Conflict Thesaurus Entry: Public Humiliation

Conflict is very often the magic sauce for generating tension and turning a ho-hum story into one that rivets readers. As such, every scene should contain a struggle of some kind. Maybe it’s an internal tug-of-war having to do with difficult decisions, morals, or temptations. Or it possibly could come from an external source—other characters, unfortunate circumstances, or the force of nature itself.

It’s our hope that this thesaurus will help you come up with meaningful and fitting conflict options for your stories. Think about what your character wants and how best to block them, then choose a source of conflict that will ramp up the tension in each scene. For the full entry of this and 200+ additional conflict scenarios, check into our best-selling resources: The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles, Volumes 1 and 2.

Public Humiliation

Category: Power struggles, failures and mistakes, relationship friction, duty and responsibilities, moral dilemmas and temptation, losing an advantage, loss of control, ego

Examples:
Infidelity being made public (through a sign on the lawn, a billboard ad, announcing it at a wedding or family event, in a mass email, or on social media)
Having private letters, images, or video shared online
The character being negatively singled out in front of peers…

Minor Complications:
Embarrassment, guilt, or shame (or all three)
Friends and connections who distance themselves, leaving the character to deal with the fallout alone
The rumor mill spinning, adding to the drama…

Potentially Disastrous Results:
Being scrutinized to the point that other secrets come to light
A marriage breakdown
Being abandoned by family, friends, employers, etc…

Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict):
Self-directed anger at a mistake or shortcoming warring against anger at others for exploiting it
Self-pity facing off against acknowledging they knew the risks and have only themselves to blame
Wishing one wasn’t caught yet being relieved that the secret no longer needs to be kept…

People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: The character, their family and friends, the business they work for, any groups, organizations, or connections they have that may be negatively affected by the publicity

Resulting Emotions: anger, anguish, anxiety, betrayed, bitterness, defensiveness, despair, devastation…

Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: abrasive, addictive, compulsive, confrontational, cruel, evil…

Positive Outcomes: 
If a secret is holding the character back, having it in the open at last might create a pathway to acknowledging the pain surrounding it, taking accountability (if this is a factor), and taking steps to finally move past it
Humiliation can open the character’s eyes to the true nature of others, helping them to take the step to cut toxic forces from their life
While humiliation is terrible to live through, sometimes hitting rock bottom is what will trigger the realization that something must change. This can lead to change, growth, and regaining control over the future…

If you’re interested in other conflict options, you can find them here.

Use Conflict to Transform Your Story

Readers have a lot of choices when it comes to selecting books, so make it easy for them to choose yours. Conflict will help you deliver a fresh story premise every time, drawing readers in through meaningful challenges that reveal a character’s innermost needs, fears, weaknesses, and strengths.

To assist you, we’ve created a two-volume resource with 225 possible conflict events. Each volume contains expert advice on how to use conflict to improve your story along with a plethora of scenarios to challenge your characters.

For more information, read up on these GOLD and SILVER editions. You can also view the books at Goodreads to see what other authors are saying about them.