Episode 34: Today we tackle the single most important element that a story must have: Conflict. What is it? Why is it so important? And how can we get our stories brimming with it?

SHOW NOTES:

I’ve noticed an odd thing in the stories of new writers. Often there are two characters that go through the story together. It’s kind of a buddy story. Or maybe it’s the story of a couple in love who go on an adventure together. Or a father and son surviving in the wilderness. Now, there’s nothing 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. They are such good friends that they talk, feel, and act the same. Or they are such a loving couple that they want the exact same things out of life, they have the same fears and the same hopes. I’ve read stories where you could literally swap the names of these two characters at any time and the story would hold up just fine, and sometimes their two names have appeared literally side-by-side throughout the entire story. Bob-and-Jim did this. Bob-and-Jim did that. These writers haven’t written a story with two characters at all. They’ve written a story with a single character named “Bob-and-Jim” or “Harry-and-Sally.” 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. Maybe it’s not as obvious as the kinds of stories I was just talking about, but it just might be there just in a more subtle form. I think we all get conflict on a major scale… the arguments, the chase scenes, the battle royale. But I think we all too often miss the subtle conflict that should permeate every scene and every relationship.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Story IS conflict. And conflict only exists when there is tension. And there should be tension—or conflict—in every single scene of your story. Sometimes it’s big, life-threatening conflict and others times its subtle, under-the-surface conflict, but it absolutely has to be there. Any scene without tension—without conflict—is a scene that has no place in a story. It is, by definition, telling rather than showing. For that reason, it’s absolutely vital to go through your manuscript and amp up the tension wherever possible. Watch for moments when you have characters in agreement with each other, especially if they are agreeing on a deeper level than just making a similar decision. Now that’s a little ambiguous, I think. Let’s get specific to see how it works on a scene level.

Let’s take, for example, two people going on an adventure. They might both be excited and eager to go. On the surface, they might seem perfectly in sync and ready for whatever comes to them. If this agreement goes deeper—to the level of their motivation for going on the adventure—then you have a boring pairing of characters. Now give your characters differing (and, even better, conflicting) motivations and watch the tension and opportunities for conflict rise dramatically. Perhaps the best example of this is the epic adventure of Frodo Baggins and his travelling companion, Samwise Gamgee. You’ll remember that there is some initial disagreement about whether or not Sam should accompany Frodo which provides some surface-level tension, but that tension is quickly resolved as the decision is made for him to accompany Frodo on the journey. But think about how their differing motivations provides ongoing tension in the story. Frodo’s motivation is a responsibility to destroy the ring and a commitment to his mentor, Gandalf. Samwise, on the other hand, goes because he loves and cares for Frodo, his friend. For most of the story, Samwise couldn’t care less about the ring. He just wants his friend to be safe. Even this seemingly innocuous difference creates compelling moments of tension and conflict. When problems arise, their differing motivations bring about conflict. Samwise would rather than Frodo give up the journey entirely and just go home to the Shire where he thinks they’ll be safe. This flies directly in the face of Frodo’s motivation. He’s not concerned about his own safety–or at least that’s not his primary motivation–and that causes conflict in the way the two of them handle obstacles thrown in their way. And here’s the kicker about conflict–the reason it’s so important. It’s by seeing how characters deal with conflict 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 difficulty in the face of conflict is how we share that a character has truly changed over the course of our story.

Now think about your story. Do you have characters that are in love? This is an invitation to storytelling disaster. If their motivation to be with each other is simply love, then you’ve got a recipe for bored readers. They both desire each other because… well… they just desire each other. Complicate it a little bit and you’ve got the makings of tension. This is why so many lovers are from different worlds, either culturally, socially, or socio-economically. The rich young bachelor and the girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Yes, they are in love. But there’s more going on than just that. Perhaps he is also wanting to use her as a way to get back at his overbearing and controlling parents who have pre-planned his life for him. He loves her, but she is also, at some level, a tool of revenge and rebellion. She, on the other hand, wants to show her family that she is more valuable than they think she is. They expected her to be a high school dropout, pregnant as a teenager, and amount to nothing like so many of her friends. Yes, she loves him, but he’s also the middle finger she wants to give her family as a way to show them that they’ve misjudged her. Now you have tension. Now you have two people who may genuinely love each other, but are also tempted to use each other in some subtle and pernicious ways. In other words, now you have the opportunity for conflict.

It works on a much more basic level as well. Do you have a character who is walking along the beach, thinking over a major life decision? How could you ramp up the conflict and tension in a scene like that? There are no other characters, no interaction, and no obvious sources to have a run-in with. Even here you have a couple of options. The tension can be internal. Have the character pull up a memory that flies in the face of the decision they are trying to make or let an imagined conversation play out in their head with someone who disagrees with them. Or it can be external. The beach is closed and now he’s forced to walk along a crowded street clogged with tourists and chaos. Or there are sand mites that begin to chomp down on the character’s legs and arms and distracts him from his thoughts. Even these small moments of tension are enough to keep a reader interested and a scene moving. Why? Because they are all opportunities to learn about the character and see how they react to conflict. Does the character persevere while getting their ankles bitten or does he fly off the handle and react in some unexpected or violent way? That’s how your reader gets to know your character, and that’s how they bring themselves into your story. Subconsciously, they are asking themselves, “How would I react in a similar circumstance?” As soon as they’ve put themselves in the shoes of your characters, you’ve got ‘em. And conflict is the way to do that.  

For every scene in your story, ask yourself not “can I increase the tension?” but “how can I increase the tension?” There is always an opportunity for more tension and conflict, whether major or subtle.

Now, in this episode, I’ve focused on stories and examples that use just two people. But the technique applies to stories with any number of characters. Your story could be a massive epic that involves dozens of characters spread out over generations. The same rule applies, but it just gets more complicated to sort out. Even in these cases, no two characters should be without conflict of some sort with every 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 sheet of paper. They put a bubble or circle for each character with lines showing the sources of conflict between each of them. I like this technique because it forces you to confront the fact that you may have created characters who are basically different versions of the same person, with matching goals, morals, desires, and traits. It’s actually a great way to develop char