On the Writing Fiction Right blog, I often receive questions within the comments from writers, and sometimes I receive emails from newer authors asking questions. This question—What is the difference between a plot and a subplot—came to me a short time ago, and though I responded to the questioner, I decided others might enjoy an explanation.
Plot is the full flow of your story---what happens from the beginning to the end. The plot provides the main characters, their goals and motivation and their conflicts—the obstacles that keep them from reaching their goal. The plot is where you’ll find the story’s theme or main idea.
Sub-plot is a secondary plot (or side story) that is unfolding in your story. The subplot adds complications and puts obstacles in the way of the main character and therefore becomes a story conflict. Sometimes a subplot will mirror the struggle of a main character, and though the character has wisdom for her friend's issue, she can’t relate it to her own until something happens to help her see that she has the same problem and now has the answer.
Below are some examples:
Family saga - Plot deals with a mother-daughter relationship and the struggles they have to resolve their problems. Sub-plot would be the daughter's husband's business is going under adding stress to her life and their relationship.
Romance - Plot deals with hero and heroine falling in love as they meet conflicts and issues that keep them from admitting the love they feel or that keep them from accepting the love that's within reach. The sub-plot might be the heroine's former fiancé shows up in her life again trying to rekindle their old relationship.
Suspense - Plot deal with a detective who is struggling to solve a crime that keeps alluding him. The bad guy is getting more dangerous and pressure is on the detective. Subplot - The detective's wife is tired of his long hours and dangerous job. She wants out of the marriage.
As you can see, a subplot is another significant situation in the story that causes conflict, creating deeper tension and thus emotion while the main character tries to resolve these personal issues while striving to reach the goal that’s important to them.
Subplots helps a book's pacing by adding deeper conflicts, but too many subplots can complicate a story unless the book is the length that can handle them. Shorter novels of from 50,000 to 65,000 word count can handle one subplot well. Stories of 80,000 word count is open to perhaps two subplots. So judge wisely. When a novel is too burdened with subplots, the reader can lose the original story. Use wisdom and select the most powerful subplots that will make a difference to the characters and that is affects the original goal of a main character.
Showing posts with label Conflict. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conflict. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
BRAINSTORMING CONFLICTS
Brainstorming ideas can work wonders for plots and scenes. When tossing ideas into the “hat” nothing is too silly, because even the goofy idea can trigger another great possibility. One method of brainstorming that digs more deeply into a situation is using questions to provoke new possibilities for story conflict.
Once you have a basic plot idea, then questions can provide what you need. First take your basic story problem: Jim is offered a new job in a new city.
Your first question is should he accept this offer, and if he does, how will it affect the plot? Once you have the basic problem, then you can expand on other conflicts that can result from his decision.
Just as you would in real life, questions arise. In this case, one of the first questions is the location of the new job.
• Does he want to move?
• Does the new location appeal to him?
• If so, what are the pros and cons of this new city?
• Will the benefit of the newposition be worth the stress of the move?
Another question might have to do with the job requirements and how will they affect his life.
• What are the job requirements?
• Does he have these requirement to be excellent in his work?
• Will the job bring more money or prestige?
• Is the responsibility greater in this job than his present position?
• Can he handle the added responsibility and stress?
• Does this job require more travel?
The next realistic concern is regarding his home life.
• How will this move and new position affect his family?
• What is his wife’s attitude about the move?
• Will his wife have to give up a career or give up her job?
• Can she handle the stress of this life change?
Other questions that might come up regarding the new job position might be:
• Will his wife’s wages be lost and will his raise recuperate her wage loss?
• Will she be expected to become a hostess for events involving his new position?
• Does she have this skill and is she willing?
• Will she lose time with husband with his new position?
Next you can add the children’s issues, such as: changing schools, making new friends, finding new places to take their music lessons. Does the educational system compare in good favor to the character’s present home environment?
Obviously, each scenario for your plot will result in different questions, but before you brainstorm look at things like location, stress factors, requirements, home life, friendships, and a variety of other topics that you can pursue as you ask questions.
The trick is to take the basic conflict and then break it into smaller parts, asking yourself what other conflicts can result. Once you have numerous conflicts, decide which is the easiest to resolve and let that be your first plot conflict. Put them in order from lesser to the most dramatic, and build your plot line from there.
Once you have a basic plot idea, then questions can provide what you need. First take your basic story problem: Jim is offered a new job in a new city.
Your first question is should he accept this offer, and if he does, how will it affect the plot? Once you have the basic problem, then you can expand on other conflicts that can result from his decision.
Just as you would in real life, questions arise. In this case, one of the first questions is the location of the new job.
• Does he want to move?
• Does the new location appeal to him?
• If so, what are the pros and cons of this new city?
• Will the benefit of the newposition be worth the stress of the move?
Another question might have to do with the job requirements and how will they affect his life.
• What are the job requirements?
• Does he have these requirement to be excellent in his work?
• Will the job bring more money or prestige?
• Is the responsibility greater in this job than his present position?
• Can he handle the added responsibility and stress?
• Does this job require more travel?
The next realistic concern is regarding his home life.
• How will this move and new position affect his family?
• What is his wife’s attitude about the move?
• Will his wife have to give up a career or give up her job?
• Can she handle the stress of this life change?
Other questions that might come up regarding the new job position might be:
• Will his wife’s wages be lost and will his raise recuperate her wage loss?
• Will she be expected to become a hostess for events involving his new position?
• Does she have this skill and is she willing?
• Will she lose time with husband with his new position?
Next you can add the children’s issues, such as: changing schools, making new friends, finding new places to take their music lessons. Does the educational system compare in good favor to the character’s present home environment?
