How Conflict Enhances Your Story
by Ellen L. Buikema
We want the best for our characters, but no conflict means bored, or few, readers.
A hero has a quest and is warned that the road is fraught with peril. However, the hero discovers they are fantastic at everything. No problem unsolvable. They easily achieve their goal. Huzzah! The end.
Well, that story’s a bust. Everything is too easy. No conflict. Boring.
When your story drives directly from point A to B then C with no curves, hills, or potholes along the road, you are left without natural conflicts in the narrative. We all love conflict. That’s what makes a story interesting.
- Will the hero succeed in their quest, or not?
- What about the romance? Continue, or fizzle out?
- Will the hero sink to their flaws or succeed in dealing with them?
To create a gripping story, you must create tension.
Conflict, and how to use it
There are two basic types of conflict: internal and external. Internal is when the character struggles with something within themselves. External conflict happens when the battle is against something outside of themselves.
These concepts break down into different types of conflict.
Internal Conflicts
Person vs. self seems simple enough. However, there are many reasons for the struggles:
1. Faith/loss of faith
A horrific thing happens. How can God possibly exist after a character’s loss?
2. Moral conflicts
Your friend’s spouse having dinner with a very young, attractive person. Behaving, as if they are more than friends. They leave without seeing you. Do you say anything to your friend?
3. Self-image
The character’s perception themselves doesn’t match their behavior, like someone who feels they are as patient as a stone statue snapping at a waiter.
4. Sexual desires
Experiencing a deep need for someone outside of a committed relationship.
5. Interpersonal or societal conflicts
A protagonist acts out of character to gain popularity with a popular social group and feels bad about it.
6. Existentialism
A character questioning the meaning of their life, like a judge who no longer believes in the system of laws.
7. Love
One person wants to settle down and have children, but their partner isn’t ready for that responsibility.
Examples of internal conflict:
- Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars episodes 1-3
- Bridget in Bridget Jones's Diary
External Conflicts
Person vs. person examples:
- Katniss Everdeen and the others in The Hunger Games
- Dorothy and the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz
Person vs. nature examples:
- Christopher McCandless and the Alaskan Wilderness in Into the Wild
- Martin Brody and the water/ocean in Jaws
Person vs. society examples:
- Mae Holland and the “Circle,” a giant tech company in The Circle
- Ponyboy Curtis and rival gang cultures in The Outsiders
Person vs. fate/the supernatural/the unknown examples:
- Lord Asriel and the Authority in His Dark Materials
- Sonea and societal prejudice in The Magician’s Guild
Person vs. machine examples:
- Murderbot and humans in The Murderbot Diaries
- Case and AI in Neuromancer
Conflict through genre
Genre, the promise you make to your readers, will help to decide the kinds of conflict used in your story. More on genres here. The 17 Most Popular Genres In Fiction - And Why They Matter - Writers Write
When writing horror, person vs. the supernatural, person vs. machine, and/or person vs. nature are good combinations. If you’re writing a romance, common conflict types are person vs. person and/or person vs. society. Person vs. self may be used in any genre.
Often, writers use more than one type of conflict to add interest to their stories. For example, in The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood deals with personal battles related to identity, societal expectations, and mental health while she experiences a breakdown in 1950s New York.
The person vs society conflict works as Esther's transgression show the cracks in societies values. Self-righteous onlookers deny seeing the lust for cruelty and others' suffering in their own conduct.
Whatever your choice of genre, decide which conflicts are the most important to you as a writer. If you are writing a love story that takes place in a haunted hotel, you may discover that the person vs. person conflict is more important to your overall plot than the person vs. the supernatural. So, you’ll spend more time creating the love story than making the story scary.
If you’re writing a horror/paranormal story that has a romance subplot, the person vs. the supernatural conflict will take up more of your attention than the person vs. person. It’s your choice as creator.
Final thoughts
A hero has a quest and is warned that the road is fraught with peril. Throw every challenge you can think of at them. Confronted with all kinds of obstacles, make them rethink their goals. Face their fears. Make them have doubts. Maybe they won’t reach their goals. But they do, and are better for it! The end. Now, that’s a better story.
