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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48044
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48044
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

You're saying you've written yourself into a corner. You appear to have to options, and you don't like either. You're forgetting: **you are the writer. You are god.** Your story is not set in stone, your choices are not limited to those two options. **You can find a third option, or you can change the presets.**

First, figure out what it is you want to _say_. It's not enough that there is conflict. What does it _mean_? _Why_ are those things happening? What are you exploring, what truth(s) do you seek to touch on?  
For your particular presets, do you want to say that redemption is possible, do you want to tel a _Les misérables_-like story, with a Javert chasing your reforming character? Or do you want to speak of an unforgiving world where there is no redemption, and the so-called hero is himself a vile despot?

Once you've decided what your story is about, at its core, find a way to make it work. Some examples:

- Javert could not accept bending the law. Valjean being a convict and a good man was a paradox. Much like your situation, it appeared Valjean would have to kill him to be free of him, but that would thwart his whole redemption arc. So Javert ended up committing suicide.
- Frodo could not destroy the Ring. It was too powerful, and he was too broken. Frodo being able to cast the Ring into the Cracks of Doom would have undermined the whole setup. So Gollum shows up just at the right moment, and conveniently falls into the volcano.

To make it work, you might have to go back and change some presets. Javert had to have been the kind of man who could, at the very least, recognise he has hit on an inconsistency. He was not the kind of man who would have just brushed it off. Similarly, Gollum's importance as divine intervention is set up beforehand. Whatever your "third option" is, you would have to set it up, or it would be an unearned Deus ex Machina - a bad trope.

Or you might decide to change the presets even more, make your options different. Maybe your characters are not as you think they were at first. Or maybe some bigger threat makes them join forces. Or something else - the possibilities are unlimited. Just find out what the story is _about_, and let that be your guide to everything else.

Original score: 20