: Finding a cause when you already have the effect? In the story for a graphic novel Im working on my protagonist is cursed by a witch (or other magic wielding person) to wake up in a new

In the story for a graphic novel Im working on my protagonist is cursed by a witch (or other magic wielding person) to wake up in a new place/time every day due to a wrongdoing on his part. I want this to be a story of atonement and am having a hard time figuring out a fitting offense that would lead a witch to deal out this punishment. The witch's motives are to force a character building experience on the protagonist so that by the end he comes out a truly better and wise man.

Here is a piece I did to explore the idea (the character in this is a child but that is not set in stone)

What is a good way to find a fitting cause when you are more focused on the effect?

Im am primarily an artist and new to writing so any suggestions are appreciated.

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@Courtney562

It sounds from the motives in the question as if the witch is thinking more of rehabilitation (a better and wiser man) than punishment. If I've interpreted that correctly, it's unlikely that the protagonist did the witch - or anyone else - any serious wrong.

Something petty - even something the protagonist didn't understand he shouldn't do - is likely to work better than anything really unpleasant. NomadMaker's answer mentions some of the classics.

The "why" in this case would cover why the witch wanted the protagonist to grow into a better man. Perhaps she has an interest in him, or maybe he'll do something for her later in the story - something he doesn't know but she can predict.

But, as Cloudchaser says, unless the "why" is a necessary part of the story, it doesn't need to be specified.

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@Pope4766717

Does there truly have to be a reason? In many fairy tales offending supernatural beings is extremely easy and they net out punishments far in excess of the "crime." Petting a cat that belongs to a witch (lifetime servitude), putting on a pair of dancing shoes (dancing yourself to death or until somebody removes the shoes), stealing a loaf of bread (walking across red-hot coals). These are just the ones I remember.

I could picture our hero, many decades later, seeing the witch again and thanking her because he is now a better man and the witch not remembering him at all.

It might not be the traditional literary ending, but it would be true to fairy tales.

Or maybe he just stops moving about in time after he had grown into a better man.

Or maybe the witch wanted to make him into a warrior-poet, and felt that was the way to do this.

It is much easier to figure out the "why" first, rather than the other way around. The best way to do this might be to find out where the character ends up (who he is when the curse ends) and go backwards from there assuming the witch wanted that ending.

Just my two cents.

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: Finding a cause when you already have the effect? In the story for a graphic novel Im working on my protagonist is cursed by a witch (or other magic wielding person) to wake up in a new

More posts by @Karen856

: Is it a bad idea to mix psychological horror with action? foreword: I'm writing for a game, however it's (mostly) irrelevant to my question. Just FYI. I have three main characters in my story.

: Indent dialogue to make text look less blocky I am writing a story but I am trying to indent the dialog because right now it looks like a chunk of text. My text is Then a figure under

: Multiple ways to emphasise words tl;dr : I need a way to emphasise the names of special skills without it becoming annoying or it overlapping with the formatting already present in the story.

: How to deal with a rape scene: what can/should you do? Preface: there are three main characters in the story, all three of them in their mid twenties. Two women and one man. For simplicity,

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