September 17, 2018 • 28 mins
Conflict in writing is the tension, struggle, or opposition that drives a story forward. It can be external (character vs. character, society, nature) or internal (character vs. self), but it always creates obstacles that challenge the protagonist and force growth or change.
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(00:00):
Welcome to the Inside Creative Writing podcast.
The weekly discussion of craft and technique for
writers of fiction and creative nonfiction.
And now here's your host, writer and educator,
Brad Reid. Episode 34.
Today, we tackle the single most important element
that a story must have, conflict.
(00:20):
What is it? Why is it so important?
And how can we get our stories brimming
with it?
And welcome back to the Inside Creative Writing
podcast. My name is Brad Reed, and I
am thrilled that you're spending some time with
me today,
here in the podcast. It is good to
be back with you after our guest hosted
(00:41):
show last week. I have to say though,
I really loved hearing from Jesse Holly and
I think he set a great benchmark for
the kind of segments that we're hoping for
here on the show. The thing I really
love is how much it helps the show
feel kind of like an intimate little writer's
group.
Everybody in the room, so to speak, can
have the opportunity
(01:02):
to add to the discussion and share their
own insights and discoveries
for the benefit of all of us regardless
of our years of experience or whether or
not we've been published or whatever.
If you've had the chance to listen to
last week's show with Jesse, I'd love to
get some feedback about it. Both about Jesse's
episode in particular but also about the idea,
(01:22):
the concept of the occasional guest host.
Is it something that you'd like to see
more of on the show? Or better yet,
is it something that you'd like to actually
do yourself?
You can find out how to submit a
segment by visiting bradreedwrites.com
and clicking on the be a guest host
link.
I wanna make another quick plug,
(01:42):
for the Patreon team before we get into
today's show. And I know, I get it,
right? If you listen to a lot of
podcasts,
you're probably sick to death of hearing about
Patreon.
Sometimes it can seem almost a bit, gimmicky,
I think.
And that's actually part of the reason that
I don't use Patreon the way that most
people do.
(02:03):
So, for this show, everybody that listens, regardless
of whether or not you're a member of
the Patreon team, you already have access to
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that I create on Patreon. It doesn't cost
you a thing.
And it's because I don't like, the feeling
that I'm selling these resources to you in
return for your support
(02:23):
on Patreon.
Instead, I like to think of Patreon
kinda like a tip jar of sorts.
So if you enjoy what we're doing, if
it helps you out in your writing life,
then consider just throwing a few bucks a
month our way. It's a great way to
say, thank you for what we're doing here
and encourage us to keep it up. And
that really is all it takes, right? Just
(02:43):
a few bucks a month.
And now with school starting back up and
my commitment to finish my final draft of
my current work in progress by next summer,
This podcast represents a huge chunk
of time
taken away from those priorities. And
at some point, I'm going to have to
decide if it's worth the investment of time
(03:05):
and resources to keep it going. So you
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Those things are the lifeblood
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(03:26):
and ours is no different.
Okay. So enough of all that. I hope
that didn't sound too heavy handed. I certainly
didn't mean it that way if it did.
But let's go ahead and get in today's
topic. Today, we are talking
conflict.
(03:49):
So I've noticed an odd thing in the
stories of new writers.
Often they will write two characters that end
up going through the story together.
Maybe it's kind of like a buddy story
or,
maybe it's the story of a couple in
love who go on an adventure together. Or
maybe it's a father and a son
surviving in the wilderness or something like that.
(04:11):
Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with that at
all. Some of my favorite stories
focus on the relationship between just two people.
But what happens in these,
I hate to say it, amateurish stories,
is that the two characters are almost
indistinguishable
from one another.
So they're such good friends that they talk
(04:33):
the same, they feel the same way about
things, they act the same. Or maybe they're
such a loving couple that they want the
exact same things out of life or they
have the same fears and the same hopes
in life.
I've read stories where you could literally swap
the names of these two characters at any
point and the story would hold up just
(04:53):
fine. And sometimes, their two names have appeared
literally side by side throughout the entire story.
So like, Bob and Jim did this or
Bob and Jim did that. Right? These writers
haven't written a story with two characters at
all. They've actually written a story with a
single character
named
Bob and Jim or Harry and Sally, right?
(05:15):
So what's going on in these stories is
a fundamental
lack of conflict.
And to a certain extent, a similar lack
of conflict might be sneaking its way into
our stories as well. Now, maybe it's not
as obvious as the kinds of stories I
was just talking about,
but it just might be there in a
more subtle form.
(05:37):
I think we all kind of get conflict
on a major scale. Right? We understand the
arguments that we put in our stories. Maybe
the chase scenes or the the battle royale.
Right? We get the big
conflicts,
but I think we all too often miss
the subtle conflict
that should permeate every scene and every relationship
(05:58):
in your story.
So I've said this before and I'll say
it again. Story is
conflict.
I ask my class this all the time
to the point where they can kind of
parrot
it back. I'll say, what is story? And
they'll shout back, conflict. Because story
is conflict.
And conflict only exists
when there is tension.
(06:19):
And there should be tension or conflict in
every single scene
of our story. Even the quiet scenes that
don't feel initially
like there's conflict there. Now sometimes this is
big,
life threatening conflict.
But other times it's subtle.
Under the surface conflict. But it
absolutely
(06:40):
has to be there.
Any scene without tension, without conflict
is a scene that has no place in
the story. It needs to be cut.
