How do we bear putting our beloved protagonists through the torture of conflict?

We love our protagonists, often we can identify with them and there’s a piece of ourselves in them, so how can we force them through the torture of the story’s conflict? It’d be easy for us to change the story so they never have to live that hell we designed for them. We are essentially God. But then without a conflict there’s no story so what do we do?

I’ve loved my protagonists in my stories, and even some of the villains. It’s been hard for me to put them through the torture of conflict. Yet I came up with a way to keep conflict without being cruel to one’s protagonist;

            the conflict must help shape the protagonist into
             something better that they couldn’t have
             become if they hadn’t gone through the conflict.

 

 There are a few things that need to be done for this to work;

1.       At the beginning show a flaw in your protagonist that needs to be changed.

a.       My novels’ protagonists have many flaws but there's usually one major or highlighted flaw that needs changing. It’s not always so obvious what it is, to the point it can be named easily.

2.       During the story the protagonists has to undergo change, shaped by the conflict.

a.       For example, a protagonist who has too much pride needs to be disappointed again and again till he or she realizes he needs to get rid of his pride.

3.       At the end the protagonist has to come out different than they were in the beginning.

These are basic steps but sometimes forgotten. I often forgot the first one, wanting my beloved protagonists to be perfect—no wonder my stories were boring. But now here it is plain and simple. You don’t have to torture your protagonists to create interesting conflict. The conflict you force them through teaches them, makes them better, helps them grow, and it makes us closer to God since that’s what he does for us.

 

My inspiration for this article was an event that happened at a writer’s conference;

A woman asked, “I care about my protagonist so much I have trouble putting my protagonist through the torture of conflict. How can I make it easier?” The panel being asked said, “put the characters through more torture, the more the better.”  This was extremely unhelpful. It didn’t answer the question or solve the woman’s problem.  I’d already been through this problem and solved it but I was unable to find the woman so I thought I’d post my answer here.