Obviously, each scenario for your plot will result in different questions, but before you brainstorm look at things like location, stress factors, requirements, home life, friendships, and a variety of other topics that you can pursue as you ask questions.
The trick is to take the basic conflict and then break it into smaller parts, asking yourself what other conflicts can result. Once you have numerous conflicts, decide which is the easiest to resolve and let that be your first plot conflict. Put them in order from lesser to the most dramatic, and build your plot line from there.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tension and Conflict Part 3 - Kinds of Conflict
Most authors can name the two kinds of conflict talked about most in fiction, internal and external. Both of these are important to any novel, but don’t lose sight of two more that you may not have considered—inherent and extra-external conflict. These additional kinds of built-in conflict can add extra excitement to your fiction.
External Conflict
External conflict are those things outside the character. It includes two or more people whose needs or wants are in competition. It is the outside world pressing in on the character’s life and well-being.
Example:
John wants to purchase a bigger house to go with his new position.
John’s wife wants to save the money for emergency needs.
External conflict can also be one person with two opposing desires. What he or she wants means losing something else.
For example: John wants freedom, but he wants to marry.
Susan wants to be treated like a woman but wants equality in her career.
Often these external conflicts cause the character to look deeper inside their desires and to question themselves. Is this really what the character wants? Will it provide happiness?
The conflict then causes the character to weigh what is important in his life and make a choice. Conflicts often include choices.
No matter which kind of conflict—between two people or one person and himself—the elements of conflict mentioned in the last post are important to both.
Internal Conflict
Internal conflicts are those struggles inside a character. They fall into various categories, but they all have things in common. A character must make choices. He will either hang on to the status quo or let it go and take a chance so that his life can be fully actualized.
• Personal issues are common forms of internal conflict. A person brings from his past doubts, fears, disgrace, or internal turmoil that he can’t get beyond. It affects his behavior, personality, and choices. He’s held back from being a whole person because he drags this baggage along with him. He sticks with what he wants to be rather than what he could be.
One of these conflicts similar to the one above is a character with two opposing desires, but the desires affect his moral conduct. He wants to steal the money, but he knows it’s wrong. He wants his freedom, but he has vowed to be faithful to his wife and family.
• Form of protection is another type of internal conflict. A character holds on to a flaw or personal issue to protect himself against harm, losing his reputation, exposing the truth about himself or someone he loves. It is the struggle between doing the right thing or clinging to the problem to cover the truth. Jeff Gerke in his download titled How To Find Your Story on Marcher Lord Press describes this problem as a character’s tumor or knot. Either term refers to a character’s major flaw. If the character can have the tumor removed, he will be healthy again, but if he allows it to stay inside him, he will be “sick.” Gerke lists many examples of tumors that the character can cling to: guilt, anger over loss, self-centeredness, fear of cowardice or weakness, temper, addiction (sex, drugs, alcohol), greed, doubt or disbelief, phobias, lack of faith, fear of commitment (to anything). A final way to look at conflict as a form of protection is: want vs need, self-loathing vs coverup, weakness vs desire for strength, or secret vs the truth.
• Delusion is another element that works in internal conflict. Sometimes a character doesn’t recognize his flaw. Since he can’t see it, he denies it, creating a multitude of conflict for himself or with others. Another kind of delusion involves the character who knows what he wants or who he wants to be, but the reader can see what is best for him and knows what he should do or be. This creates genuine conflict for the reader as well as for the character.
• Spiritual struggle relates to a person of faith whose behavior goes against her beliefs. The behavior can be from the past, leaving her frozen with fear of being unforgiven or unable to forgiven herself. It has to do with making choices with the question being what do I want to do and what does God want me to do. These struggles are common among people of faith, and it creates havoc, because faith is an important aspect of their lives. It is the road map and north star, in a sense, which guides them, and when they step off the path, they can become lost. Think of playing a sport without rules but with a life and death outcome.
Inherent Conflicts
Inerenet conflicts refer to elements such as setting and story setup built into the plot.
• Setting usually to the location of the novel and the scenes (as well as the time of year, day, etc), but setting is also influenced by the characters’s distance in a relationships, bad memories brought to the setting, and dangerous environments. The setting can arouse emotion as the character struggles with what the setting brings to them and it can arouse questions for the reader.
Example from my novel Upon A Midnight Clear:
Callie regarded her surroundings as she slid the coat from her shoulders. She stood in a wide hallway graced by a broad, curved staircase and a sparkling crystal chandelier. An oriental carpet covered the floor, stretching the length of the entry.
Two sets of double doors stood closed on the right, and on the left, three more French doors hid the rooms’ interiors, leaving Callie with a sense of foreboding. Were the doors holding something in? Or keeping something out?
In this example, you can see the conflict that’s created for the character as well as the reader. How will this setting affect this character’s life as she makes a decision to work in this home? What is going on in the lives of these characters that has create a sense of foreboding?
• Opponents were mentioned earlier, but when the story opens with characters who are connected in some way—siblings, spouses, employer/employee— and reflect different viewpoints on life or accepted behavior, or characters are introduced with opposing desires and wants, these conflicts become inherent to the plot.
Extra External Conflict is an element brought to light by Robert McKee, author of Story. This conflict tends to be visual—action, adventure, humor, or farce and in itself displays conflict in manner that can be seen. Think of Lucille Ball’s grape crushing scene or the candy packing scene.
• Action creating emotion. This can include prat fall, practical jokes, and other humorous elements as well as suspense scenes with a storm brewing outside and someone hiding in a room. It’s those tense moments when the audience screams in a movie. These are more difficult to create when it is in a novel, but it is possible.