That scene is by definition telling
rather than showing. And for that reason, it's
absolutely vital
to go through your manuscript and amp up
the tension
wherever possible. Watch for those moments when you
(07:02):
have characters in agreement with each other, especially
if they're in agreement on a deeper level
than just making a similar decision. Now, I
get it. That's a little ambiguous, right? A
little abstract.
So, let's get specific
to see how it works on a scene
level.
So, let's start, for example,
let's say we've got two people that are
(07:23):
going on an adventure. So they both might
be excited.
They both might be eager to go. On
the surface, they might seem perfectly in sync
and ready for whatever comes to them.
So if this agreement goes deeper though to
the level of their motivation
for going on the adventure,
then you have a boring pair of characters.
(07:43):
Right? They're too
similar.
But now, if you give your characters differing
or even better conflicting motivations
and watch the tension and the opportunities for
conflict rise dramatically.
Perhaps the best example of this is the
epic adventure of Frodo Baggins and his traveling
companion, Samwise Gamgee. Hopefully you've all either read
(08:05):
these books or seen the films.
If so, you'll remember that there is some
initial disagreement about whether or not Sam should
accompany Frodo on the journey and that provides
some initial kind of surface level tension. But
that tension quickly is resolved as the decision
is made for Sam to accompany Frodo on
that journey.
(08:26):
But think about how their differing motivations
for going
provides an ongoing tension between them in the
story.
So Frodo's motivation
is out of responsibility, right? He's responsible to
destroy the ring and he's also made this
commitment to his mentor, Gandalf.
So, but Samwise on the other hand,
(08:48):
he goes because he loves and he cares
for Frodo, his friend.
So for most of the story, Samwise really
couldn't care less about the ring. He just
wants his friend to be safe. Right?
Even this seemingly innocuous difference
creates compelling moments of tension
and conflict within the story.
(09:10):
So, when problems arise, their differing motivations
bring about conflict.
Because Samwise
would
rather than
have Frodo give up the journey
entirely
and just go home to the Shire where
he thinks they'll be safe. Right? And now
this flies directly in the face of Frodo's
(09:30):
motivation.
He's not concerned about his own safety. Or
at least that is not his primary motivation.
And that causes conflict in the way that
the two of them handle obstacles thrown their
way.
And here's the kicker about conflict.
The reason it's so important.
It's by seeing how characters deal with conflict
(09:51):
that we discover who they really are.
People are not what they say they are.
They are what they do.
And seeing characters learn to react
differently in the face of conflict is how
our reader sees that a character has truly
changed
over the course of our story.
(10:13):
So now, I want you to think about
your story.
Do you maybe have characters that are in
love? Now, this is an invitation
to storytelling
disaster. It's been done wrong so many times.
So if you have two characters that are
in love and their motivation to be with
each other is simply love, then you've got
(10:33):
a recipe for bored readers. So both of
your characters desire each other. Well,
kind of just because they desire each other.
Right? But if we complicate it a little
bit,
then you've got the makings of some great
tension.
And this is why so many lovers in
literature are from different worlds. Either culturally,
(10:54):
socially, socioeconomically.
So you've got the
rich young bachelor
and the girl from the wrong side of
the tracks. So yes, they're in love, right,
primarily.
But there's more going on than just that.
So perhaps he is also
wanting to use her as a way to
get back at his overbearing and controlling parents
(11:14):
who have pre planned his life for him.
So he loves her but
she's also at some level
kind of a tool of revenge
and rebellion in his life. And then she
on the other hand, maybe she wants to
show her family that she's more valuable than
they think she is. So they kind of
expect her to,
(11:35):
be a high school dropout, maybe get pregnant
as a teenager, and basically amount to nothing
like so many of her friends have. So,
yeah. Sure. She loves him too.
But he's also kind of the middle finger
that she wants to give her family as
a way to show them that they misjudged
her. So now
you have tension, right? Even though they may
(11:56):
want the same things on the surface, underneath
there's this bubbling difference. This bubbling difference in
motivation. Now you have two people who may
genuinely love each other
but they're also tempted to use each other
in some subtle and pernicious ways.
So, in other words, now
you have the opportunity
(12:16):
for conflict.
It works on a much more basic level
as well. So, let's say you have a
character who's simply
walking along the beach and they're kind of
pondering, thinking over a major life decision.
Not a lot of
opportunity for conflict there. So, how could you
ramp up the conflict, the tension
(12:36):
in a scene like that? So, I mean
there's no other characters.
There's no outside interaction. There's no obvious sources
of conflict to have a run-in with. Even
here,
you have a couple of options.
So first off, the tension could be internal.
Right? As he's going through this inner dialogue,
have the character
pull up a memory
that flies in the face of the decision
(12:58):
they're trying to make. Or maybe let an
imagined conversation play out in their head with
someone who is in conflict with them. Or
you can move that conflict to something external.
So let's say his plan is to go
to the beach and walk and kind of
think through this decision. But he gets there
and he finds that the beach is closed,
right? Now he's forced to walk along a
(13:19):
crowded street
clogged with tourists and chaos, right, and the
conflict abounds.
Or, you know, maybe he does does get
on the beach and there's some little sand
mites that begin to chomp down on his
legs and arms and they distract him from
his thoughts. So even these really small moments
of tension
are enough to keep a reader interested in
(13:41):
a scene moving. And why is that? Why
is conflict so important?
It's because even these little tiny moments of
conflict
are opportunities
for your reader to learn
about your character and see how they react
to conflict whether big or small.
