So, last week we talked about giving your protagonist problems, but we also talked about setting them up so they are willing—even eager—to take them on.

Now, if you said to someone (or someone said to you), “here is a situation that will ultimately help you grow as a person, but send you through untold amounts of difficulty while you are doing it”, would you jump in willingly?

Maybe. But if you didn’t, no one would really blame you. It just seems too big, and all at once.

But if it starts small, and only later does it grow into something wilder, then we can understand why the hero gets sucked in.

There is a very gruesome metaphor that shows up in a number of places, not the least of which is in a movie called Dante’s Peak. Again, the metaphor is gross, but it serves a purpose here.

It involves the observation that a frog, placed in a pot of boiling water, will hop out.

Of course it will.

But if the frog is placed in room temperature water, it will sit there happily even as the temperature is slowly raised. In fact, it will stay there until the water actually boils, presumably because it doesn’t notice the slow change in temperature.

Is it true? I dunno. But I don’t want to test it either.

But here’s the thing. Our protagonist is like that. If we hit them all at once with the massive, life-changing problem, they are likely to hop out of the pot. Or, if they try to take it on, your audience will be like “nah, that’s not believable.” For me, that’s the worst outcome.

So we have to raise the temperature on them slowly.

At the beginning of Jaws, Chief Brody honestly believes he has all the skills he needs to solve the problem.

If the only solution, right off the top, was for him to go out in a boat and fight the shark, he would have said no. So we have to raise the temperature on him slowly. One problem (that seems manageable, albeit new) leads to a slightly bigger one, it’s reasonable that the hero would be like “yeah, I guess I can do that.”

And then a bigger one.

“Yeah…I guess I can do that…”

And so on. And before they know it, they are taking on the big problem that would have had them running away if they had faced it right away.

And this is the key to connecting the problem with the character arc. If we want our hero to change (and we do), then we have to hold their hand a little bit while they get there. Because big personal change rarely comes all at once. For many of us.

So if we want to get our ultra-shy protagonist to stand up for herself, we can’t make her do it right away. Because she won’t. She’s just not ready. So we have to get her there slowly. By gently turning up the heat.

Happy writing, young writer.