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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42448
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

While other answers have done well in suggesting specifics, let me try to generalize a bit.

**Avoid narrative simplicity.**

And yes, this is three simple words which will cause you no end of extra work. Deal with it.

If you have a strong narrative thrust and a simple conflict, the Good Guy _has_ to be easily identified. Go read Conan the Barbarian stories.

How do you get around this? Other answers have interesting ideas. Probably the biggest and best current example of this is Game of Thrones. Presumably, there's going to be a victor, but at this telling there's no lack of uncertainty among the fan base. You might the call this the

**GRRM Principle - have many credible heroes, and kill them off.**

Of course, so far this has taken 7 seasons (on TV) and six very large books. Are you up for the challenge? It takes a lot of effort to establish a credible, sympathetic character who deserves to win. Once you've done that, it's hard to put in the effort to develop another (and another and another and ...), but that's what you have to do.

There are other possibilities, of course. One is to make the road to victory so painful that you blunt the thrust of the hero's progress. In GOT terms, for instance, you have

> Jaime Lannister losing his right hand, Sansa Stark getting raped by her husband(s), Arya Stark going through a very rough road to becoming a Faceless Man (and arguably becoming a sociopath), and Bran Stark becoming paralyzed. Not to mention Jon Snow getting stabbed to death. None of the contenders for the throne are unscarred.

And some of them are going to die.

But this, of course, makes for a messy, nasty story, not a clean one with a clear goal and a virtuous, deserving winner.

Are you up for it?

Original score: 4