So, the reader is kinda watching. Does this
character persevere
(14:03):
while getting their ankles bitten? Or does this
character fly off the handle and react in
some unexpected
or violent way, right? Depending on that reaction,
that's how your readers
get to know your character.
And also, maybe even more importantly, that's how
they bring themselves
into your story.
Subconsciously,
they're kind of asking themselves, well, how would
(14:26):
I react in a similar circumstance?
And as soon as they've put themselves in
the shoes of your character,
you've got them. Right? And conflict
is the way to do that. So for
every scene in your story,
ask yourself not, can I increase the tension,
but how
can I increase the tension? There is always
(14:47):
an opportunity
for more tension
and more conflict. Whether that's major,
big, life threatening stuff or the tiny little
inconveniences
that just jump in and cause a problem.
Now, in this episode, I focused on stories
and examples that use just two people. But
the technique actually applies to stories with any
(15:08):
number of characters. Your story could be a
massive epic
that involves dozens of characters spread out over
generations.
But the same rule applies.
It just gets a lot more complicated to
sort out. So, even in these cases when
you have a huge cast of characters,
no two characters
(15:30):
should be without conflict of some sort
with every single other character in the story
world.
I've seen people have success planning this kind
of conflict
by literally charting it out on a huge
piece of paper or maybe on a big
whiteboard. And, what they'll do is they'll put
up a bubble
for or a circle for each of their
characters.
(15:50):
And then, they'll begin to connect those characters
with lines to every single other character. And,
those lines
will represent a source of a specific conflict.
Right? Somewhere where their motivations
or their goals
differ.
I really like this technique
because it forces you to confront the fact
that you may have created characters
(16:11):
who are basically different versions of the same
person. They've got matching goals,
matching morals, matching desires,
and matching traits. And once you get this
up on a big sheet of paper, that
becomes clear when you suddenly can't draw a
line of conflict between them. And this is
actually a great way to develop characters too.
(16:31):
To make them stand out from each other.
Often while doing this kind of work, I
end up discovering
an aspect of a character that ends up
defining
who that character is. And it often suggests
an entire backstory
for that character that I hadn't considered
before. Let me give you an example.
So, in the book I'm working on now,
(16:53):
I have a protagonist who starts out very
religious.
And in one scene, she's talking with her
parson about the importance of faith.
And what I realized while writing the scene
is that they were both in exactly the
same place on the issue of the importance
of faith. Both were wholehearted believers
(17:14):
and neither of them questioned their faith even
in the slightest.
And I realized that the scene was not
working at all because it was basically just
two people sitting around agreeing with each other.
Right? That is boring, boring, boring.
So I asked myself
what I could change? How could I give
this scene some element of tension? And I
(17:35):
knew that I couldn't really change my protagonist
position because it was a key part of
her character arc in the story to start
out ultra religious and then change. So in
other words, she had to start the story
all in with her religion, but it occurred
to me that the parson
didn't necessarily.
And that's when things got interesting for me.
(17:56):
That's when I started opening up that scene
and understanding who this person could be other
than kind of the stereotypical
religious leader. So I had to ask myself,
what would it look like for my protagonist
to be talking with a person
who was struggling with his faith?
Then the wheels started turning. Right? Now, I'm
(18:17):
still fleshing this out a little bit, but
I begin to brainstorm reasons that religious leaders
might doubt their own faith.
And the one I've settled on, at least
for now, is that this parson's wife has
just left him for another man.
So, instead of my protagonist
talking to a person who believes exactly as
she does,
he's actually playing the role of the person
(18:39):
who is struggling with doubt. Right? And I
think that's an interesting
turn
on that scene and it's one I never
would have thought of if I hadn't been
thinking intentionally
about
adding conflict
between these two characters.
So, he's basically asking himself, right, how could
God
allow such a thing to happen?
So now he's not coming right out and
(19:01):
saying. He's not coming right out and telling
her that he's struggling
with his own faith during their interaction.
But it becomes clear that he is from
the subtext of their conversation.
That he's not on the same page as
she is. And he's trying actually to tamp
down her complete reliance on her faith. So
it's subtle. Yes. You wouldn't walk away from
(19:22):
that scene being able to say to point
to this as the the source of tension
in the scene, but it's there. It's subtle.
It's working underneath the surface and it's a
hell of a lot better than two people
sitting around just nodding their heads at each
other.
So, one word of warning before we wrap
up today. And that's to say that not
all conflict
(19:44):
is good conflict for your story.
Don't just throw in conflict for the sake
of conflict.
Make sure that it stays consistent
with your story and with your characters.
It's absolutely vital that you keep the tension
and conflict
realistic to the world
and the characters that you've created. So, in
(20:05):
other words,
to use an overly dramatic example,
don't introduce a dragon in a work of
realistic fiction just to spice things up. Right?
You're going to break your story if you
do that. Now, that's something you'd probably never
think of doing because it would be obvious
how it would harm your story rather than
improve it. But watch for the subtle ways
(20:25):
that introducing inappropriate
conflict
can have a similar impact on the believability
of your story.
Conflict should arise
naturally from the story idea, from the setting,
from the relationships.
Not come
externally to simply
kind of drop a bomb into an otherwise
boring scene.
(20:45):
So, make sure your character's reactions to the
conflict
remain consistent with who they are too.
So in other words, don't have your, Puritanic
main character
suddenly explode with foul language at something that
is annoying him. Right? It'll feel forced and
it'll pull your reader out of the story
rather than ramp up the conflict.
(21:06):
So, look at every moment of tension
as really a learning opportunity for your reader.
