Let's Talk About Conflict in Your Story (3 Simple Tips)

Most of us think we have a pretty decent grasp on how a story works. We understand character and description, goals and motivations, tropes and world building... but something we often don't think about very much is conflict. Which can be a problem, because conflict is the central part of basically any story. Without it you just have a bunch of people standing around for no particular reason.

And since I've come across my share of stories that didn't seem to have any conflicts, or had ones whose conflicts felt flat and empty, I wanted to take some time to talk about this topic.

Seems basic. But that's why it's important.

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Now then, let's get to it!

Tip #1: Make Sure It's Clearly Defined

Brevity is the soul of wit, as they say. Even if your story is a huge, sprawling affair you should be able to summarize your conflict succinctly. This both shows that you understand the nature of it, and it can help you generate a solid elevator pitch when you need to sell someone on your story.

As an example...

Old Soldiers is the longest novel I've ever had published, weighing in at close to 100k words. The central conflict of it is pretty damn straightforward, though. "After surviving an assassination attempt a de-commissioned supersoldier re-activates his old squad, and uncovers the conspiracy that targeted them in order to yank it out by the roots."

While there are a lot of twists and turns in this book, and it takes its sweet time building relationships, laying out the world, and unveiling the mystery, that's the central conflict; a race against time, and unknown assassins, to uncover why it is they're trying to kill our protagonists.

Tip #2: Ensure It's Immediate

Folks often say your conflict should be interesting, but interesting is subject to taste. However, if a conflict has immediacy then it is something that is actively going on in your story. It's not a background element, or something that could simply be sidestepped; it's an oncoming train.

You can't just walk away. Not in these alleys.

The plot of Painted Cats, for those who haven't checked out the second novel in the Hard-Boiled Cat series, is Leo is trying to find a friend of an old flame that's gone missing. One of the main conflicts of the story, though, is that a lot of street beasts are going to an inordinate amount of trouble to steal a kitten named Trouble, who happens to be the missing cat's kitten. Trouble is under Leo's protection, so we have alley scratchers, bruisers, and back biters all coming out of the alleys trying to take Trouble away, which only complicates Leo's attempts to find out where the kitten's mother went.

Think of a conflict like a thrown punch; when it's rocketing at your face, you're paying attention to it.

Tip #3: Assign Stakes To The Conflict

Conflicts come in an infinite variety of shapes and sizes. With that said, a conflict needs to have understandable stakes underwriting it so that your audience can get a sense of why it matters. Because even if a conflict is immediate, one without stakes is going to just slap like a fat drop of rain instead of hitting you like a truck.

Time's running out in the north country.

The plot of my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife is that Dirk Crier is dispatched by his witch grandmother to retrieve his cousin. The boy wandered afield, and is in over his head. The stakes, though, are set up right in the introduction to the book, where we see his cousin Teller trying desperately to escape from a cult that has taken him captive. He's recaptured by the end of the prologue, and we the audience know that if he isn't dead yet, he's got an extremely limited amount of time before he will be.

Stakes is what makes the conflict matter. Because if there's no real negative that comes with the lose condition, then who cares how it turns out? But if the protagonist loses someone they care about, has to leave their home, or might lose their life, these are stakes that add serious weight to the conflict... what was a trapeze act is now being performed without a net!

Crisp, Clear Conflicts Work Best

Conflicts often drive the plot in convoluted ways, and depending on the story may force characters to make hard choices, or to come up with intricate strategies in order to come out on top. However, the conflict itself should be easy for the audience to grasp.

Think of conflict like a fight scene in a movie. You want the audience to be focused on the action you want them to see, and no matter how involved the maneuvers on display, you want it to be easy to witness. Shaky cam, in this case, is the equivalent of a shaky storyline that can leave your reader confused and disoriented about what's happening, and why. And just like a fight scene in a film a conflict can have clear winners and losers, it can be left ambiguous, or it might remain unresolved for a time as the forces clash again and again to determine who is the ultimate winner.

Just something to think about for your next story.

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That's all for this week's Craft of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!

 

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