Know your conflict - Part 2

Let's break conflict down into it's two components...

I can’t say enough about conflict.

When you are trying to write conflict, it sometimes helps to break it up into it’s two components: a want, and an obstacle. But because we want dramatic conflict as described earlier, then we naturally would want to have a dramatic want and a dramatic obstacle!

As usual, here's an example:

In the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) Frodo has to carry the one ring of power into Mordor and cast it into the fires of Mount Doom. No easy task for a Hobbit.

So clearly there is a want: to destroy the ring of power. The obstacle then, is that he has to carry the ring all the way to Mordor, behind enemy lines while the Dark Lord Sauron is growing in strength and is sending his dark servants across the land to find Frodo. In addition, the ring works its magic on the hearts and minds of others.

This is dramatic conflict because Frodo MUST act or he (along with all of Middle Earth) will suffer eggregious physical, emotional harm or death. And so the conflict is easily broken up into it's constituents: the dramatic want, and the dramatic obstacle.

Often times the protagonist and the antagonist have the same want, but for different reasons. Again take LOTR for example. Both Sauron and Frodo want the same thing: to get the ring into Mordor. But Sauron wants to use it to rule Middle Earth, and Frodo wants it to throw it into Mount Doom to destroy it. 

We should know what the character wants, and what the obstacle is, at all times. Usually when we get blocked in our writing, it's because we lose site of what the character really wants, and what the obstacle is. Once we know these two things, we have conflict, and conflict plus action moves the story along to its eventual conclusion.

So when we run into trouble during our writing and we hit a block or get confused because we’ve wandered off the path of the story (maybe you thought of a great scene that doesn’t quite fit yet), one trick that helps is to take a step back and ask:

“Who wants what?” and “What is the obstacle to that want?” and even “Are they both dramatic enough” (see the last chapter) on conflict.

The final thing I'll say on conflict is that dramatic conflict can be very subtle. It doesn't have to be ball-busting, universe ending, fifty pages filled with non-stop action (*not that those are bad ideas :))

Dramatic conflict can be done simply and subtly, for example:

"Need a ride," the big man said as he pulled alongside me in his shiny black windowless van.

"Uh, not today, thanks," I said not trying to look him directly in the eye.

The big man pulled a long barreled pistol and pointed it directly at my head.

"It wasn't a question," he said with a grin that made me want run.

See? Three to four lines, immediate dramatic conflict. dramatic because the character must act and do something or suffer great harm.

Conflict is one of the best things to help develop your character. As stated previously, conflict makes the characters act in some way, even when they don't want to. And so then there is a world of opportunity that opens up for you to show off your character's, well, character. 

Conflict drives character development like nothing else.

If I try to to develop a very loyal character, like Sam Gamgee is to Frodo in Lord of the Rings, I could just tell you he's loyal, or i can SHOW you he's loyal by how he acts and what he says. Readers don't want to be told that the character is sad, loyal, angry, depressed, in love, whatever. Readers want to be shown those things. The best way to show those things is through what your characters do, say and think. And nothing brings out the best, and the worst, in your characters than conflict.

Reviews

[char]

The reference to Lord of the Rings made it easier to understand. At first I was like," What?" But good 'ol LOTR clarified everything. It was like when I first began to understand Rammstein without lyric translations; I cried and laughed. Not necessarily in that order :D

[byPatKeegan]

heh...yeah LOTR was a great story from many perspectives.