Each moment of tension provides a glimpse
into who that character really is.
Because none of us, when you think about
it, are as real as we are
in moments of conflict.
In every other aspect of life, we can
(21:26):
kind of put up our masks
and try to get the world to see
us the way we want them to. But
in moments of conflict,
our true selves cut through that facade
and they reveal the real person inside. Now,
if that thought makes you a little uncomfortable,
it it, it probably should. Right? I don't
wanna admit that the person I really am
(21:47):
is the one who rises to the surface
when I'm cut off in traffic or when
somebody is talking really loud behind me in
the movie theater.
But like it or not, these are the
moments that reveal who we really are when
we don't have a chance to filter ourselves.
And the same is true
of our characters.
If our use of conflict
(22:07):
misfires and we have a character react in
a way that isn't authentic to them,
we undo all the work we've done to
help our readers get to know our characters
on that intimate level.
So, use these moments of transparency
wisely in your fiction and your characters will
literally jump to life in all their positive
(22:28):
and negative complexity.
Now, characters
can certainly act out of character sometimes. I
mean, lord knows real people do it all
the time. But, make sure you're doing it
to build that character and show a new
wrinkle
to their personality that may have been hidden
up to that point rather than end up
creating an unrealistic moment of tension or conflict
(22:50):
just for the sake of tension or conflict.
Conflict should always grow organically from your story
characters,
your story world, your plot lines.
In fact, I think I'd say that embedding
conflict into your story
is more about discovering it in your story
rather than,
injecting it into your story.
(23:12):
Find those moments where tension can arise in
the situation you've created.
That's what keeps the readers turning pages.
Today's wise word comes from writer William Wallace
Cook and as usual it has something to
do with our topic today. So here's what
(23:33):
Cook says about conflict.
Plot is life responding to environment
and not only is this response always in
terms of conflict
but the really great struggle, the epic struggle
is the inner fight of the individual
whereby the soul builds up character. And again,
that's William Wallace Cook.
(23:54):
I love the piece of that quote where
he essentially is saying that character
is built by struggle.
Hopefully, after our exploration today we can see
how that's true for the characters in our
books.
Hopefully, we filled our pages with the kind
of struggle that can both reveal the qualities
our characters lack
as well as provide opportunities for them to
(24:17):
build up their character qualities.
But I also love that this statement is
true for us as writers as well.
It's through the struggle and conflict of writing
a book, a massive undertaking,
that builds up character in us as well.
There's a kind of power
in finishing a huge project like a book.
(24:38):
It not only gives you the confidence and
wherewithal to write another book, a second or
a third or a fourth, but that confidence
that comes from finishing a book bleeds into
the rest of your life as well.
Any project looks small and achievable when stacked
up against the mountain of work and effort
and struggle that your book represents.
It's just another way that writing is power.
(25:02):
While you're writing a story in which your
character makes massive changes,
you, the author,
are changing as well, and I love that.
Our weekly challenge this week is, of course,
also related to conflict.
Like last week, there's,
a bit of danger in this week's challenge.
(25:24):
Although, it's kind of a of a different
sort than last week's challenge.
This week, I want you to think of
you and your best friend. Now, maybe that's
that lifelong friend you've known since high school.
Maybe it's a spouse or maybe it's even
a parent or a child.
So, who is the person
that is most on your side of anyone
(25:45):
in your life? Who is it that you
go to when you're needing advice or validation
about the direction of your life? In other
words, who's the person in your life that
you would say
you have the least conflict with? The person
who is most in line with you.
Okay. So now, and this isn't something you
should probably share with this person by any
(26:06):
means. What I want you to do is
brainstorm a list of the conflicts
that you have with this person.
In what ways do you see the world
differently?
What are those things that you know kind
of not to touch, not to approach because
it could set off an argument?
And try to get the detail into the
details here. Right? So, in writing, it's all
(26:27):
about the specific
details. So, we wanna look for details here
as well. Now, once you've done that, once
you've kinda brainstormed this list of conflicts that
you have with your best friend,
I want you to look at the two
characters in your current work in progress
that you would, consider to be the closest
in the same way. So, find that close
friendship. The closest one that you have with
(26:48):
the main character.
And then look at that relationship
and see if it has some of the
same sources of possible conflict as your real
relationship does.
Now, not necessarily
the exact same ones, of course, but similar
kinds of conflict.
Now, going through this can often help you
discover when you have two characters that are
(27:10):
too similar in your story. If there isn't
enough that divides them
then there's not enough to separate them in
your readers minds and certainly not enough to
provide the kind of tension and conflict that
needs to exist between all the characters in
your book. Even the best of friends have
conflict both in real life and in fiction.
(27:30):
So, that's gonna wrap it up for this
week. I'd love to hear your experience with
our weekly challenges.
What's working for you? What's not? What you're
learning about writing through doing them?
And actually, I'd love to hear from you
about any aspect of the show. You can
get in touch with us by going to
bradreedwrites.com
and clicking the talk to us link.
You can shoot us an email there. You
can connect with us on Twitter. You can
(27:52):
even leave a message on our voicemail line
and maybe even hear your voice on a
future episode of the show. So, until next
week, remember the best way to improve your
craft is by
writing. That's what I'm off to go do,
and I hope you're off to do the
same. Let's get some words on paper this
week, and we'll meet up again next week
for another episode of the Inside inside creative
(28:12):
writing podcast.
Thanks for listening to the inside creative writing
podcast with your host, writer, and educator,
Brad Reed. We'll be back next week.
