We’ve all seen it. The character that always scrapes by because they’re the main character (or the main love interest), no matter how ridiculously high the stakes are and no matter how unrealistic it is for them to come out okay.
Some genres demand a happy end for the book (Romance, in particular), but that doesn’t mean that your characters should just have everything work out through sheer force of luck and having you on their side.
That level of un-realism takes away from the story.
So here are a few things you can give your character in lieu of plot armor.
Knowledge
Give them the information necessary to realistically survive what you’re throwing at them. Some battles are best won with brain rather than brawn.
Build a subset of knowledge into their background (a hobbyist in the family who liked learning about the things they’re facing or maybe a previous job that had parallels). Make them research and plan.
Or just straight up give them a teacher.
Mentors can be excellent side characters.
Skills
Make these people practice. Make them learn combat or lockpicking or endurance running.
Maybe they ran track in high school. Maybe they were in the army or your book’s equivalent. Maybe they dropped out and lived on the streets, stealing what they needed to get by.
Or maybe their life changed at the beginning of the book and they found a mentor for the skills they’d need. Trial and error is a pretty harsh teacher, but also an option.
Allies
More than one person working toward the same goal will almost certainly increase the chances of achieving it.
Now, these people aren’t meant to be bullet sponges or cannon fodder, though some may end that way.
But a prepper friend can teach your MC about filtering water and keep them from getting dysentery in the apocalypse.
A friend who’s also a cop could help them talk down (or subdue) an assailant.
The Ending
Maybe give them the realistic ending. Tragedies may not be as common now, but they are part of literature. And though it might mean a genre change for some (dark romantic fantasy instead of dark fantasy romance), it could be worth it to stick to what would really happen.
That last one is the choice I would go with, but that’s just me.
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