Your Characters, Unprotected

'...It won't protect them from mortality or consequence, but it will give them the power of choice.'
-Shan Jeniah Burton (She left this as part of a really good comment about fear and the human desire for control on my 'R is for Reefer Madness' post)

A lot of writers refer to their books or characters as their babies. When you put so much of yourself-- your time, your feelings, your intellectual effort-- into something, you get deeply attached. That's a natural response. But that same attachment goes awry when our attachment to our characters means we use our authorial power to save them from ever making any mistakes.

This ends up manifesting in one of several ways in the story. One way is that the world of the story can bend outrageously to accommodate your character. Improbable coincidences prevent certain death from the elements; the bad guy decides to taunt them instead of killing them; magical rules and social laws sprout loopholes to save the characters from the losing their powers and going to jail; other characters become entranced with the main character to the point of forgiving any and all bad behaviour. This ends up sucking all suspense out of the story, since the audience quickly detects the character is in no danger.

Another way is that the character gains extreme competence and eerie precognition. They 'just know' or 'somehow guess' everything from secret villainous plans to impending weather systems; they can fix everything from a broken bone to a broken boat engine; they can figure out exactly the right thing to say to comfort their love interest. Like the previous example, these characters often kill suspense because we know they'll always win. However, it's possible to turn these all-powerful characters into something fun-- certainly superheroes and the leads in action series fit this category-- by giving them a few human personality flaws and tossing huge, impossibly tangled obstacles into their path.

Finally, there is the most subtle example-- the character to whom the plot happens. They are spared making mistakes because they take almost no actions themselves. Other characters act around them or act upon them instead. This can usually be solved by ditching the inactive main character and focusing on the rest of the plot, or by giving the passive character a greater role in the narrative.

It's okay to let your characters screw up. They're not real, and it's thus perfectly fine to let them make bad choices and feel the full consequences. Those failings are what make them human, and by extension interesting. Their stories, too, are more compelling as the characters trip themselves up. Yes, it can be difficult to write, especially as it's so easy as the author to straighten everything out, but just let them go.