Welcome to the Inside Creative Writing podcast.
The weekly discussion of craft and technique for
writers of fiction and creative nonfiction.
And now here's your host, writer and educator,
Brad Reid. Episode 34.
Today, we tackle the single most important element
that a story must have, conflict.
(00:20):
What is it? Why is it so important?
And how can we get our stories brimming
with it?
And welcome back to the Inside Creative Writing
podcast. My name is Brad Reed, and I
am thrilled that you're spending some time with
me today,
here in the podcast. It is good to
be back with you after our guest hosted
(00:41):
show last week. I have to say though,
I really loved hearing from Jesse Holly and
I think he set a great benchmark for
the kind of segments that we're hoping for
here on the show. The thing I really
love is how much it helps the show
feel kind of like an intimate little writer's
group.
Everybody in the room, so to speak, can
have the opportunity
(01:02):
to add to the discussion and share their
own insights and discoveries
for the benefit of all of us regardless
of our years of experience or whether or
not we've been published or whatever.
If you've had the chance to listen to
last week's show with Jesse, I'd love to
get some feedback about it. Both about Jesse's
episode in particular but also about the idea,
(01:22):
the concept of the occasional guest host.
Is it something that you'd like to see
more of on the show? Or better yet,
is it something that you'd like to actually
do yourself?
You can find out how to submit a
segment by visiting bradreedwrites.com
and clicking on the be a guest host
link.
I wanna make another quick plug,
(01:42):
for the Patreon team before we get into
today's show. And I know, I get it,
right? If you listen to a lot of
podcasts,
you're probably sick to death of hearing about
Patreon.
Sometimes it can seem almost a bit, gimmicky,
I think.
And that's actually part of the reason that
I don't use Patreon the way that most
people do.
(02:03):
So, for this show, everybody that listens, regardless
of whether or not you're a member of
the Patreon team, you already have access to
all of the extra resources
that I create on Patreon. It doesn't cost
you a thing.
And it's because I don't like, the feeling
that I'm selling these resources to you in
return for your support
(02:23):
on Patreon.
Instead, I like to think of Patreon
kinda like a tip jar of sorts.
So if you enjoy what we're doing, if
it helps you out in your writing life,
then consider just throwing a few bucks a
month our way. It's a great way to
say, thank you for what we're doing here
and encourage us to keep it up. And
that really is all it takes, right? Just
(02:43):
a few bucks a month.
And now with school starting back up and
my commitment to finish my final draft of
my current work in progress by next summer,
This podcast represents a huge chunk
of time
taken away from those priorities. And
at some point, I'm going to have to
decide if it's worth the investment of time
(03:05):
and resources to keep it going. So you
can help me make that decision by showing
your support for the show. And not just
getting involved as a member of the Patreon
team, but also by rating the show over
on iTunes or
tweeting about it and certainly recommending it to
your writer friends.
Those things are the lifeblood
of any podcast
(03:26):
and ours is no different.
Okay. So enough of all that. I hope
that didn't sound too heavy handed. I certainly
didn't mean it that way if it did.
But let's go ahead and get in today's
topic. Today, we are talking
conflict.
(03:49):
So I've noticed an odd thing in the
stories of new writers.
Often they will write two characters that end
up going through the story together.
Maybe it's kind of like a buddy story
or,
maybe it's the story of a couple in
love who go on an adventure together. Or
maybe it's a father and a son
surviving in the wilderness or something like that.
(04:11):
Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with that at
all. Some of my favorite stories
focus on the relationship between just two people.
But what happens in these,
I hate to say it, amateurish stories,
is that the two characters are almost
indistinguishable
from one another.
So they're such good friends that they talk
(04:33):
the same, they feel the same way about
things, they act the same. Or maybe they're
such a loving couple that they want the
exact same things out of life or they
have the same fears and the same hopes
in life.
I've read stories where you could literally swap
the names of these two characters at any
point and the story would hold up just
(04:53):
fine. And sometimes, their two names have appeared
literally side by side throughout the entire story.
So like, Bob and Jim did this or
Bob and Jim did that. Right? These writers
haven't written a story with two characters at
all. They've actually written a story with a
single character
named
Bob and Jim or Harry and Sally, right?
(05:15):
So what's going on in these stories is
a fundamental
lack of conflict.
And to a certain extent, a similar lack
of conflict might be sneaking its way into
our stories as well. Now, maybe it's not
as obvious as the kinds of stories I
was just talking about,
but it just might be there in a
more subtle form.
(05:37):
I think we all kind of get conflict
on a major scale. Right? We understand the
arguments that we put in our stories. Maybe
the chase scenes or the the battle royale.
Right? We get the big
conflicts,
but I think we all too often miss
the subtle conflict
that should permeate every scene and every relationship
(05:58):
in your story.
So I've said this before and I'll say
it again. Story is
conflict.
I ask my class this all the time
to the point where they can kind of
parrot
it back. I'll say, what is story? And
they'll shout back, conflict. Because story
is conflict.
And conflict only exists
when there is tension.
(06:19):
And there should be tension or conflict in
every single scene
of our story. Even the quiet scenes that
don't feel initially
like there's conflict there. Now sometimes this is
big,
life threatening conflict.
But other times it's subtle.
Under the surface conflict. But it
absolutely
(06:40):
has to be there.
Any scene without tension, without conflict
is a scene that has no place in
the story. It needs to be cut.
