When Really Bad is Really Good

I don't know how many people look forward to exercise. Probably very few. But we do look forward to the results. So here's an exercise which I hope will help us all come up with some great ideas as we work on our books. (P.S. I didn't come up with this, but am adapting it for my own current needs.)

1. Lift pencil

2. Lift paper

3. Choose character

4. Duct tape mouth of inner editor

5. Drop and give me twenty-five terrible things that could happen to your protagonist (You heard me, mister. I said twenty-five.)

Because really bad is really good. The worse things get for your protag, the better it is for you. I'm not good at making my MC suffer, so I'm hoping that doing this is going to help me get past a stuck place on a ms that I'm working on, especially since I only have a vague idea of where I want to go with it. Hope it works for you too!