How does a character who's too understanding create conflict?

After writing two stories about a trio of characters, I want to write a third, but I'm a bit stumped for conflict.

Character C has high emotional intelligence; he's good at reading people, he pushes people to be honest and up front, he's forgiving and patient. A very Nice Guy who (frustratingly) doesn't seem to have many flaws besides being dense outside of his great people skills. I have no idea how he can screw up big time; some of that luster needs to be taken off him. Also the other two characters have been the source of conflict and I want to give them a bit of a break.

The particulars is that it's a love triangle. In story 1, character J has a sexual relationship with character B but it isn't romantic. J wants to move to the next step, but in the scene where J is going to confess to B, B tells J about character C, the perfect guy above. B wants to know if it's cool for them to keep their thing going while she begins a Romantic relationship with C*. J clams up out of fear, but insists they tell C about B&J's sexual relationship so everyone is on the same page. Story 2 is C being pulled into the situation utterly blind. J's hidden love is doing lots of internal strife but J is soldiering on because she doesn't want to lose B. Until J explodes. B is super conflict-avoidant and goes into hiding. C finds out J loves B but hasn't told her. Character C sits everyone down, makes them talk, and iron everything out. By the end, they are on track for making the love triangle work.

B isn't at Fault for all the above conflict, but because she's the one everyone is upset over, I've had readers tell me they are less sympathetic towards her. Story 3 would be from B's perspective and she should get a character arc that lets her improve. So I want to put the sympathy back on her, and give J a break from the emotional beating she's received. This means C needs to hurt B despite his best efforts to be Mr. Relationship Coach, and both C and B need to make mistakes that escalate the situation. I'm not sure what J can bring to the table here aside from being the sounding board.

Story 3 can't deal with hiding feelings or jealousy, since I've already beaten those. How do I create conflict when all the characters are ascribing to the relationship rule of "Be upfront and honest"?

*I know this sounds bad, but the context here is that B would stop with whoever if a relationship got Serious. You know, characters "go steady". Prior to "going steady", you could get away with playing the field a bit, maintaining your Friends with Benefits, etc.

Thanks for the reply!

MaeZe said:

Take the character you initially picture the person as, but don't be afraid to change it.

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The two stories are already published so I can't go back and edit the characters. Maintaining consistency means any change must either be a new development or new to the reader without invalidating the previous presentation.

Yeah, C needs flaws. I'm just at a loss as to what to give him.

Yes, that's why I said "or new to the reader without invalidating the previous presentation".

MaeZe said:

What was your question again? Seems like you have your answers already.

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How to create conflict and add flaws to this character. Since I still am drawing a big goose egg.

And to answer your question Captcha, yeah, it does have to be internal conflict. I'd prefer to avoid the prejudice topic.

MaeZe said:

The question:
Which is contradicted by this:

If you are looking for something consistent with two previous stories, how are we to help you with the conflict and flaws, given we haven't read your first two stories?

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By suggesting flaws or conflicts? All I'm saying is that I can't edit things in retroactively, so it has to be "yet unseen". Like this post:

edutton said:

Is it established that he's always been like this, or is it possible these are skills he consciously developed because of something that happened in an earlier part of his life? If the second part is doable, you could bring in a character from the situation that triggered him to learn that... backstory is a great potential source of conflict.

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That can work. It could be a person, or it could be that there's a single issue/circumstance that's a raw nerve or blind spot. When it gets tripped, he reacts irrational and wholly out of character. Or, he gets too mindful. He holds something back that would hurt someone's feelings, or perhaps makes a mistake, someone gets hurt, and he backs off for fear of doing it again--his concern results in pushing someone away.

C has always had a kind heart. His conflict mediation skills though comes from being a coach for kids' sports, running summer camps, etc; job skills.

frimble3 said:

Funny, I can see how what you see as positives could be really, really annoying.
I get that you can't contradict what you've already written, but how about a new character who doesn't care to be told how to get along with others, to be 'handled'? Or, if not a new character, maybe C just gets overly full of himself and gets increasingly obnoxious and overbearing? "See, I was right, I'm always right, just do it my way the first time."

Beware anyone who starts a sentence with "Can we be honest?" Nothing good will follow. 'Honesty' may be open and truthful, but it's also the cover for hurtful stuff: "You look fat in that" "You're dating a bum" and "You could do better".

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Because the honesty is generally about feelings, not opinions. Mainly, "If something makes you feel bad, you gotta share it." "You look fat" would get called out unless it was "I'm worried about your weight".

But there are problems that just saying feelings won't fix. "I don't like that you're friends with x". Short of cutting off ties with x, or the character accepting x, there's no resolving that. The same with a problem that, while it gets discussed, the character repeats the action again. They weren't thinking, didn't remember, etc. And there are lots of problems that feelings don't even matter--like say, the character is bad at handling money, or making decisions. C could also make a serious mistake, and the other characters have a slow time forgiving it, or C has a hard time getting past his own mistake.

While I don't want a fourth character causing the central conflict, I could see that being a smaller issue that demonstrates C's character or contributes to larger issues. For instance, C is being taken advantage of for being too kind--someone who keeps asking for money or help but doesn't reciprocate--and C just won't say no. Or someone who is too stubborn/unreasonable and C just cannot let go of trying to make everybody happy.

The story could be B suffering from a thousand cuts. Many small pains, misunderstandings, etc by themselves are manageable, but when it all happens in a short amount of time, she breaks.