Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25226524-20161129232736/@comment-28266772-20161201155030

I did notice that and it was an awesome little touch. I liked the parallel and yup I definitely made assumptions. I don't believe a story can exist without underlying assumptions which raises some problems because if I had been watching out then there'd be no way for me to know which assumptions were and weren't incorrect. Am I correct to assume he's a demon given the overt religious imagery used? Am I correct to assume that he came from hell given the references to sulfur and a giant red hole? The reason I didn't challenge my acceptance of these tropes is simply because it's unfeasable to do so. Every story relies on them and it's usually the explicit decision to challenge one or two repeating/well-known assumptions that makes a story work. I'm not so sure it works as well if you try to challenge all assumptions or the concept of assuming in general.

In contrast I'd really like to see the optimism bias aspect teased out. I think that's far more feasible but it also faces some challenges. For one people absolutely expect terrible things to happen in a story so you can't really challenge the reader's optimism bias directly. But you can at least get them thinking about it by having the characters' biases blasted apart (not unlike what you do here).

I also find it interesting that you describe this as a failed experiment. Entering it without any assumptions (ha) I thought it was a great bit of writing. Like I said the style and plot are all enjoyable and genuinely compelling/immersive. The sole problem is that it feels like there's just 500 words missing from the end.