That scene is by definition telling
rather than showing. And for that reason, it's
absolutely vital
to go through your manuscript and amp up
the tension
wherever possible. Watch for those moments when you
(07:02):
have characters in agreement with each other, especially
if they're in agreement on a deeper level
than just making a similar decision. Now, I
get it. That's a little ambiguous, right? A
little abstract.
So, let's get specific
to see how it works on a scene
level.
So, let's start, for example,
let's say we've got two people that are
(07:23):
going on an adventure. So they both might
be excited.
They both might be eager to go. On
the surface, they might seem perfectly in sync
and ready for whatever comes to them.
So if this agreement goes deeper though to
the level of their motivation
for going on the adventure,
then you have a boring pair of characters.
(07:43):
Right? They're too
similar.
But now, if you give your characters differing
or even better conflicting motivations
and watch the tension and the opportunities for
conflict rise dramatically.
Perhaps the best example of this is the
epic adventure of Frodo Baggins and his traveling
companion, Samwise Gamgee. Hopefully you've all either read
(08:05):
these books or seen the films.
If so, you'll remember that there is some
initial disagreement about whether or not Sam should
accompany Frodo on the journey and that provides
some initial kind of surface level tension. But
that tension quickly is resolved as the decision
is made for Sam to accompany Frodo on
that journey.
(08:26):
But think about how their differing motivations
for going
provides an ongoing tension between them in the
story.
So Frodo's motivation
is out of responsibility, right? He's responsible to
destroy the ring and he's also made this
commitment to his mentor, Gandalf.
So, but Samwise on the other hand,
(08:48):
he goes because he loves and he cares
for Frodo, his friend.
So for most of the story, Samwise really
couldn't care less about the ring. He just
wants his friend to be safe. Right?
Even this seemingly innocuous difference
creates compelling moments of tension
and conflict within the story.
(09:10):
So, when problems arise, their differing motivations
bring about conflict.
Because Samwise
would
rather than
have Frodo give up the journey
entirely
and just go home to the Shire where
he thinks they'll be safe. Right? And now
this flies directly in the face of Frodo's
(09:30):
motivation.
He's not concerned about his own safety. Or
at least that is not his primary motivation.
And that causes conflict in the way that
the two of them handle obstacles thrown their
way.
And here's the kicker about conflict.
The reason it's so important.
It's by seeing how characters deal with conflict
(09:51):
that we discover who they really are.
People are not what they say they are.
They are what they do.
And seeing characters learn to react
differently in the face of conflict is how
our reader sees that a character has truly
changed
over the course of our story.
(10:13):
So now, I want you to think about
your story.
Do you maybe have characters that are in
love? Now, this is an invitation
to storytelling
disaster. It's been done wrong so many times.
So if you have two characters that are
in love and their motivation to be with
each other is simply love, then you've got
(10:33):
a recipe for bored readers. So both of
your characters desire each other. Well,
kind of just because they desire each other.
Right? But if we complicate it a little
bit,
then you've got the makings of some great
tension.
And this is why so many lovers in
literature are from different worlds. Either culturally,
(10:54):
socially, socioeconomically.
So you've got the
rich young bachelor
and the girl from the wrong side of
the tracks. So yes, they're in love, right,
primarily.
But there's more going on than just that.
So perhaps he is also
wanting to use her as a way to
get back at his overbearing and controlling parents
(11:14):
who have pre planned his life for him.
So he loves her but
she's also at some level
kind of a tool of revenge
and rebellion in his life. And then she
on the other hand, maybe she wants to
show her family that she's more valuable than
they think she is. So they kind of
expect her to,
(11:35):
be a high school dropout, maybe get pregnant
as a teenager, and basically amount to nothing
like so many of her friends have. So,
yeah. Sure. She loves him too.
But he's also kind of the middle finger
that she wants to give her family as
a way to show them that they misjudged
her. So now
you have tension, right? Even though they may
(11:56):
want the same things on the surface, underneath
there's this bubbling difference. This bubbling difference in
motivation. Now you have two people who may
genuinely love each other
but they're also tempted to use each other
in some subtle and pernicious ways.
So, in other words, now
you have the opportunity
(12:16):
for conflict.
It works on a much more basic level
as well. So, let's say you have a
character who's simply
walking along the beach and they're kind of
pondering, thinking over a major life decision.
Not a lot of
opportunity for conflict there. So, how could you
ramp up the conflict, the tension
(12:36):
in a scene like that? So, I mean
there's no other characters.
There's no outside interaction. There's no obvious sources
of conflict to have a run-in with. Even
here,
you have a couple of options.
So first off, the tension could be internal.
Right? As he's going through this inner dialogue,
have the character
pull up a memory
that flies in the face of the decision
(12:58):
they're trying to make. Or maybe let an
imagined conversation play out in their head with
someone who is in conflict with them. Or
you can move that conflict to something external.
So let's say his plan is to go
to the beach and walk and kind of
think through this decision. But he gets there
and he finds that the beach is closed,
right? Now he's forced to walk along a
(13:19):
crowded street
clogged with tourists and chaos, right, and the
conflict abounds.
Or, you know, maybe he does does get
on the beach and there's some little sand
mites that begin to chomp down on his
legs and arms and they distract him from
his thoughts. So even these really small moments
of tension
are enough to keep a reader interested in
(13:41):
a scene moving. And why is that? Why
is conflict so important?
It's because even these little tiny moments of
conflict
are opportunities
for your reader to learn
about your character and see how they react
to conflict whether big or small.
