Writers in the Storm

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?

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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.

Top Image by John Hain from Pixabay

by Sarah Hamer

As a writing instructor, I often get asked about how to deal with the terrifying writers’ block. It’s usually from someone who had a great idea at the beginning of their story – swashbuckling heroes and heroines who have to rescue someone else from a dragon or fall in love or save the world. But their creative mind has dried up and they have no idea where to go next. The ubiquitous blank screen haunts them, and sleepless nights are usually right around the corner, especially if there’s a deadline looming.

But I don’t believe in writers’ block.

Instead, I believe in magic. Not the Harry Potter or A Discovery of Witches type-magic, but the magical imagination that lives within us.

After all, we’re writers! We have the ability and privilege to invent characters who can tell the human narrative through our own experiences. We get to express things in writing we might never share otherwise. We are allowed to laugh and love and cry and hate simply through waving our magic wand (also known as a pen or pencil or keyboard).

Find your magic.

I don’t know where your magic came from, since we all have our own creation story, but mine burst forth when I was a small child. I used to get in trouble for telling stories but now I get paid for them, and they feed my soul. It’s almost as if opening that vein and spilling my blood on the page purges worries and fears. In fact, reading books has taught me more about life and how to find solutions.

And, isn’t that what writing is best at?

Your own hero's journey.

After all, almost every story – from every continent, every culture, every time period – follows the same pattern, the one Joseph Campbell called “The Hero’s Journey." Characters, based on the human condition, start with a problem they can’t solve and, through a series of lessons, trials, tribulations, victories, and lumps and bumps, our hero/ine learns how to solve that problem, with lots of adventures to go along with it. How better to teach a child, for instance, how to deal with the fear of heights then to see that little train who “thinks I can” and discovers that it actually can?

That’s where the magic works the best. We create story after story that can show a path out of a problem and help others to do so also.

So, is it really writer’s block when we get stuck?

Or are we really just not allowing ourselves to allow the magic to flow? This doesn’t mean that, just because I think a story isn’t truly a story without a dragon in it, that it isn’t good. We all have our own likes and dislikes and shouldn’t try to force ourselves into someone else’s box. Besides, if we all liked the same book, there’d only be one.

We all have our strengths and our own stories to tell.

Writing is a magical journey into worlds and characters that we can only describe to others, even though they live in our minds, and the technical getting-it-on-the-page part is only a small side of the process. Don’t worry about all the "isms," "asms," and spasms of "writing rules," about a story being perfect (there’s no such thing!), about creating the next best-seller.

Instead, let your imagination flow. Create amazing -- and magical -- stories that resonate with your heart, that make your spirit soar. Stories that ignite the imagination of the readers. Because that empty computer screen will fill itself as you tell YOUR story.

Do you know where your magic comes from? Do you have your own personal hero's journey? Share them in the comments.

About Sarah

Sarah (Sally) Hamer, B.S., MLA, is a lover of books, a teacher of writers, and a believer in a good story. Most of all, she is eternally fascinated by people and how they 'tick'. She’s passionate about helping people tell their own stories and has won awards at both local and national levels, including two Golden Heart finals.

A teacher of memoir, beginning and advanced creative fiction writing, and screenwriting at Louisiana State University in Shreveport for over twenty years, she also teaches online for Margie Lawson at www.margielawson.com and for the No Stress Writing Academy at https://www.worldanvil.com/w/classes-deleyna/a/no-stress-writing-academy.  Sally is a free-lance editor and book coach, with many of her students and clients becoming successful, award-winning authors.

You can find her at info@mindpotential.org

Every so often, we open the doors of WITS to our readers. It's our version of Open Mic Night where you get to take the stage. We like hearing what you're up to in your writing and, since we just made the turn into Spring, it seems like a great time to hear about new beginnings.

Today, we'd love to hear your first lines for a new manuscript or short story. If that sounds daunting, give us the first line of your new chapter, or the first line of one of your favorite books. We want to make it easy!

The Power of First Lines

Fabulous first lines tend to stick with all of us. We ponder them, agonize over them, rewrite them, and rewrite them again. And more than once, we've actually purchased a book based on a breathtaking first line or paragraph.

Our own Laura Drake has offered some great advice on writing a winning first line:

"A first line is a promise to the reader, telling them what kind of book this is. What your voice is. Maybe who the main character is. A good first line will pull a reader into a story. here.

Let's Hear Yours!

Today, it's your turn to entertain or wow us with your opening lines. If you can't think of anything, share a favorite from someone else. Give us the title and genre, then your opening line(s).

Feel free to comment on others' as well, and tag your writing friends on the post so they can share theirs!

We'll get you started.

Ellen

Jack clenched his hands at his sides, glaring at Papa. The man, aged beyond his years, had collapsed on his chair, keeping watch over his fragile wife through a whiskey fog.

Opening from The Hobo Code, a YA historical fiction WIP from Ellen L. Buikema

Jenn

Leave it to a fanghole to interrupt a perfectly good retirement.

Opening line from Evil's Lethal Addiction, book 5 in the Alexis Black Novels from Jenn Windrow

Jenny

New life, new adventure, new planet. When your old life becomes unbearable, the only way forward is to reach for something new. But maybe this was too much new.

Opening from Dance Upon the Moon, a sci-fi short story from Jenny Hansen

Lisa

Kadi was used to serving a bar full of aliens. A galaxy of fake aliens passed through her doors each day, and she enjoyed every one of them. Well, almost.

Opening from An Alien Walks into a Bar (Spaceport book 1) by Deleyna Marr (or Trina Malone...TBD)

Lynette

It should have been easy to find her murderous sister.

Miranda Clarke glowered at the diner’s grumbling mechanical dishwasher. She had plenty of motivation to find her younger sister, but finding Irene Earnshaw, formerly the wife of the Prophet and the Fellowship’s Lady of the United States, wasn’t as easy as Miranda had hoped.  

Opening from Book Three of my Fellowship Dystopia series, And When I Wake, to be published this fall.

Now it's your turn. Share your opening lines (or a favorite from another author) below!

We hope this helps kick off a great month of writing!

Ellen, Jenn, Jenny, Lisa & Lynette

Top Photo purchased from Depositphotos.