| CONFLICT, IT’S NOT A STORY WITHOUT IT. (Word Count 2,424)
By Billie A. Williams ©2006 WHAT IS CONFLICT? Writing fiction of any length, any genre, requires conflict of some type to be a story. Without conflict you are narrating an event or occurrence. Conflict is an event with cause, effect and consequences. Conflict is the trouble your Main Character (MC) tries to get out of. It’s the tension created as he tries. It is friction with the villain whether that villain is the MC himself or another character, a group or society or perhaps even the environment. The road blocks you throw to impede the resolution of the trouble (i.e. the obstacle) that is keeping him from solving his dilemma is where conflict is. In journalism the student is taught to expound the five w’s and an h. Who, what, when, why, where and how. In fiction, you add the “why not?” the answer is the conflict. Why not is the reason your character cannot have what he wants. Even the Wizard of Oz has conflict. Dorothy wants to go home. She needs to get the broomstick for the wizard before she can. We are led through a series of obstacles, “why nots”, before she gets home Conflict is drama. No story will work without it. Conflict can be internal, man against himself. Some problem he is struggling to overcome. Example: In my novel “Tung Umolomo” David Hemingway is struggling with the loss of his family. He blames himself for the explosion that cost them their lives. He struggles to overcome this guilt by becoming an elementary teacher and moving to South Africa. An ex-FBI agent turned school teacher soon finds that crime and corruption knows no boundaries. He feels that if he can save other children, other families, perhaps he can alleviate the guilt that haunts him. Conflict can be external: man vs man, man against society or a group or man against the environment. Think of external conflict as the trigger event that sets up the story and shows how and why your main character is involved. Conflict can also be internal. The emotional side of your character’s conflict is the internal conflict. The fight inside that keeps him form growing or learning from the external conflict. By combining the external with the internal, emotional conflict you add depth to your character and your story by giving your reader someone to root for. It pulls your reader in and gives them a sense of being part of the action. They can worry for your character. “Conflict is about cause and effect, action and reaction, event and consequence,” according to Susan Letham of Inspired2Write.com Conflict produces a winner and a loser, without exceptions. Think of conflict as testing your character. Misery, by Stephen King is a prime example of testing your character. It is not hard to see the conflict in this story. Tension remains high; the stakes are continually raised as we worry for King’s main character Paul Sheldon an author who wakes up after a terrible accident in the captivity of his self-proclaimed number one fan, Annie Wilkes. We worry for Sheldon; we help him plot to escape from his confinement. Through the testing of conflict your main character earns his rewards and experiences growth. As Sheldon in the preceding example fails his attempts to escape he reveals character growth, by the realization of the arrogant self-centered person he used to be. His reward will be escape or rescue from an impossible situation. A MAP OF CONFLICT TYPES: five basic components: 1. Man against man 2. Man against himself 3. Man against society, or a particular group perhaps religious, ethnic or political 4. Man against nature or the environment 5. Man against destiny There are variations and combinations used from these five basic conflict types. Examples: Man against man = Misery, Stephen King Man against himself = Moby Dick, by Herman Melville Man against society or a group = Almach, by Beth Ann Erickson Man against the environment/nature = Call of the Wild, Jack London Man against destiny = The Tales King Arthur’s including the legends of Merlin, Deepak Chopra, Andrea Hopkins and others. |
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