• Action stressing conflict in form of an analogy This happens when the action of the scene becomes an analogy of what’s going on inside the character. McKee uses an example from the movie Kramer Vs. Kramer and the French toast scene. The husband has found a note from his wife that she is leaving him. His young son is crying over the situation. This is the external conflict. The man is trying to make French toast for the boy and hoping to waylay his fears that Dad can’t do the job, but he is failing. He has egg shells in the egg mixture, he’s spilling things and burning the food. This internal struggle is the man’s confident failing The visual picture of the mess that he has made is an analogy for the mess the man has made of his life. It is the extra external conflict of the story.
Using these forms of conflict in your novels by adding character flaws and forcing characters to make choices create pressure. Pressure results in tension, and the more the pressure builds, the more tension it creates. By adding more pressure and providing resistence, you will create greater tension and thus greater emotion.
External Conflict
External conflict are those things outside the character. It includes two or more people whose needs or wants are in competition. It is the outside world pressing in on the character’s life and well-being.
Example:
John wants to purchase a bigger house to go with his new position.
John’s wife wants to save the money for emergency needs.
External conflict can also be one person with two opposing desires. What he or she wants means losing something else.
For example: John wants freedom, but he wants to marry.
Susan wants to be treated like a woman but wants equality in her career.
Often these external conflicts cause the character to look deeper inside their desires and to question themselves. Is this really what the character wants? Will it provide happiness?
The conflict then causes the character to weigh what is important in his life and make a choice. Conflicts often include choices.
No matter which kind of conflict—between two people or one person and himself—the elements of conflict mentioned in the last post are important to both.
Internal Conflict
Internal conflicts are those struggles inside a character. They fall into various categories, but they all have things in common. A character must make choices. He will either hang on to the status quo or let it go and take a chance so that his life can be fully actualized.
• Personal issues are common forms of internal conflict. A person brings from his past doubts, fears, disgrace, or internal turmoil that he can’t get beyond. It affects his behavior, personality, and choices. He’s held back from being a whole person because he drags this baggage along with him. He sticks with what he wants to be rather than what he could be.
One of these conflicts similar to the one above is a character with two opposing desires, but the desires affect his moral conduct. He wants to steal the money, but he knows it’s wrong. He wants his freedom, but he has vowed to be faithful to his wife and family.
• Form of protection is another type of internal conflict. A character holds on to a flaw or personal issue to protect himself against harm, losing his reputation, exposing the truth about himself or someone he loves. It is the struggle between doing the right thing or clinging to the problem to cover the truth. Jeff Gerke in his download titled How To Find Your Story on Marcher Lord Press describes this problem as a character’s tumor or knot. Either term refers to a character’s major flaw. If the character can have the tumor removed, he will be healthy again, but if he allows it to stay inside him, he will be “sick.” Gerke lists many examples of tumors that the character can cling to: guilt, anger over loss, self-centeredness, fear of cowardice or weakness, temper, addiction (sex, drugs, alcohol), greed, doubt or disbelief, phobias, lack of faith, fear of commitment (to anything). A final way to look at conflict as a form of protection is: want vs need, self-loathing vs coverup, weakness vs desire for strength, or secret vs the truth.
• Delusion is another element that works in internal conflict. Sometimes a character doesn’t recognize his flaw. Since he can’t see it, he denies it, creating a multitude of conflict for himself or with others. Another kind of delusion involves the character who knows what he wants or who he wants to be, but the reader can see what is best for him and knows what he should do or be. This creates genuine conflict for the reader as well as for the character.
• Spiritual struggle relates to a person of faith whose behavior goes against her beliefs. The behavior can be from the past, leaving her frozen with fear of being unforgiven or unable to forgiven herself. It has to do with making choices with the question being what do I want to do and what does God want me to do. These struggles are common among people of faith, and it creates havoc, because faith is an important aspect of their lives. It is the road map and north star, in a sense, which guides them, and when they step off the path, they can become lost. Think of playing a sport without rules but with a life and death outcome.
Inherent Conflicts
Inerenet conflicts refer to elements such as setting and story setup built into the plot.
• Setting usually to the location of the novel and the scenes (as well as the time of year, day, etc), but setting is also influenced by the characters’s distance in a relationships, bad memories brought to the setting, and dangerous environments. The setting can arouse emotion as the character struggles with what the setting brings to them and it can arouse questions for the reader.
Example from my novel Upon A Midnight Clear:
Callie regarded her surroundings as she slid the coat from her shoulders. She stood in a wide hallway graced by a broad, curved staircase and a sparkling crystal chandelier. An oriental carpet covered the floor, stretching the length of the entry.
Two sets of double doors stood closed on the right, and on the left, three more French doors hid the rooms’ interiors, leaving Callie with a sense of foreboding. Were the doors holding something in? Or keeping something out?
In this example, you can see the conflict that’s created for the character as well as the reader. How will this setting affect this character’s life as she makes a decision to work in this home? What is going on in the lives of these characters that has create a sense of foreboding?
• Opponents were mentioned earlier, but when the story opens with characters who are connected in some way—siblings, spouses, employer/employee— and reflect different viewpoints on life or accepted behavior, or characters are introduced with opposing desires and wants, these conflicts become inherent to the plot.
Extra External Conflict is an element brought to light by Robert McKee, author of Story. This conflict tends to be visual—action, adventure, humor, or farce and in itself displays conflict in manner that can be seen. Think of Lucille Ball’s grape crushing scene or the candy packing scene.
• Action creating emotion. This can include prat fall, practical jokes, and other humorous elements as well as suspense scenes with a storm brewing outside and someone hiding in a room. It’s those tense moments when the audience screams in a movie. These are more difficult to create when it is in a novel, but it is possible.
