October Novel Prep Challenge

Oh yeah, I can explain for sure! Both but and therefore create conflict. Specifically, but indicates complication and therefore indicates consequence.

Some folks will say to avoid "and" storytelling, because it's weak and lacks connection. So, "Ana went to the market, and when she arrived she met her gossipy neighbor, and there was a carriage accident on the way home..." might introduce some interesting elements (the gossip and the accident might shake things up), but those events are sort of disconnected from the protagonist. There's not a great sense of intensity or escalation.

But and therefore tend to make things more interesting: "Ana attempts to enter the city through the front gate to see her ailing mother, but the city has been locked down because of an outbreak of a magical ailment, therefore Ana breaks in through the guard entrance, but she's captured before she can arrive safely home..."

I'm not the most competent at explaining it, so I'll let a video do it for me. I'm not actually a watcher of South Park, personally, but its creators had this extraordinarily helpful but of advice, which might do a better job of talking about using but and therefore to keep things lively when plotting: