What Is Conflict?
What makes a story interesting? When you read a book or watch a movie, why do you care what happens? Yes, most stories have characters, a setting, and a plot, but there is one thing in particular every story must have in order to create interest in the audience: a conflict.
A conflict in literature is defined as any struggle between opposing forces. Usually, the main character struggles against some other force. This type of conflict is what drives each and every story. Without it, the story would have no point or purpose. There needs to be some struggle in order for the reader to get involved and care about what might happen to the characters.
There are two types of conflict that can drive a story. The first is an internal conflict. In this case, the struggle actually occurs inside a character, usually the protagonist, or main character. With internal conflicts, the character could be struggling with a decision he must make or with his own weaknesses in his personality.
The second type of conflict is an external conflict. This conflict takes place outside of the protagonist. External conflicts are struggles between the protagonist and some other force outside of his body. The main type of external conflict occurs when the protagonist struggles against the antagonist, which is a character who mainly opposes the protagonist. However, other types of external conflicts can also arise due to other characters, acts of nature, or society itself in which the character lives.
Here are five ground-level ideas that will infuse your story with conflict and that you can put into practice right away.
1. Give your characters clear goals. Conflict stems from different people, different groups, different forces, different anything wanting different things—or sometimes, the same person torn between different things. But if you don’t know what your characters want, it’ll be difficult to wring any conflict out of them at all, let alone a serviceable story. Setting a story goal for your characters — the things they are striving for, seeking, wanting, going after, however you define it, really is the lifeblood of your story. Get these goals right, place them in opposition to each other, and the plot almost takes care of itself. Again, I’m not talking about high-minded theory here. This can really be as simple as asking, what does my character want? A new job, to save the world, the death of his enemies? The answer is up to you.
2. Go big, go small.
Some actors use a method that teaches them to define a clear objective for every. single. line. of. dialogue. They’ll say, with this line, I want the other character to laugh. With the next line, I want the other character to cry, and so on. While you could argue that as much intention this method can give an actor in their delivery, it also can rob them of some spontaneity in their performance. You’d be right. But for writers it can be a wonderful way to pack a story with conflict. You’ve already set a story-level goal, so now look at your characters from different levels. What do they want out of every scene? What do they want out of every interaction? What do they want with every line of dialogue? Why are they saying these exact words at this exact time? Have an objective. Then go bigger. What are their life goals? Fifty years after the story ends, where are they headed? What do they value out of life. All these wants and desires, large and small, near and far, interact with and build on each other to help you create a story that’s always moving forward because it’s bursting with conflict, and a story that always works, because it’s being driven by characters seeking out clearly-defined goals.
3. Let your characters fail. You’ve chosen great goals for you characters and you’re concentrating on objectives big and small as you write, but if they get want they want too easily, you don’t have a story anymore. You’ve got, well, nothing anyone will probably want to watch or read. While we all want success from life, watching a character step out and immediately succeed doesn’t make for the most gripping entertainment. Watching them fail, get up and try again and again and again does. Think about your own failures in life. It’s how you’ve learned, right? It’s how you’ve gotten better. That can work for your characters, too. Maybe the first time they encounter the villain’s bomb they don’t know how to diffuse it and a lot of people die. What do you think will happen the next time? Keep in mind, characters don’t have to fail at just the big things in your story. They can fail at little things, also, especially if those little things tie back to the big things. Maybe a character who wants a new job has a lot of trouble getting to the interview on time (alarm doesn’t go off, they miss the bus, the building is on fire when they get there, etc.). Maybe a character getting ready for a big presentation breaks the coffee maker and has to go on without a hit of caffeine and so on and so on. Failure is ripe for conflict. Use it.
4. Make your characters opinionated. Think. Think. Think. What is a huge source of real-life conflict between strangers and family members alike? Opinions. About everything. Maybe it sounds obvious, but too often we see stories where we have no idea what the character really thinks about anything. Sure, if you’ve managed to give them clear story goals we probably get their values—they’re for good and not evil, they’re moral and forthright or dishonest and corrupt, or whatever. That doesn’t tell us much about what they believe, though, at least when it comes to the complexities of life. Look at it this way, maybe your husband character is a Republican and his wife is a Democrat. This is a real-world scenario that’s played out on cable news every election night for years that you can mine for endless conflict. But I think you can do even better (and maybe less cliched), just by taking some time to let the audience know your character’s thoughts about the things in their world. When they come up against someone who has different thoughts about the same things, BOOM. Instant conflict, instant drama.
5. Use exposition to your advantage. Watching two people agree in a story is boring, watching two people agree about some piece of exposition that you’ve had to stop the plot to give is even worse. Trouble is, most stories can’t make it without at least a little bit of exposition. Genre stories like science fiction or fantasy often require a lot. But here’s a trick that will help infuse your story with conflict and make your exposition so much more interesting all at the same time: if one person has to explain something, have the person listening disagree or question. It’s a simple bit of small conflict (though, it could be big conflict, too), but it’s more fun than hearing a character always say “yes, I understand,” or “yes, I agree,” or “yes, that’s so smart.” Try “I don’t get it,” or “I can’t believe that’s true,” instead.
Great screenplay writing always includes conflicts and obstacles, also referred to astrials and tribulationsor the ring of fire.No good drama or comedy can exist without some conflict the hero or heroine has to face and overcome.
Traditional rites of passage teach that the hero must let the past or old self die in order to be reborn into the future. The journey then is the process that catalyzes this transformation. As mentioned in my previous article about character arcs, the conflict and obstacles are the trials and tribulations, the ring of fire the hero must go through to emerge from the journey as a more complete person.
How your character faces and moves through these challenges are what defines his or her arc and shows how he or she overcomes his or her flaw. Conflict is the obstacle or obstacles that stand in our hero’s way, and essential to any great film, drama or comedy. These conflicts or obstacles can be external, internal, or both.
Examples of external and physical obstacles include: It can be a monster as in alien.
A serial killer and the race to find him before he kills his next victim as in Silence of the Lambs.
Physical limitations that can thwart our hero from realizing his dreams or objectives as in Theory of Everythingor The Revenant.
Natural elements such as a storm, massive flood or earthquake that physically separates and prevents our hero from saving his loved ones as in San Andreas.
Family enemies and forbidden love as in the classic Romeo and Julie
Or, as in Working Girl, a boss who takes credit for his subordinate’s work.
Internal obstaclesmight include a lack of confidence, fears and phobias, hubris, selfishness, rage
Most movies contain both external and internal conflicts.
In Silence of the Lambs,Clarice had the external hunt to catch a serial killer. In order to succeed, she had to undergo a personal journey of facing her own childhood trauma which she had tried to escape.
In the classic story Moby Dick, Ahab’s external nemesis was the whale, but his other conflict was internal — his uncontainable anger and inability to accept his fate.
In The Revenant, both internal and external obstacles were embodied in our hero’s plight –Would he let the murders of his wife and son crush his will to live? Would he physically let himself succumb to the harshest of nature’s elements? Or would he cling to life so vehemently to avenge his son’s murder and keep the memories of his loved ones living inside him?
In the original Star Wars, Luke Skywalker had to battle the external forces in the galaxy, but internally struggled to discover his own powers.
Character arcs involve taking the risk of plunging ahead, transcending one’s limitations, fears and flaws. The rite of passage may involve a person who is content to remain at home, afraid of stepping into the unknown when some inciting incident forces them outside of their comfort zone, and their life can no longer remain status quo. In the process, the hero confronts the deficiency he or she started out with and may learn to conquer it. While he or she may defeat a physical enemy, they come through that ring of fire often vanquishing not just the external obstacle or nemesis, but their own inner demons as well.
At the end of Whiplashwhen the protagonist finally gave the best performance of his life, he could do so because the journey he went through — the hell his mentor put him through — ultimately taught him to sever his unhealthy need for his teacher’s approval. He also finally recognized his father’s goodness in his unconditional love and support. These realizations gave the hero the clarity and fortitude to free himself of not only the mentor’shold on him, but his own emotional chains that were self-imposed. In freeing himself, it was only then that he could come into his own as the true artist he always wanted to be.
The initial obstacle or challenge is only the beginning of the long and sometimes perilous path of initiatory conquests and moments of illumination. As the more difficult stages of the adventure escalate – whether it’s fighting aliens as in Aliensand Independence Day, combating the elements as in The Revenant, trying to please a teacher to the point of nearly killing yourself as in Whiplash, the agony of breaking through personal limitations as in both The Revenantand Theory of Everything— the agony of spiritual growth ultimately brings about the recognition of a universal force and higher power that is the individual’s guiding core.
And whether it’s an iconic character such as Luke Walker in Star Warswho defeats the Dark Force, Hugh Glass who fights for survival against the harshest elements in The Revenant, or the more subtle Miles, drinking his long-saved wine at the end of Sideways— the hero comes through the trials and tribulations, recognizing that this universal force can be found within himself.
When writing your script, ask yourself what is the conflict my character is facing and what must he or she overcome?Probing deep into this question will create the motor to drive your story, create intense focus, raise the stakes, generate audience identification, empathy and emotional investment with your hero, and in so doing elevate the overall caliber of your script.
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