• Action stressing conflict in form of an analogy This happens when the action of the scene becomes an analogy of what’s going on inside the character. McKee uses an example from the movie Kramer Vs. Kramer and the French toast scene. The husband has found a note from his wife that she is leaving him. His young son is crying over the situation. This is the external conflict. The man is trying to make French toast for the boy and hoping to waylay his fears that Dad can’t do the job, but he is failing. He has egg shells in the egg mixture, he’s spilling things and burning the food. This internal struggle is the man’s confident failing The visual picture of the mess that he has made is an analogy for the mess the man has made of his life. It is the extra external conflict of the story.
Using these forms of conflict in your novels by adding character flaws and forcing characters to make choices create pressure. Pressure results in tension, and the more the pressure builds, the more tension it creates. By adding more pressure and providing resistence, you will create greater tension and thus greater emotion.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Outlining #5 – Pacing Needs Planning
The screenwriting outline article I shared with you lists a fifth and final major point for creating a dynamic story—pacing. Pacing is not only important for screenwriting. It is vital for plotting a novel. I’ve stressed this before in other articles on writing, but this will be a good review.
5. Pacing needs to flow like a river with all its hidden dangers. Through outlining the author can visual pacing before writing the book. He can see the river's calm and the turbulence and then place these scenes in the most meaningful way to impact the story.
I use the analogy of climbing into a canoe and heading down a river to a specific destination. This would be your story. It begins when your character steps into a new life event, experience or awareness. Once on a journey, it ends somewhere, and most people know their final destination. A novel must have one.
So let’s say, you’re going on a canoe trip. You climb into the boat and know you’re heading five miles down the river, but you have no idea what awaits you on your journey. The river begins calm, perhaps a few riffles in the water, but then things happen. You begin to struggles with the current. It draws you into rocks or into the trees near the shore. You battle your way out of that and then find rough water ahead, a whirlpool that’s drawing you in, another struggle to bring you back to calmer water. Then a new trial awaits you. Ahead you a towering boulder and you fight the current that sucks you in. Safe again, but then you see white water and the current picks up. Your job is to make it through the rocks to reach the calm by manipulating the canoe, fighting the current, and staying in the boat. The trip continues from one set of white water to another, each more powerful and more frightening, until you see a waterfall ahead. What can you do? Give in and go over, jump out and swim to a boulder (if that’s even possible), or be strong enough to land the canoe on shore. These are choices you must make and then achieve.
In your novels, pacing is that same kind of troubled journey. Making your character face choices creates tension, and each choice causes your characters to deal with challenges and conflicts. As the author you must decide which conflict comes first, which challenge, which danger. If you begin your novel at the waterfall, everything after it seems easy. You must decide which event adds tension to the story yet leaves room for more dangerous or more emotion conflicts to follow.
Making these decisions and organizing your plot events to build greater disasters and controversy as your story proceeds is pacing.
5. Pacing needs to flow like a river with all its hidden dangers. Through outlining the author can visual pacing before writing the book. He can see the river's calm and the turbulence and then place these scenes in the most meaningful way to impact the story.
I use the analogy of climbing into a canoe and heading down a river to a specific destination. This would be your story. It begins when your character steps into a new life event, experience or awareness. Once on a journey, it ends somewhere, and most people know their final destination. A novel must have one.
So let’s say, you’re going on a canoe trip. You climb into the boat and know you’re heading five miles down the river, but you have no idea what awaits you on your journey. The river begins calm, perhaps a few riffles in the water, but then things happen. You begin to struggles with the current. It draws you into rocks or into the trees near the shore. You battle your way out of that and then find rough water ahead, a whirlpool that’s drawing you in, another struggle to bring you back to calmer water. Then a new trial awaits you. Ahead you a towering boulder and you fight the current that sucks you in. Safe again, but then you see white water and the current picks up. Your job is to make it through the rocks to reach the calm by manipulating the canoe, fighting the current, and staying in the boat. The trip continues from one set of white water to another, each more powerful and more frightening, until you see a waterfall ahead. What can you do? Give in and go over, jump out and swim to a boulder (if that’s even possible), or be strong enough to land the canoe on shore. These are choices you must make and then achieve.
In your novels, pacing is that same kind of troubled journey. Making your character face choices creates tension, and each choice causes your characters to deal with challenges and conflicts. As the author you must decide which conflict comes first, which challenge, which danger. If you begin your novel at the waterfall, everything after it seems easy. You must decide which event adds tension to the story yet leaves room for more dangerous or more emotion conflicts to follow.
Making these decisions and organizing your plot events to build greater disasters and controversy as your story proceeds is pacing.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Mind-Mapping For Plot and Conflict
Authors can purchase brainstorming programs. I purchased one and never could use it, but the Mind-Mapping site provides information and how to use mind-mapping. In my opinion, a writer can use this techniques without purchasing a program. While a program might give ??, allowing you to get the most out of your brainstorming, I think you can apply it this way.
Use a large piece of poster paper and in the middle put your conflict, situation, character, or anything that will help strengthen your plot. Begin to brainstorm ideas by jotting down possible ways to deepen conflict, add tension, broaden characterization, or confuse a situation.
You’ll find no right or wrong ideas to add to your list. You can use symbols, simple sketches, words or thoughts. If your idea is silly don’t worry about it. Silly ideas can sometime trigger another more practical thought that will add a new plot element to your story. Branch out with sub-topics. Use arrows to connect ideas. Show relations to idea by placing some in boxes, some in circles, some in other shapes – like hearts or stars. The mind-mapping program linked below is for corporate brainstorming, but think how this can work for you.
For example, Jim has been offered a new job in a new city. If he accepts it, how will it affect your plot?
Job Location: So put Jim must move in the center of your paper. Now add thoughts about this:
Would Jim like to move?