What types of conflict do you enjoy reading in a story? Do you write characters with multiple conflicts? Is it important to have both internal as well as external conflicts?
* * * * * *
About Ellen
Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents, and The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon chapter book series with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works in Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and The Crystal Key, MG Magical Realism/ Sci-Fi, a glaze of time travel.
Find her at https://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.
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A helpful post, thank you. I don't live in a one-dimensional world and prefer multidimensional conflict. That doesn't mean I want to overwhelm the reader or create a muddy mess, and not every conflict is monumental, but life is a weave, not a single thread.
Hi Christina,
What a wonderful way to look at life, a weave and not a single thread.
I'm glad that you find the post helpful!
Love the examples in this post, Ellen. I write multi-viewpoint stories with complex intertwined-conflicts because that's the kind of story I love to read.
Lynette, we are of like minds. I also prefer complex stories with multiple viewpoints. I need to watch accidental head-hopping though.
I'm glad the examples are useful!
Oooooo. You know I love a great checklist, Ellen. And you have certainly created a fine list for me to edit with. Thank you, thank you!!!
Hi Jenny,
I'm happy to know that the list will be helpful in the editing process!
Do you write characters with multiple conflicts? Is it important to have both internal as well as external conflicts?
YES!
The Pride's Children mainstream trilogy has 80% or more of the types of conflicts you list - and it is great fun making sure each individual scene has as much as possible AND a variety
of different kinds.
As an extreme plotter, a lot of this is embedded, through the three pov characters, in the scenes from the very beginning, so I know which to make sure are there when I get to writing a particular one. I usually end up adding more conflicts rather than subtracting them as I go through the scenes.
The story is a long one (think GWTW), and advances similarly through the critical years in the characters' lives, 2005 to 2006.
Conflict CAN get heavy-handed, so it works for me, a bear of very little brain, to keep track of it all both in the plotting, and, after a scene is finished, in adjusting/recording anything extra, so I know where a particular idea got expressed. The 'data' I record as I go, essentially a living 'bible', helps me find the points on all the conflict arcs. Scrivener is great for this, as all those files (they number in the hundreds) can be searched simultaneously. My Scrivener project files tend to around 60-100MB by the time a book is finished, most of that typed in by me.
Lots of room for conflict AND lots of conflict necessary to keep interest going that long!
I love using Maass' The Fire in Fiction to keep the ideas flowing for microtension - reviewers have commented positively.
The more different types of arcs you have in a story, the harder you have to work to keep details clear for the reader - not by reminding them over and over with summaries, but organically, like I heard stories from Mother. She never wrote anything down - wonderful memory - which then dementia stole, leaving only the fuzzy second-hand ones her five daughters remember. Her creative activity was painting, not words. But she didn't attach stories to her paintings, and there are no triggers there.
Hi Alicia,
How wonderful that you have all those stories from your mother, remembered by you and your sisters. Dementia steals so much. I hope the researchers develop a cure soon!
A pantser with a plotting glaze myself, I am in awe of your plotting superpower.
Many writers I know love Scrivener, and I can see why.
Even though I basically write by the seat of my pants, I still use a Character Bible to keep track of the minutia. That helps me quite a bit, as does a basic outline so I don't get lost.
Thank you for your suggestions! The Fire in Fiction sounds awesome.
Wow, Alicia that's a lot of "keeping track" of all the tracks. And I concur with your assessment of _The Fire in Fiction_. Great resource.
Great examples and what a useful resource you've created for us! Conflict is the heart of page turning stories, for sure.
Hi Lisa,
Yay! I'm glad that the examples are useful. Conflict certainly makes the stories interesting!
great post
Conflict energizes storytelling by placing challenges on characters and making the unexpected happen in the plot. It creates greater emotional stakes and keeps the audience interested. Understanding this dynamic can be as important as academic writing, especially about subjects such as Law Dissertation Help.