So, the reader is kinda watching. Does this
character persevere
(14:03):
while getting their ankles bitten? Or does this
character fly off the handle and react in
some unexpected
or violent way, right? Depending on that reaction,
that's how your readers
get to know your character.
And also, maybe even more importantly, that's how
they bring themselves
into your story.
Subconsciously,
they're kind of asking themselves, well, how would
(14:26):
I react in a similar circumstance?
And as soon as they've put themselves in
the shoes of your character,
you've got them. Right? And conflict
is the way to do that. So for
every scene in your story,
ask yourself not, can I increase the tension,
but how
can I increase the tension? There is always
(14:47):
an opportunity
for more tension
and more conflict. Whether that's major,
big, life threatening stuff or the tiny little
inconveniences
that just jump in and cause a problem.
Now, in this episode, I focused on stories
and examples that use just two people. But
the technique actually applies to stories with any
(15:08):
number of characters. Your story could be a
massive epic
that involves dozens of characters spread out over
generations.
But the same rule applies.
It just gets a lot more complicated to
sort out. So, even in these cases when
you have a huge cast of characters,
no two characters
(15:30):
should be without conflict of some sort
with every single other character in the story
world.
I've seen people have success planning this kind
of conflict
by literally charting it out on a huge
piece of paper or maybe on a big
whiteboard. And, what they'll do is they'll put
up a bubble
for or a circle for each of their
characters.
(15:50):
And then, they'll begin to connect those characters
with lines to every single other character. And,
those lines
will represent a source of a specific conflict.
Right? Somewhere where their motivations
or their goals
differ.
I really like this technique
because it forces you to confront the fact
that you may have created characters
(16:11):
who are basically different versions of the same
person. They've got matching goals,
matching morals, matching desires,
and matching traits. And once you get this
up on a big sheet of paper, that
becomes clear when you suddenly can't draw a
line of conflict between them. And this is
actually a great way to develop characters too.
(16:31):
To make them stand out from each other.
Often while doing this kind of work, I
end up discovering
an aspect of a character that ends up
defining
who that character is. And it often suggests
an entire backstory
for that character that I hadn't considered
before. Let me give you an example.
So, in the book I'm working on now,
(16:53):
I have a protagonist who starts out very
religious.
And in one scene, she's talking with her
parson about the importance of faith.
And what I realized while writing the scene
is that they were both in exactly the
same place on the issue of the importance
of faith. Both were wholehearted believers
(17:14):
and neither of them questioned their faith even
in the slightest.
And I realized that the scene was not
working at all because it was basically just
two people sitting around agreeing with each other.
Right? That is boring, boring, boring.
So I asked myself
what I could change? How could I give
this scene some element of tension? And I
(17:35):
knew that I couldn't really change my protagonist
position because it was a key part of
her character arc in the story to start
out ultra religious and then change. So in
other words, she had to start the story
all in with her religion, but it occurred
to me that the parson
didn't necessarily.
And that's when things got interesting for me.
(17:56):
That's when I started opening up that scene
and understanding who this person could be other
than kind of the stereotypical
religious leader. So I had to ask myself,
what would it look like for my protagonist
to be talking with a person
who was struggling with his faith?
Then the wheels started turning. Right? Now, I'm
(18:17):
still fleshing this out a little bit, but
I begin to brainstorm reasons that religious leaders
might doubt their own faith.
And the one I've settled on, at least
for now, is that this parson's wife has
just left him for another man.
So, instead of my protagonist
talking to a person who believes exactly as
she does,
he's actually playing the role of the person
(18:39):
who is struggling with doubt. Right? And I
think that's an interesting
turn
on that scene and it's one I never
would have thought of if I hadn't been
thinking intentionally
about
adding conflict
between these two characters.
So, he's basically asking himself, right, how could
God
allow such a thing to happen?
So now he's not coming right out and
(19:01):
saying. He's not coming right out and telling
her that he's struggling
with his own faith during their interaction.
But it becomes clear that he is from
the subtext of their conversation.
That he's not on the same page as
she is. And he's trying actually to tamp
down her complete reliance on her faith. So
it's subtle. Yes. You wouldn't walk away from
(19:22):
that scene being able to say to point
to this as the the source of tension
in the scene, but it's there. It's subtle.
It's working underneath the surface and it's a
hell of a lot better than two people
sitting around just nodding their heads at each
other.
So, one word of warning before we wrap
up today. And that's to say that not
all conflict
(19:44):
is good conflict for your story.
Don't just throw in conflict for the sake
of conflict.
Make sure that it stays consistent
with your story and with your characters.
It's absolutely vital that you keep the tension
and conflict
realistic to the world
and the characters that you've created. So, in
(20:05):
other words,
to use an overly dramatic example,
don't introduce a dragon in a work of
realistic fiction just to spice things up. Right?
You're going to break your story if you
do that. Now, that's something you'd probably never
think of doing because it would be obvious
how it would harm your story rather than
improve it. But watch for the subtle ways
(20:25):
that introducing inappropriate
conflict
can have a similar impact on the believability
of your story.
Conflict should arise
naturally from the story idea, from the setting,
from the relationships.
Not come
externally to simply
kind of drop a bomb into an otherwise
boring scene.
(20:45):
So, make sure your character's reactions to the
conflict
remain consistent with who they are too.
So in other words, don't have your, Puritanic
main character
suddenly explode with foul language at something that
is annoying him. Right? It'll feel forced and
it'll pull your reader out of the story
rather than ramp up the conflict.
(21:06):
So, look at every moment of tension
as really a learning opportunity for your reader.
