Failing the Perception Check

In the video game Baldur’s Gate 3 , you will occasionally stumble across traps—small landmines or treasure chests rigged to explode. To avoid taking damage, you roll a Perception check to see if you notice the trap before running right over it and potentially exploding your companions.
There’s a part of revisions that feels, to me, like failing that check over and over again.
I open the manuscript. I open a calculator. I think: this book needs to be 95,000 words to be competitive in traditional publishing (said someone, somewhere), which means the inciting incident must occur by word 11,400—that’s 12%, or halfway through the first act. I took Math for Liberal Arts in college and here I am calculating percentages. Already, we’re having a great time.
https://writerunboxed.com/2026/04/02/failing-the-perception-check/

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