Tuesday Tip: Creating Conflict

Tuesday Tip

Regardless of the type of plot a story contains, there must be a conflict. These are some basic types of conflict:

• Man against Self: Struggles resulting from incompatible or opposing desires, needs, drives, wishes
• Man against Man: Competitive or opposing actions of incompatible people
• Man against World/Nature: Opposition of forces instead of other people or self

In order to have an engaging story, be certain your story contains at least one of these conflicts. Your plot should follow a basic pattern:

• Your character should have a dream or goal.
• Somewhere along the way, the world is pulled out from under the character (or a roadblock placed in front of them), making them feel that they will be unable to reach their dreams/goal.
• At the last minute, the conflict is resolved (in a good or bad way).
• Conflict should be most intense near the end of the story.