Each moment of tension provides a glimpse
into who that character really is.
Because none of us, when you think about
it, are as real as we are
in moments of conflict.
In every other aspect of life, we can
(21:26):
kind of put up our masks
and try to get the world to see
us the way we want them to. But
in moments of conflict,
our true selves cut through that facade
and they reveal the real person inside. Now,
if that thought makes you a little uncomfortable,
it it, it probably should. Right? I don't
wanna admit that the person I really am
(21:47):
is the one who rises to the surface
when I'm cut off in traffic or when
somebody is talking really loud behind me in
the movie theater.
But like it or not, these are the
moments that reveal who we really are when
we don't have a chance to filter ourselves.
And the same is true
of our characters.
If our use of conflict
(22:07):
misfires and we have a character react in
a way that isn't authentic to them,
we undo all the work we've done to
help our readers get to know our characters
on that intimate level.
So, use these moments of transparency
wisely in your fiction and your characters will
literally jump to life in all their positive
(22:28):
and negative complexity.
Now, characters
can certainly act out of character sometimes. I
mean, lord knows real people do it all
the time. But, make sure you're doing it
to build that character and show a new
wrinkle
to their personality that may have been hidden
up to that point rather than end up
creating an unrealistic moment of tension or conflict
(22:50):
just for the sake of tension or conflict.
Conflict should always grow organically from your story
characters,
your story world, your plot lines.
In fact, I think I'd say that embedding
conflict into your story
is more about discovering it in your story
rather than,
injecting it into your story.
(23:12):
Find those moments where tension can arise in
the situation you've created.
That's what keeps the readers turning pages.
Today's wise word comes from writer William Wallace
Cook and as usual it has something to
do with our topic today. So here's what
(23:33):
Cook says about conflict.
Plot is life responding to environment
and not only is this response always in
terms of conflict
but the really great struggle, the epic struggle
is the inner fight of the individual
whereby the soul builds up character. And again,
that's William Wallace Cook.
(23:54):
I love the piece of that quote where
he essentially is saying that character
is built by struggle.
Hopefully, after our exploration today we can see
how that's true for the characters in our
books.
Hopefully, we filled our pages with the kind
of struggle that can both reveal the qualities
our characters lack
as well as provide opportunities for them to
(24:17):
build up their character qualities.
But I also love that this statement is
true for us as writers as well.
It's through the struggle and conflict of writing
a book, a massive undertaking,
that builds up character in us as well.
There's a kind of power
in finishing a huge project like a book.
(24:38):
It not only gives you the confidence and
wherewithal to write another book, a second or
a third or a fourth, but that confidence
that comes from finishing a book bleeds into
the rest of your life as well.
Any project looks small and achievable when stacked
up against the mountain of work and effort
and struggle that your book represents.
It's just another way that writing is power.
(25:02):
While you're writing a story in which your
character makes massive changes,
you, the author,
are changing as well, and I love that.
Our weekly challenge this week is, of course,
also related to conflict.
Like last week, there's,
a bit of danger in this week's challenge.
(25:24):
Although, it's kind of a of a different
sort than last week's challenge.
This week, I want you to think of
you and your best friend. Now, maybe that's
that lifelong friend you've known since high school.
Maybe it's a spouse or maybe it's even
a parent or a child.
So, who is the person
that is most on your side of anyone
(25:45):
in your life? Who is it that you
go to when you're needing advice or validation
about the direction of your life? In other
words, who's the person in your life that
you would say
you have the least conflict with? The person
who is most in line with you.
Okay. So now, and this isn't something you
should probably share with this person by any
(26:06):
means. What I want you to do is
brainstorm a list of the conflicts
that you have with this person.
In what ways do you see the world
differently?
What are those things that you know kind
of not to touch, not to approach because
it could set off an argument?
And try to get the detail into the
details here. Right? So, in writing, it's all
(26:27):
about the specific
details. So, we wanna look for details here
as well. Now, once you've done that, once
you've kinda brainstormed this list of conflicts that
you have with your best friend,
I want you to look at the two
characters in your current work in progress
that you would, consider to be the closest
in the same way. So, find that close
friendship. The closest one that you have with
(26:48):
the main character.
And then look at that relationship
and see if it has some of the
same sources of possible conflict as your real
relationship does.
Now, not necessarily
the exact same ones, of course, but similar
kinds of conflict.
Now, going through this can often help you
discover when you have two characters that are
(27:10):
too similar in your story. If there isn't
enough that divides them
then there's not enough to separate them in
your readers minds and certainly not enough to
provide the kind of tension and conflict that
needs to exist between all the characters in
your book. Even the best of friends have
conflict both in real life and in fiction.
(27:30):
So, that's gonna wrap it up for this
week. I'd love to hear your experience with
our weekly challenges.
What's working for you? What's not? What you're
learning about writing through doing them?
And actually, I'd love to hear from you
about any aspect of the show. You can
get in touch with us by going to
bradreedwrites.com
and clicking the talk to us link.
You can shoot us an email there. You
can connect with us on Twitter. You can
(27:52):
even leave a message on our voicemail line
and maybe even hear your voice on a
future episode of the show. So, until next
week, remember the best way to improve your
craft is by
writing. That's what I'm off to go do,
and I hope you're off to do the
same. Let's get some words on paper this
week, and we'll meet up again next week
for another episode of the Inside inside creative
(28:12):
writing podcast.
Thanks for listening to the inside creative writing
podcast with your host, writer, and educator,
Brad Reed. We'll be back next week.
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