My belief in the liberatory power of fiction has suffered a bit as I’ve started to realize that writing a gripping plot is ~70% about being really mean to the characters and then setting it up so their problem-solving efforts only make things worse.

How To Be a Writer, #111:
Open laptop
Look into the void
Scream into the void
Consider that maybe the void also sometimes feels this way about you
Ask the void if it takes milk
Choose a nice mug for the void
And maybe a chocolate biscuit
Lose yourself in the void
Tea

Microfiche implies the existence of macrofiche. Giant leviathans who live in libraries, bellowing news stories to anyone who asks.