Once you’ve established your character’s scene* goal, the fun begins in earnest! Conflict is what story is all about. Without it, the character would achieve his goal in minutes, all the loose ends would instantly be tied off with a pretty red bow, and the story would be happily ever over. That may be nice for the folks in your story, but it’s going to bore readers into rigor mortis.
Like scene goals, scene conflict offers endless possibilities. Conflict can come in a variety of flavors, but most can be sorted into the following categories:
Is Your Conflict Integral?
As if we don’t have enough to keep us busy just in dreaming up a good altercation, we also have to limit our conflict to only what is integral to each specific scene. In the words of Dwight V. Swain, “conflict for conflict’s sake” isn’t good enough.
Once you’ve identified your scene’s conflict, stop and ask yourself the following questions:
1. Does the opposition to the character’s goal matter to him? (If not, he doesn’t want the goal badly enough in the first place.)
How does effective scene conflict manifest in successful stories? Let’s take another look at our chosen books and movies:
Photo Credit
Photo courtesy of K.M. Weiland.
Originally posted on Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors
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