Will he be in an area that adds new benefits or opportunities?
Job Requirements:
Will the job bring more money or prestige?
More Responsibility? Link of this: Can Jim handle it.
Responsibility means more job stress: He will be away more? His wife will be more stressed?
Home Life:
Obviously moving affects a whole family. So you begin to ask questions about how the new job will affect his family?
Will his wife be willing to move?
Will she be willing to give up her own job? Life change for her.
Link to this: Her wages will be lost. Will his raise equal the lose?
Will she fulfill the corporate expectations to be a party-giver?
Will she be willing to lose the time she has with Jim because of his added responsibilities?
As you see an idea sprout up that will add to the tension or conflict in your story, put it in a star. If you see something that will show another side of your character, put it in a box. Use these symbols in anyway they will work to help you make the most out of brainstorming.
Here’s the link to this mind-mapping program:
http://lifehacker.com/software/note-taking/a-beginners-guide-to-mind-mapping.php%20-meetings-288763.php
Use a large piece of poster paper and in the middle put your conflict, situation, character, or anything that will help strengthen your plot. Begin to brainstorm ideas by jotting down possible ways to deepen conflict, add tension, broaden characterization, or confuse a situation.
You’ll find no right or wrong ideas to add to your list. You can use symbols, simple sketches, words or thoughts. If your idea is silly don’t worry about it. Silly ideas can sometime trigger another more practical thought that will add a new plot element to your story. Branch out with sub-topics. Use arrows to connect ideas. Show relations to idea by placing some in boxes, some in circles, some in other shapes – like hearts or stars. The mind-mapping program linked below is for corporate brainstorming, but think how this can work for you.
For example, Jim has been offered a new job in a new city. If he accepts it, how will it affect your plot?
Job Location: So put Jim must move in the center of your paper. Now add thoughts about this:
Would Jim like to move?
Will he be in an area that adds new benefits or opportunities?
Job Requirements:
Will the job bring more money or prestige?
More Responsibility? Link of this: Can Jim handle it.
Responsibility means more job stress: He will be away more? His wife will be more stressed?
Home Life:
Obviously moving affects a whole family. So you begin to ask questions about how the new job will affect his family?
Will his wife be willing to move?
Will she be willing to give up her own job? Life change for her.
Link to this: Her wages will be lost. Will his raise equal the lose?
Will she fulfill the corporate expectations to be a party-giver?
Will she be willing to lose the time she has with Jim because of his added responsibilities?
As you see an idea sprout up that will add to the tension or conflict in your story, put it in a star. If you see something that will show another side of your character, put it in a box. Use these symbols in anyway they will work to help you make the most out of brainstorming.
Here’s the link to this mind-mapping program:
http://lifehacker.com/software/note-taking/a-beginners-guide-to-mind-mapping.php%20-meetings-288763.php
Friday, October 10, 2008
Conflict: Part V: Using Scene and Sequel
Conflict is definitely an element of pacing, which is the flow of your story—think river with white water, snags, rocks, and calm pools. The speed at which you generate conflicts and resolve them influences the pacing of the story. Pacing keeps readers hooked to your storyline. It arouses interest and excitement for the readers along with their concern for the characters.
The knack of presenting conflicts, then, involves pacing—where and how you place them in your scenes and chapters. A scene is a unit of conflict. Without conflict there is no scene. If you find a scene in your novel that has no conflict, delete it. It serves no purpose except being filler to your story to increase word count, and readers and editors don’t have time or interest in fillers.
Your chapter is divided into scenes and sequels. These units serve a purpose and both further the stories conflict, but in a different way. A scene presents a conflict and a sequel, while serving as a transition to another scene, also dwells on conflict by forming strategies, mulling over consequences and presenting a quandaries for the character and thus for the reader.
As a unit of conflict the scene:
• shows struggles in characters’ lives
• moves the story forward by changing the characters’ situations, not always in a positive way
• provides reader interest
• ends in a disaster or presents the potential of a disaster
• provides a reader hook and leaves readers with questions
Without character struggles, you are writing a memoir instead of a novel You re relating the day in the life of someone who doesn’t have a problem in the world. No one reads memoirs unless they’re the life of someone very famous and then these people usually have problems. So crises, dilemmas, and conflicts must be included in each chapter. These problems and attempts to solve them moves the story forward toward a satisfying ending. Yet sometimes the changes aren’t always what the character wants which is a good technique to increase conflict. At the end of the scene, you will leave the character in a turmoil of some kind which can be a disastrous situation or a fearful concern that things aren’t going well. If not these, then leave the reader with questions. What will happen now? How will he solve this problem? What would I do in this situation? But make the problem worthy of concern.
A sequel is a unit of transition. While a scene is action and dialogue with problems to resolve, the sequel is a more thoughtful unit of the story. It’s the breather time when the reader can take a step back from the excitement and hear the calculations of the character as he or she attempts to find ways out of the conflict.
A sequel unit presents the character:
• time to think through the problems of the scene
• time to formulate new strategies
• time to chose between two undesirable actions–or poses a new dilemma or conflict.
Part of these scenes tend to be introspective, where the POV character struggles to deal with the action of the last scene or the issues that have been building along the way. In a romance, this is often the time when the hero and heroine have an opportunity to explore their growing relationship, each struggling to keep it at bay while one or both desire it to continue. In a suspense, it’s time to organize the clues, ponder possibilities, toss out ideas to resolve issues, and a time to make decisions of action. No matter what genre, the sequel poses a new problem because neither choices considered is a good one.
