How to Write Great Conflict.

In a previous blog, I briefly covered what makes a story relatable. One of those aspects was conflict and its importance in making your world believable. We know it is important, but how do we write great conflict in our stories? When we break it down, we need to know three things: What is conflict, what types of conflict are there, and how can we write those successfully?

What is Conflict?

When you think of conflict, you might envision a fight scene between two characters. You may also picture a character struggling with their deep desire to gain the attention of their love interest. Or you may find yourself thinking about a character's struggle to expose a greedy corporation.

These are all examples of conflict.

At its most simple, conflict is fully understanding the characters within your story. What is the deepest desire of your protagonist, antagonist, and supporting characters? Then you need an opposing force that motivates those characters to move outside their comfort zone.

In turn, the conflicts you write drive the plot forward and force your characters to grow. After all, when you think of the moment you grew most in your life, you were probably uncomfortable and stretched beyond your limits. Why would you choose to change if you were comfortable? There would be no reason to, and our stories are no different.

Types of Conflict

Again, in the aforementioned blog, I mentioned the three types of conflict I try to write in my stories. Though it is widely accepted that there are two types of conflicts – internal and external – I find it incredibly helpful when writing stories in the fantasy genre to introduce divine conflict as another aspect of the story. This helps me to approach conflict from three distinct angles when I write.

Internal Conflict

Internal conflict, or Person vs. Self, doesn’t produce the flashiest of imagery but is the most important conflict to do correctly.

This conflict is a battle that takes place under the surface, what happens on the inside of the character. These struggles are the characters fighting their inner demons, going plus ultra and pushing past their limits, or being brave despite every reason to be afraid.

What is crucial about this style of conflict is that it drives what are known as “character arcs.” A great example of this can be seen in the anime Tokyo Ghoul.

 Our protagonist, Ken Kaneki, starts the series with low self-esteem, feelings of isolation, and an inability to save those he loves. As these internal struggles are brought to the forefront of his struggles, he is placed in uncomfortable situations in which he must act regardless of how he feels. Now this doesn’t mean that he made the correct decision at every step. In fact, making poor decisions further developed those conflicts within him. Regardless of whether he made the right or wrong choice, those internal conflicts were the sole reason for the choices he made.

Notice the phrase “sole reason.” I used it intentionally. Though there may be other motivating factors for a character's choice, they will ultimately only act on what they truly believe in. These beliefs are formed almost entirely from internal conflicts. Again, as humans this tends to be our process, and our stories should be no different.

External Conflict

External conflict, or Person vs. Others, is what we most often associate with the word conflict. When you read the word conflict, you more than likely think of a specific war, argument, or event that you have directly experienced or learned about. Though a blunder in this space is generally more forgiving than an internal conflict blunder, having a boring or overused external conflict may lead to a reader setting your story aside.

This conflict is the battle between your characters and another entity. This doesn’t always have to be a person, though a person is an obvious option. This may be a gate that is locked, and your character needs to find a key. Additionally, this could be a strength limitation such as your character's inability to climb out of a hole. These are naturally overly simple external conflicts, but they drive the point home clearly.

What is important with this type of conflict, in my opinion, is setting a series of ever-rising external forces that continue to force your characters to grow to overcome them.

Again, using the series Tokyo Ghoul we have many different external conflicts play out throughout the story. One example of this is Kaneki being trapped by the ghoul named Jason. Jason is physically much stronger than Kaneki, and, in tandem with Jason’s psychotic tendencies, Kaneki is captured and tortured.  Another example from the series that speaks to the concept of an object being opposed to a character would be the notorious ghoul prison, Cochlea. When friends of Kaneki were placed in this prison, there was an inability to save them due to how locked down this facility was. The walls were coated with what is known as “quinque” steel which would disrupt a ghoul's power.

What I want to point out is that a great external conflict – be that of a physical object or more commonly a person – is generally a collective of those who share similar internal struggles. This isn’t always a hard-and-fast rule but, generally, those who are devoted to a group share a common goal. With this shared goal, there is often a shared internal conflict, which could be revenge, power, or notoriety.

