Skip to main content

Conflict and choice - what every novel needs.

You've maybe looked back at your own stories and wondered why no-one else likes them quite as much as you do. The first thing to test is whether there's conflict on the page - not the next page and not the one before. This one - and all of them. In great books, even the descriptions have conflict.

It's easy to say that, but remember you're human and most of us have an in-built aversion to conflict. In fact the typical novel writer type is probably happiest when they're nicely protected and contained and can write happily with no chance at all of being chivvied and harassed. I mean you don't set your bedroom up so it makes you feel conflicted, do you?

So your natural feeling is to work away from conflict and to establish peace. You naturally push for endings and equalibrium, and as we can see in another post or two, nothing should look like it's ended.

Conflict in novels

Test on every page, then, where the conflict is. There are different kinds - it doesn't have to be a raging argument:
  • Conflict with self: torn over a difficult decision, tempted towards the forbidden, refusing a burning desire... 
  • Conflict with an object: plenty of comedy around cumbersome objects preventing an important goal, but obstacles of all kinds mean the route to success can only be overcome through taking a challenge...
  • Conflict with another:  two people who each want something different - could be small, could be large - they could be enemies or they may deep down want the best for each other but disagree how to do that...
  • The classic triangle: when two becomes three then the balance can swing - two against one or all against all... that's a conflict that can keep running the whole novel long, and often does...
  • Conflict with society: it could be a loner or a group but the conflict isn't close and physical, it's out there in the way that others expect something of you - bring on the rebels and revolutionaries.

How do you make conflict in stories without just loads of arguments?

Here's the most important thing you can ask yourself about your character if you want them to be interesting on the page

  • First - make sure your character wants something. Badly. Badly enough to act on that hankering.
  • Second - what is stopping them from getting it.

At every paragraph you write, ask yourself those two questions. Will my reader be aware of what the character wants? Will the reader be aware of what's preventing the character getting it? 

And when you've got that you're getting choice or even the wonderful great bigness of choice - dilemma...



Image by Manuel Alvarez from Pixabay 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment





The Virgin Paige

My novel, how I got into writing and how writing got into me: Find out more about the first book on Amazon:

The Virgin Paige: My 12 Months a Troll



Popular posts from this blog

John Collier's The Chaser: Is it the perfect short fairy tale?

If someone asks for a perfect short fairy tale I've just got to sit them down for four minutes to read The Chaser by John Collier. In just over 1000 words, The Chaser tells the story of a lovesick young dweeb hunting for magic means to win the poor unfortunate object of his obsessions. He'll get what he deserves, oh yes, but only at the tragic expense inflicted on what he claims to love. The Chaser has that wonderful, punchy anecdotal quality that makes it immediately engaging - the style of fairy tale yarn is so deceptively simple that it could be appear in your kid sister's bedtime stories.  But The Chaser, for me, also tells a vast human truth in its very few words. It's about love and how we fool ourselves, how our emotions get the better of us.  Comedy and pathos, the contrast of wise age and callow youth... cruelty disguised as philanthropy or love. It's worth the four minute read just for these clever contrasts. It makes you think beyond the read though. One ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What will publishers want? ... and should I care?

Well first thing is - you want to write. Don't let anything stop you. Especially - this is so, so important - don't think that being able to write is something that needs permission.  It doesn't need anyone on a high stool telling you you're a writer. AFFIRMATION it's called, and you shouldn't sit there waiting for it. Whoever you think you need your affirmation from, you don't. If you've got the time and you want to work at improving, nothing else should matter. That's not to say that you shouldn't be tough on yourself. You should. That's the best person to be tough on you. But you're writing with the aim of creating worthwhile writing. (I'm avoiding the word 'good' - everyone has their own 'good').  All you can do is take responsibility for putting something meaningful and well-crafted out into the world. The rest is a different thing, and don't get bogged down worrying about it. Having said that, if you're t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Books that make you laugh and cry - writers tip on wringing out emotions

Have you heard that phrase "Make em laugh, make em cry make them wait"?  I've looked it up and there's a few different people are supposed to have said it first. Most convincingly Charles Reade  as quoted in: The Chautauquan , Volume 36,  p. 161,  in 1903),  - hey, scholarship for literature students. I'm feeling smug! Let's think what it means though. What it really means.  Your writing is trying to generate an emotion. If the words you've got down aren't generating an emotion - or preparing for it - then they're not doing the right job. Look at the blurbs for the really successful books - even more for films. They promise that you'll get a massive overload of feeling. You'll laugh until your stomach aches. You'll cry buckets. You'll be too frightened to turn off the lights to sleep.  Even books that claim to be more 'intellectual' are prodding at emotions - you'll feel proud to have understood this tangled and tricky b...
Post a Comment
Read more