When the next scene arrives then, the decisions of the sequel or the introspective thoughts come to life. Here a new conflict is present or a past disaster deepens and grows, leaving the main character(s) with another piece to add to the puzzle of life. If your plot is not offering the readers these growing conflicts and deepening disasters, then rethink the plot. Use the techniques of the sagging middle found in the Plotting sections of this blog and ask yourself “what if” or add a new character who muddies the water. Do what you must to keep your story exciting and gripping.
The knack of presenting conflicts, then, involves pacing—where and how you place them in your scenes and chapters. A scene is a unit of conflict. Without conflict there is no scene. If you find a scene in your novel that has no conflict, delete it. It serves no purpose except being filler to your story to increase word count, and readers and editors don’t have time or interest in fillers.
Your chapter is divided into scenes and sequels. These units serve a purpose and both further the stories conflict, but in a different way. A scene presents a conflict and a sequel, while serving as a transition to another scene, also dwells on conflict by forming strategies, mulling over consequences and presenting a quandaries for the character and thus for the reader.
As a unit of conflict the scene:
• shows struggles in characters’ lives
• moves the story forward by changing the characters’ situations, not always in a positive way
• provides reader interest
• ends in a disaster or presents the potential of a disaster
• provides a reader hook and leaves readers with questions
Without character struggles, you are writing a memoir instead of a novel You re relating the day in the life of someone who doesn’t have a problem in the world. No one reads memoirs unless they’re the life of someone very famous and then these people usually have problems. So crises, dilemmas, and conflicts must be included in each chapter. These problems and attempts to solve them moves the story forward toward a satisfying ending. Yet sometimes the changes aren’t always what the character wants which is a good technique to increase conflict. At the end of the scene, you will leave the character in a turmoil of some kind which can be a disastrous situation or a fearful concern that things aren’t going well. If not these, then leave the reader with questions. What will happen now? How will he solve this problem? What would I do in this situation? But make the problem worthy of concern.
A sequel is a unit of transition. While a scene is action and dialogue with problems to resolve, the sequel is a more thoughtful unit of the story. It’s the breather time when the reader can take a step back from the excitement and hear the calculations of the character as he or she attempts to find ways out of the conflict.
A sequel unit presents the character:
• time to think through the problems of the scene
• time to formulate new strategies
• time to chose between two undesirable actions–or poses a new dilemma or conflict.
Part of these scenes tend to be introspective, where the POV character struggles to deal with the action of the last scene or the issues that have been building along the way. In a romance, this is often the time when the hero and heroine have an opportunity to explore their growing relationship, each struggling to keep it at bay while one or both desire it to continue. In a suspense, it’s time to organize the clues, ponder possibilities, toss out ideas to resolve issues, and a time to make decisions of action. No matter what genre, the sequel poses a new problem because neither choices considered is a good one.
When the next scene arrives then, the decisions of the sequel or the introspective thoughts come to life. Here a new conflict is present or a past disaster deepens and grows, leaving the main character(s) with another piece to add to the puzzle of life. If your plot is not offering the readers these growing conflicts and deepening disasters, then rethink the plot. Use the techniques of the sagging middle found in the Plotting sections of this blog and ask yourself “what if” or add a new character who muddies the water. Do what you must to keep your story exciting and gripping.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Conflict: Part IV: Conflict Techniques
Conflicts are more than disagreements, as I said earlier. Conflicts are elaborate pieces of the character’s life struggles and crises. You have them in your own life. To recreate the energy needed to bring conflicts to life, you will need to use special techniques to allow these struggles to be the the power they must be for an exciting story.
Conflicts must rouse a readers emotions and cause them to think. Conflicts are like puzzles, each piece is a conflict that needs to be put into place before the reader can satisfactorily see the whole picture. As each conflict is resolved, it’s adding another piece to the puzzle, but another jigsaw crisis faces the character, and now he must put that piece into place before he wins the battle and completes the puzzle. Each piece becomes more complex and harder to fit into the right space.
Conflict techniques to remember are:
• The fight is worth the prize
• Opponents change and grow equally in power to the hero
• Rising tension and action continue to the end.
• Details on conflict trap the character and push him into the corner
Conflict doesn’t work if it has little value. The problem must be important enough for the character to arouse his perseverance to make a difference in his life and to rid himself of the problem. Even in the beginning, smaller conflicts must have a lose-win factor. If he doesn’t get there in time, he will lose the opportunity. If he loses, then he must find a new way to obtain the opportunity again. This adds tension. Don’t make everything work out easily. Have him miss the train or drop the documents in a rain puddle that sweeps them into the sewer.
You need a strong opposition. A weak opponent means no conflict. Let the opponent win some of the battles. This allows your characters to grow and change. It challenges them to find another way to resolve the issue or to solve a leg of the problem. Opponents should be cunning. Think of Hannibal Lector or Rhett Butler. Even when the character’s own foible or flaw is his opponent, give the attribute clout. Allow it to control wisdom and to put fear in the heart of the character until he can win his personal battle.
Each conflict must worsen as the plot moves along. One conflict is resolved and another appears. Don’t resolve a problem and then wait too long to add another. Let a new one be foreshadowed before the present one is resolved.
Put your character in a corner with no place to go. Trap them by deception or difficult choices. Set them on the edge of a mountain with no way to escape but to jump. Think of Indiana Jones. He feared snakes, and snakes are often unexpected opponents in the Indiana Jones movies. Make your characters wade through their fears. Give them phobias and force them to face them. This creates excitement and grabs readers and holds on.
Look at your latest novel or work in progress and see if you are using these techniques to create conflicts.
Conflicts must rouse a readers emotions and cause them to think. Conflicts are like puzzles, each piece is a conflict that needs to be put into place before the reader can satisfactorily see the whole picture. As each conflict is resolved, it’s adding another piece to the puzzle, but another jigsaw crisis faces the character, and now he must put that piece into place before he wins the battle and completes the puzzle. Each piece becomes more complex and harder to fit into the right space.
