The Torture of Watching

Greece is burning, as I'm writing these lines.

There is fire everywhere, and it's only getting worse. It's probably going to extinguish itself in the sea, when it gets there, in all areas, from central Greece to Attica to Euboia. The ecological disaster is enormous. The consequences from this are unthinkable.

The photo is from Ippokrateios Politeia, an Athenian suburb. That's right. Frigging Athens is burning, and the fire might get further into Athens proper. Everyone is on standby.

And we can only watch. We can only watch as the fire devours beloved forests, houses, businesses.

That is torture.

Being forced to watch a destruction that you can't stop is a terrible situation to be- and even when you can do something, it feels bitter and futile.

This is a real event, but you can use it in your narrative work. It can be part of a character's origin story and motivation. It can be one of the climactic events that then push the first tile in a domino of reactions, each more dramatic than then previous one. It can be a powerful display of your villain's prowess and the stakes involved.

These are the only lines I can write, the only narrative device I can think of to talk about, which can resonate so powerfully with audiences, especially now that humanity has been struck with so many disasters, from Covid to climate change.

How that will motivate us moving forward is unknown. What domino will be set in motion is unpredictable.

But in your story, you can direct this powerful energy from the torture of being forced to watch where you want it to go.

I'm sorry this article is so grim. I hope it can at least give you inspiration.



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