At what point does artistic license become a gaping plot hole? I have a slight obsession with logic (logic and sci-fi, I know!) and find it very difficult to include storylines that are there for the sake of plot. When the baddie catches up with the goodie he doesn't simply kill him there and then, or at least try to. No, he talks to him for fifteen minutes, which gives the goodie time to escape. Or maybe he straps a timed bomb to his restrained body (the reader is asked to assume this is because he wants him to suffer (again giving him time to escape), but if he really wanted him dead he's simply shoot him on the spot. These kinds of illogicalities create huge hurdles for me when planning a story.
Internal logic is incredibly important. I perennially find annuals are best in the spring. Because it annoys the hell out of me when there is a huge disconnect.
Like in a James Bond film? It's a pretty common gag, so you can get away with it to a point, I guess. Bond films are a bit tough because those moments are part of the mythos and are almost a prerequisite at this point. And Bond films are kind of silly, so if you find the right tone it might not come off as too big a deal. Why do you want to include this scene? If it's because you need to have a fifteen minute conversation between the good guy and the bad guy, there are other ways to do it. The easiest is to have one accost the other in a public place where shooting each other wouldn't be practical. Not sure of the context of your story, but parks, bars, and subway cars work well for that. But if you have to have it be an escape scene, I'd say do your best for now and then worry about it later.
Bond films, certainly, but it's a very common trait in most action films. As for how it relates to my story, I'm seeking a logical reason why the baddie chooses to implant the goodie with the false memory of a murder, rather than just kill him.
Haha... okay, that's certainly a curveball. Well, if he doesn't want to kill him, then there's every reason to let him escape. Problem solved. Did the baddie commit the murder? If so, getting somebody else to believe they did it would certainly be logical. Or your baddie could just be a dick, which might be a little weak as far as character motivation goes, but writers have gotten away with much worse.