Conflict techniques to remember are:
• The fight is worth the prize
• Opponents change and grow equally in power to the hero
• Rising tension and action continue to the end.
• Details on conflict trap the character and push him into the corner
Conflict doesn’t work if it has little value. The problem must be important enough for the character to arouse his perseverance to make a difference in his life and to rid himself of the problem. Even in the beginning, smaller conflicts must have a lose-win factor. If he doesn’t get there in time, he will lose the opportunity. If he loses, then he must find a new way to obtain the opportunity again. This adds tension. Don’t make everything work out easily. Have him miss the train or drop the documents in a rain puddle that sweeps them into the sewer.
You need a strong opposition. A weak opponent means no conflict. Let the opponent win some of the battles. This allows your characters to grow and change. It challenges them to find another way to resolve the issue or to solve a leg of the problem. Opponents should be cunning. Think of Hannibal Lector or Rhett Butler. Even when the character’s own foible or flaw is his opponent, give the attribute clout. Allow it to control wisdom and to put fear in the heart of the character until he can win his personal battle.
Each conflict must worsen as the plot moves along. One conflict is resolved and another appears. Don’t resolve a problem and then wait too long to add another. Let a new one be foreshadowed before the present one is resolved.
Put your character in a corner with no place to go. Trap them by deception or difficult choices. Set them on the edge of a mountain with no way to escape but to jump. Think of Indiana Jones. He feared snakes, and snakes are often unexpected opponents in the Indiana Jones movies. Make your characters wade through their fears. Give them phobias and force them to face them. This creates excitement and grabs readers and holds on.
Look at your latest novel or work in progress and see if you are using these techniques to create conflicts.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Conflict: Part III: Internal and External Conflicts
Conflicts can be either internal or external. Novels will have both types of conflicts, but some stories will lean more in one direction over the other. Fast paced thrillers are often concentrating more on the External conflict, the driving speed to find the killer or solve the puzzle that will bring a satisfactory ending to the story. Romance, women’s fiction and mainstream novels are more often focused on internal conflicts, the struggle to find meaning in life, to feel fulfilled, to find happiness, or to be forgiven.
External conflicts are those things that are physical. This includes a struggle to resolve issues, to win the hand of a woman, to get the promotion, to find the killer, to punish the criminal, to win the court case, to save the kidnaped child, to find the treasure, to overcome the villain, to win the prize, to receive financial gain, to apologize and have it accepted. External has to do with things outside the character, relating to their home, family, career, friendships, hobbies, talents, church, and other organizations. It’s resolving the rules and finding answers to solve outward problems.
Internal conflicts are within the character and is the emotional thread of the story. It’s the battle over morals, values, and beliefs. It’s overcoming weaknesses, failures, stigmas that have damaged a character’s self-esteem and confidence. These struggles are often against a character’s nature, opinions, reputation, upbringing, religious faith and other elements. Internal conflicts are often more meaningful than external conflicts.
It’s the internal conflicts that mean more to readers, because it is the bane of their own existence. The characters are struggling with the same heart-felt issues that readers have dealt with. Readers need to relate to your characters so that they are caught up in the story and care about what happens. This keeps them reading and coming back for more of your books.
Make sure you use both internal and external conflicts in your novels, and keep the reader in mind. For readers conflict means:
• worry
• connection with the character relating to their own experiences
• action-packed and dynamic
• a puzzle
• powerful emotion
If you can please the reader with growing conflict that builds as it tests the skill and stamina of the characters, you’ll have a winning novel
External conflicts are those things that are physical. This includes a struggle to resolve issues, to win the hand of a woman, to get the promotion, to find the killer, to punish the criminal, to win the court case, to save the kidnaped child, to find the treasure, to overcome the villain, to win the prize, to receive financial gain, to apologize and have it accepted. External has to do with things outside the character, relating to their home, family, career, friendships, hobbies, talents, church, and other organizations. It’s resolving the rules and finding answers to solve outward problems.
Internal conflicts are within the character and is the emotional thread of the story. It’s the battle over morals, values, and beliefs. It’s overcoming weaknesses, failures, stigmas that have damaged a character’s self-esteem and confidence. These struggles are often against a character’s nature, opinions, reputation, upbringing, religious faith and other elements. Internal conflicts are often more meaningful than external conflicts.
It’s the internal conflicts that mean more to readers, because it is the bane of their own existence. The characters are struggling with the same heart-felt issues that readers have dealt with. Readers need to relate to your characters so that they are caught up in the story and care about what happens. This keeps them reading and coming back for more of your books.
Make sure you use both internal and external conflicts in your novels, and keep the reader in mind. For readers conflict means:
• worry
• connection with the character relating to their own experiences
• action-packed and dynamic
• a puzzle
• powerful emotion
If you can please the reader with growing conflict that builds as it tests the skill and stamina of the characters, you’ll have a winning novel
Monday, September 15, 2008
Conflict: Part II: Conflicting goals and Loss Factor
Dwight Swain defines conflict as a goal, often two incompatible goals affected by an event that:
• hinders
• complicates
• blocks
While a character is attempting to accomplish a goal or address a need, he sometimes faces more than one goal or need. If the character wants to help the poor, as I mentioned in Conflict Part I, he also has to have the finances to accomplish this task. So goal one creates need two. These goals are compatible, but when we look more deeply into his scenario, we find two incompatible goals. One he wants to earn money so he can be secure and never be poor again, but he wants to please his wife who wants him to slow down and share his time with her as well. Can he reach both goals? In this case, the struggle is greater and seems to have no answer. As an author, you would need to find a way to please himself and his wife, or he will have to give up one of his goals.
