Tony Tips Tuesdays™: Letting Characters Walk Into the Unknown

There’s a moment in every powerful story where a character has to make a choice: stay in the comfort of what they know—or step into the mystery of what they don’t. That step into the unknown is more than just a plot device—it’s the moment where your character’s real transformation begins. This isn’t just about external adventure. It’s about internal evolution. The shedding of safety. The surrender to growth.

Letting your characters walk into the unknown is one of the most powerful tools in your writer’s toolbox. It’s what separates flat stories from unforgettable ones, and passive characters from legends.

🧭 Why the Unknown Matters in Fiction

Safe stories don’t change anyone. Predictability may comfort, but it rarely transforms. When your characters face the unknown, they face a mirror held up to their fears, flaws, and faith. These moments are where readers feel the story in their bones.

Let’s be clear—walking into the unknown doesn’t always mean stepping into a battlefield or exploring a new world. Sometimes, it means daring to tell the truth. Sometimes, it’s deciding to forgive. Or taking a risk on love. Or confronting trauma. Or standing up when it would be easier to stay silent.

When you write a character walking into the unknown, you’re writing about:

• Emotional risk: What if they love and aren’t loved back?

• Moral tension: What if doing the right thing costs everything?

• Spiritual evolution: What if the answers they find change their worldview?

• Physical danger: What if this journey is the last one?

• Internal growth: What if they’re not who they thought they were?

In short: the unknown strips your character down. And in that rawness, they are rebuilt. That’s what readers remember.

🔍 What Does “The Unknown” Mean in Storytelling?

Let’s define it clearly:

The unknown is any event, place, decision, or truth that:

• Challenges the character’s current understanding of themselves or the world

• Disrupts the status quo and forces transformation

• Demands action without full knowledge of the consequences

The unknown might look like:

• Moving to a new city where no one knows them

• Receiving a letter revealing a hidden family secret

• Choosing to walk away from everything they’ve built

• Joining a cause they don’t fully understand—but feel called to

• Losing someone and having to rebuild their identity

But in every case, it’s this: a door they must choose to walk through, with no promise of return.

🔥 When Characters Take the Leap: Literary & Pop Culture Examples

📚 Literature:

• Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling) – Leaving the Dursleys and boarding the Hogwarts Express, not knowing what awaits.

• Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë) – Leaving Mr. Rochester, sacrificing love for self-respect.

• Celie & Shug Avery (The Color Purple) – Their friendship invites Celie into a truth and identity she’s never been allowed to explore.

🎬 Film:

• Miles Morales (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) – Leaping from a rooftop with no guarantee his powers will catch him. The ultimate leap of faith.

• Luke Skywalker (Star Wars) – Leaving behind everything he knows to pursue a destiny he doesn’t understand.

• Forrest Gump (Forrest Gump) – Running without direction, without a plan, just movement forward because standing still hurts too much.

📺 TV:

• Jack Pearson (This Is Us) – Proposing to Rebecca after one date, trusting the moment, not the odds.

• Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) – Sacrificing herself for her sister, facing death to save someone she loves.

• Randall Pearson (This Is Us) – Meeting his birth father and walking through the grief and complexity of discovering who he really is.

🎮 Video Games:

• Ellie (The Last of Us Part II) – Walking away from safety to seek justice—knowing it will cost her everything.

• Lee & Clementine (The Walking Dead Game) – Trusting and protecting each other without knowing what the next day holds.

• Kratos & Atreus (God of War: Ragnarok) – Crossing into realms they don’t understand to fulfill a fate they barely believe in.

🕊️ In S.O.L.A.D.™, the Unknown is Where Faith is Forged

In S.O.L.A.D.™: Soldiers of Light Against Darkness™, the unknown is not just part of the plot—it’s the foundation of the calling.

Kevin and Juanita, as co-leaders of the Soldiers of Light Against Darkness™, are constantly asked to step into battles that are bigger than them, more spiritual than physical, and filled with uncertainty. They must lead others not because they have all the answers, but because they believe—even in the dark.

Kevin faces the pressure of leadership, wondering if he’s truly equipped. He must balance being strong with being vulnerable. Juanita, meanwhile, often carries emotional and spiritual burdens in silence while motivating others. She’s the encourager—but who encourages her? Their trust in each other becomes part of their strength, especially as they walk into unseen realms.

Together, Kevin and Juanita model what it looks like to walk forward without seeing the full picture—but doing it anyway. That’s powerful leadership. That’s spiritual obedience. That’s storytelling with purpose.

✍🏾 How to Write “Unknown” Moments That Matter

Use this expanded 5-step framework to craft those unforgettable “leap of faith” moments:

1. Establish the Comfort Zone

Create the world they’re used to—good or bad. The more grounded the “before,” the more compelling the “after.”

✅ Show routine

✅ Highlight relationships

✅ Let the reader feel the predictability

📌 Why it matters: If your character walks into the unknown from nothing, it feels like survival. But if they walk away from something familiar and safe, it feels like transformation.

2. Introduce a Disruption or Catalyst

Bring something that shakes them. A choice, a death, a secret, a betrayal, a dream.

✅ This moment must demand a decision

✅ It should expose a weakness or a need

📌 Why it matters: The unknown must feel necessary, not convenient. Force the character to confront something they can’t ignore.

3. Raise the Emotional Stakes

We must feel what they feel. Make us ask: What will they lose if they leap? And what will they lose if they don’t?

✅ Use internal conflict

✅ Reflect their fears, doubts, desires

✅ Introduce consequences

📌 Why it matters: Without emotional risk, the unknown is just plot. With it, it’s transformation.

4. The Point of No Return

When they make the choice, don’t let them go back. Burn the bridge.

✅ Make the decision dramatic

✅ Let them be afraid—but brave

✅ Close the door behind them

📌 Why it matters: Transformation can’t happen with one foot in the past. The leap must cost something.

5. Show the Evolution

Their journey through the unknown must shape them. Don’t resolve it too quickly. Let them struggle. Let them doubt.

✅ Reveal new skills, strengths, or truths

✅ Deepen or shift relationships

✅ Give them clarity or new purpose

📌 Why it matters: The unknown isn’t just for plot twists—it’s where characters find themselves, or lose themselves trying.

✨ Writing Prompts: Into the Unknown

Here are some prompts to spark your next leap-of-faith scene:

1. A teen finds a letter written by their future self—and it warns of a choice they’re about to make.

2. A nurse is offered a one-way ticket to a distant planet with no known return mission.

3. A single father is told his child has powers linked to an ancient prophecy.

4. A woman loses her memory but keeps dreaming of a man who says, “You left me.”

5. A soldier returns home to find his family doesn’t remember him—and a stranger claims to know why.

🗝️ Tony Tip™

“Characters who stay safe never evolve. Let yours take the leap, even if they don’t land where they expected. Their fall—and rise—might be what your reader remembers most.”

Let your characters walk blindfolded into fire, into wilderness, into grace.Let them crack so they can transform.Let them walk into the unknown—because that’s where you grow as a writer too.

💥 Want to See It In Action?

In S.O.L.A.D.™, Kevin and Juanita walk into the unknown again and again. Whether facing spiritual darkness or stepping into divine purpose, their journey reminds us all:

Faith isn’t the absence of fear—it’s the decision to keep walking anyway.

🎯 Grab your autographed copies of S.O.L.A.D.™: Soldiers of Light Against Darkness™ and experience their transformation firsthand:👉🏾 www.tyronetonyreedjr.com/the-shop

Until next time, keep writing characters who step forward—especially when they don’t know where the road leads.

That’s where the story begins.