Reading your problem, i thought about one idea i use sometimes when i''m totally stuck : Repeat the main action(s) but from a different point of view.

In your example : multiple escape is the main action.

So, why not take the decision of doing a runaway escape on 6/7 chapters BUT (and that''s how you can put some changes in your action storyline) the attackers are changing their plans :
1 - attacking as infantry
2 - attacking from the sky
3 - only snipers
4 - A hunter(boss or big monster/mech/huge soldier)
5 - Surrounding attack
6 - Surprise attack
7 - ....

Again, it''s true that there is no real story. You could start to give clues about why the player is hunted. Like he stops and looks at this little metallic object he found in his pocket and wonders why the attackers want it so badly...
Action don''t make the whole interest, it''s good sometimes to know why you''re running away.

In my example, the ennemy attacking in any possible manner could question the player on "why are they so motivated to catch/kill me ?"

Quote:

Original post by boolean Ive been stuck on this one section of this damn plot for weeks now. I came up with a few ideas, but no-one liked them. Please help me think of what could happend next. +++Basic Outline+++ 1. Tutorial on how to play the game – Slow part 2. Must escape a lab – Fast part 3. End up waking up on beach scene. Meet other main character – Slow part 4. Must quickly escape from the security after you – Fast part 5. Arrive in a safe zone. Meet a group that don’t really like you – Slow part 6. ????? - Fast part 7. Arrive (escape?) in a safe zone that no-one knows about - Slow part This is where im stuck. I was going to have it so that the group wants you to go on a mission with them, but it really puts a halt on the pace of the game. Also, I am a bit wary about having another escape scene. I really dont know what I could do for this step that still keeps the pace going to step 7 without getting repetitive. *Sigh* This is probably so vauge im more or less thinking out loud.

Why don't you have something significant happen to your main character, which the player has invested interest and engagement with? Max Payne always got one step closer to the killer of his wife and baby, or, in more fact, the person who ordered the killing.

Character can be a great source of plot deeping, complication, humanizing, etc., if you turn to it. Perhaps somewhere in the backstory of this character's motivation is someplace they forgot to go to that can be the next logical, or more precisely, emotionally mandated level.

Addy