: Re: How many stages would it take for a character to be convinced of x? My MC - who has a dangerous reputation - is captured by a member of Bolivian Security, who decides to take him to her

I would propose that a person's resistance to a potential threat will generally decrease over time, as long as no new signs of threat are introduced. The precise rate of decrease is a story question.

However, how quickly you are willing to trust likely has a second factor - which is what other threats are perceived. Thus, it may take awhile for your character to fully trust there is no trick when nothing else is going on, but if the general background threat level is high, "you haven't actively tried to kill or maim me in the last hour, so what the heck" will start to kick in.

That is, it could take months for your character to trust if he's not let go, but otherwise not threatened. It could be a matter of minutes if a mutual threat is overrunning the compound. Perception of Immediate Threat below generic fear levels will not trigger significant caution.

Separately, threat assessment will be based on how well the character can justify threatening / non-threatening motive attribution. Being allowed to leave if he wants, or being left alone with the torturer's beloved daughter, would be hard to reconcile with "it's all a ruse." (But what if he doubts that she's really the daughter!)

Being kept under close scrutiny and limited in his access would not offer such counterfactuals.

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: Re: How many stages would it take for a character to be convinced of x? My MC - who has a dangerous reputation - is captured by a member of Bolivian Security, who decides to take him to her

More posts by @Kaufman555

: Should I signal completion of a decision point in an interactive novel? In my visual novel (an interactive, narrative-based video-game), I have a detective character who decides whether he believes

: Nanowrimo and typewriting I am a happy user of an Underwood 5, an old typewriter from the beginning of the XX century. I use it to type letters, short stories, greeting cards, and labels.

: Does it really serve a main character to give them one driving want? I often feel that we fall into a trap of believing that we must provide a driving goal for a main character at the outset.

: What is the structure of a paranormal horror story? Building on the definition of a Paranormal Story (as opposed to Dark Fantasy) described in the answers here: What are most common tropes of

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