Trapped
Authors love to create dilemmas. We want our characters to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. We get giddy over forcing them to choose between their deepest fear and their deepest need. Not because we hate our characters but because we love our readers and our readers love tension. The best way to create tension that keeps readers turning pages is to trap the protagonist in a conundrum.
They were hemmed in. Their choices looked like dying of thirst in a vast desert, drowning in the Red Sea ahead of them, or being captured by the pursuing army and returned to slavery. Their choices were bad, worse, and downright awful, but only a day ago, the Egyptian people had loaded the Israelites with plunder, desperate to get them to leave after hearing the cries and weeping of Egyptians mothers waking to find their firstborn sons dead. Trapped with no place to run or hide, the Israelites panicked and cried out to Moses. Why did Pharaoh change his mind and pursue them? Where was God now? Why did God bring them out of Egypt only to have them die in the desert?
Moses told his people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” (Exodus 14:13-14)
He raised his staff as God instructed, and a miracle happened. The Red Sea parted, allowing the Israelites to pass through on dry ground.
Often, the choices we feel trapped in aren’t between good and bad. They’re between better and best or sometimes bad and worse. For instance:
Pay the speeding ticket or get the car fixed.
Move somewhere cheaper versus staying where you have a support system.
Quit a toxic job or endure until other employment can be secured.
Stay in a relationship that isn’t working or deal with the loneliness that comes with a breakup.
Point out an injustice or stay quiet to not face retaliation.
Take on debt to attend the college you’ve dreamed about or go with the safe choice that offers more financial aid.
Speak up about your beliefs or hide them to keep the peace.
I like to foreshadow the character's major crisis by having smaller “echo complications.”* These lesser problems provide the hero with practice in either learning from failure or winning and becoming overconfident, which comes back to bite them. The smaller challenges lay the groundwork for their decision-making during the major crisis. The hero has to discover who they are and practice what they believe, so that when the black moment (also called the dark night of the soul) arises, they can choose to be the hero.
We, too, have to know who we are in Christ Jesus, so that when we find ourselves trapped, our faith remains strong, enabling us to stand firm and see the deliverance of God. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point has a Cadet’s prayer, reminding them to stand firm:
Make us to choose the harder right
instead of the easier wrong,
and never be content with a half-truth
when the whole truth can be won.
When we find ourselves having willingly or unwillingly stepped into a trap, it’s knowing who we are in Christ, understanding truth, and having practiced choosing the harder right that gives us the strength to be still and to trust, knowing that God fights for us.
* Terminology credit goes to podcaster Julien Maylett.