graduated at 14 from Oxford and Harvard at the same time, has three PhDs in nanotechnology, medieval literature, and vascular medicine, and plays the piano better than Rachmaninoff. If she’s an athlete, she won the Olimpics in at least six different disciplines, including pentathlon, in four different editions, established the world record for diving on a rebreather thrice, swam across the Maelstrom a couple of times, then moved on to become the most successful serial-killer profiler ever.

If he’s an archeologist, he was there when Troy was found, uncovered a dozen unknown civilizations, unlocked the secrets of ancient long-forgotten inscriptions connecting Vinland and Atlantis, and possibly even helped prof. Jones find the Ark of the Covenant, but he still feels the thrill of discovery and works underpaid or pro bono for the local Scout group.

Suspension of disbelief, adieu. There goes your story, say bye-bye.

(*) Source witheld, we are interested in the failure, not in the names of those failing.