Though these groups often share a common internal struggle, individual people are more complex than this and may struggle with many internal conflicts and battles that set them apart from their peers.

Divine Conflict

Let me start by mentioning that this is not a general rule, this is a conflict that I chose to introduce as it allows me to more precisely divvy out conflicts within stories. Honestly, if you follow the previous two conflicts, you will naturally develop this one.

Divine conflict is the struggle against something that is not understandable or is so unbelievably large that your characters cannot define it.

Sometimes this is a large organization that has nearly endless levels of connections that thwart our hero at every turn, almost as if the entity has some level of divination. Other times, this is a divine being to which the normal rules of the world don’t apply.

Although this is often an external conflict, the goal of calling it a divine conflict is knowing that you can leave the explanation for later. Or, if you are feeling especially bold, do not explain the reason for the conflict at all or choose not to resolve it, period.

More than anything, coining the idea of a divine conflict forces you to maintain your sense of wonder and mystery. This forces you to think of a story less like a set of checks that need to be marked off, and more like you building something that no one has thought up before.

The divine conflict is, in its most simple application, your personal conflict (as the author) in writing a story, trying to avoid making it sterile, forcing yourself to get away from following a stifling list of rules. Let adventure and creativity be your guide.

Organizing Conflict

Below I have listed some steps I generally follow when I am trying to organize a conflict. A good rule of thumb is to write these steps down and, under each, describe them in as much precise detail as possible. When you precisely work through this, it will allow you to write a conflict that is thematically cohesive to your audience and help you create stakes that match the severity of the conflict.

1.)   What does your character want?

2.)   What obstacle gets in their way?

3.)   What does failure mean to the character or within their world?

4.)   What’s the relationship with your antagonist?

5.)   How does your conflict force individual characters to change to overcome the conflict?

Next-Level Steps

When you are really pinning down your conflict, there are a few things that need to be done. I have found a couple of key details to look for after you have created a practice outline.

1.)   The main characters should be involved. This sounds like a no-brainer, but the stakes of the conflict only matter when the characters your readers are attached to are involved. It is fun to have side plots, and world-building details, but if the characters your readers love aren’t impacted by this detail, leave it out.

2.)   When you have a conflict, especially a long-drawn conflict, make sure to touch on the stake regularly. If this is a battle scene, be sure to write a few close calls. If this is a conflict of the internal variety, be sure to make your character remind the audience why it matters. We don’t have to beat the audience over the head with the stakes, but we do need to make sure the audience knows they matter.

3.)   When you combine each type of conflict and make them work in tandem, your characters and story are elevated. A great example takes place in Tokyo Ghoul. Every time Kaneki is forced to fight, he must come face to face with his inner workings. When he first fights counter-ghoul agent Amon, he refuses to fight back because, internally, he wants ghouls and humans to get along. This makes the scene much more relatable to the audience and shows that there is more than the fight between these two factions.

4.)   KNOW YOUR CHARACTER MOTIVATION.

5.)   What are genre tropes? Do some research to see what is common in a story in the genre you want to write in. Don’t just follow those tropes, as that will make your story and conflicts within it rather “cookie-cutter” but use them to help inform the conflict you will write in your story. Using common conflict tropes in a genre will help your audience relate by creating a sense of nostalgia.

6.)   How will each conflict change the world? Even in a small way, each conflict will have an impact on the world you have written about. Be sure to consistently review your world after a conflict so that your world makes sense. For instance, if you Thanos-snap half of the world away, even if they are brought back, there will be huge world-changing implications. Characters will relate to each other differently after this event – some will have experienced loss, while others will have spent time away from the normal world they used to know and won't be able to feel the same again. If the conflict is smaller like two main characters fighting each other over a disagreement, that disagreement should paint their interactions with each other until the conflict is resolved. In this case, those two characters now have to view each other differently due to their prior experience.

In closing, conflict is an ever-evolving aspect of your story. When you spend the time nailing down the importance of that conflict to the characters in your world and view it as real to them, you can create something special.