A character that once excited you might now come across as too perfect, a plot point too tragic, or the worldbuilding overblown. That’s okay. Media is saturated with all of these things, and that’s because op protagonists and unrealistic plotlines are rad as hell.

So, before swinging the metaphorical bat at your story’s kneecaps to bring it down a peg, let’s take a step back.

You can make an epic storyline out of paint drying or the most monotonous tale of the fall of an empire. That’s because good writing is 1% ideas and 99% execution and landing.

Write what needs to be written without fear it will land too hard, because the readers are there to feel the hit. Reigning in aspects of your work that excite and interest you pose a real danger—when the hit lands, the reader may feel nothing at all.

tl;dr: Never pull your punches.