Conflict has a loss factor. Someone will win and someone will lose. Or I could put it this way: one goal will be reached and one will not. These goals can be anything that is important to the character. Dwight Swain, again, points to three possibilities that conflict can involve? The wants or needs can be:
• possession of something
• relief from something
• revenge for something.
Take a look at your novel and decide what type of conflict your characters are facing. Possession is a common conflict. Man 1 wants to be president of the corporation and will do anything to get. Man 2 wants the love of a woman who has detested him for years. Man 3 wants to find the treasure before someone else. Man 4 wants to reestablish his reputation. Man 5 wants to win the court trial that will make a name for him.
Women 1 wants relief from her abusive husband. Woman 2 wants relief from poverty. Woman 3 wants relief from fear that her secret will be discovered. Woman 4 wants relief from her boss’s harassment. Women 5 wants relief from loneliness.
Man 1 wants revenge for his brother’s death. Woman 2 wants revenge for being raped. Woman 3 wants revenge for being stepped over in the corporate world. Man 4 wants revenge for a crime he did not commit. Woman 5 wants revenge for the loss of her child.
When we look at conflicts this way, we can easily see that conflicts test the characters. As an author you push then to their limits and when we do this we:
• demonstrate their personal strength and ability
• challenge their self-growth
Characters must grow and change as the conflicts deepen as they overcome obstacles and rise above the opponent.
• hinders
• complicates
• blocks
While a character is attempting to accomplish a goal or address a need, he sometimes faces more than one goal or need. If the character wants to help the poor, as I mentioned in Conflict Part I, he also has to have the finances to accomplish this task. So goal one creates need two. These goals are compatible, but when we look more deeply into his scenario, we find two incompatible goals. One he wants to earn money so he can be secure and never be poor again, but he wants to please his wife who wants him to slow down and share his time with her as well. Can he reach both goals? In this case, the struggle is greater and seems to have no answer. As an author, you would need to find a way to please himself and his wife, or he will have to give up one of his goals.
Conflict has a loss factor. Someone will win and someone will lose. Or I could put it this way: one goal will be reached and one will not. These goals can be anything that is important to the character. Dwight Swain, again, points to three possibilities that conflict can involve? The wants or needs can be:
• possession of something
• relief from something
• revenge for something.
Take a look at your novel and decide what type of conflict your characters are facing. Possession is a common conflict. Man 1 wants to be president of the corporation and will do anything to get. Man 2 wants the love of a woman who has detested him for years. Man 3 wants to find the treasure before someone else. Man 4 wants to reestablish his reputation. Man 5 wants to win the court trial that will make a name for him.
Women 1 wants relief from her abusive husband. Woman 2 wants relief from poverty. Woman 3 wants relief from fear that her secret will be discovered. Woman 4 wants relief from her boss’s harassment. Women 5 wants relief from loneliness.
Man 1 wants revenge for his brother’s death. Woman 2 wants revenge for being raped. Woman 3 wants revenge for being stepped over in the corporate world. Man 4 wants revenge for a crime he did not commit. Woman 5 wants revenge for the loss of her child.
When we look at conflicts this way, we can easily see that conflicts test the characters. As an author you push then to their limits and when we do this we:
• demonstrate their personal strength and ability
• challenge their self-growth
Characters must grow and change as the conflicts deepen as they overcome obstacles and rise above the opponent.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Conflict: Part I: What is Conflict?
Conflict is an intricate part of any novel. It’s multifaceted, dynamic, and draws the reader in with its hooks and power to relate to every person’s life struggles. Conflict stems from a crisis that falls across the path of the character on his journey.
Conflict is not bickering or arguments. It is a battle of power and determination for something vitally important to the character. It’s deep-seeded and is based on the goals and needs of each major character. These goals move the story forward and conflict is what creates tension and keeps the character from reaching his goal.
Conflicts only work when the character has a strong opponent at least equal in power to the character, otherwise you can’t create a worthy struggle. This opponent can be a person, a group, nature, belief or value, God, or himself. To obtain what he needs, he must fight against those things holding him back. If he must cheat to gain his need, then his opponent might be his belief that doing wrong will cause him to fall in the end. If he believes he is unworthy, yet struggles to gain the woman he loves, he undermines his own attempts for happiness.
Remember that while creating backstory, you should search for needs of the major characters resulting from problems in their past—weaknesses, flaws, experiences, difficulties, birth order and family disjunctions. No one is perfect and each person has a nemesis of some kind. Say your hero grew up in a home plagued by poverty. He watched his family struggle for food and clothing, perhaps ate at soup kitchens, dug food from the trash bins at the grocery stores. Now let’s say the hero has grabbed himself by the collar and fashioned a good life for himself, but he does not forget his past. His need might be to help the poor, to work in soup kitchens, and to show kindness to others. Where’s the conflict?
There could be many. First he may not want people to know the reason for his kindness. He’s living in a new environment and he’s cut out a new life for him and his family. If he’s a single man and he falls in love with a woman from an affluent family, he might worry if found out, the woman’s father would think less of him. Worse, the woman would think less of him. Perhaps when he was poor, he stole some money to help his family. He was caught and put on probation but the stigma has remained. Now he’s in a position of trust. Knowledge of this information could be devastating to him.
Backstory is where you set up conflicts. Characters can have more than one need, in the scenario above, the man wants to help others, but he also wants to keep his new status of success. He is not willing to fail and might become a workaholic, fearing that if he lets go for one minute, his world will crumble back. If anyone threatens his position, this creates a new need and a new dynamic in his life. Perhaps his devotion to his job threatens his marriage or love relationship. The woman feels he love his work more than her. She wants his time. He needs to work for his own sense of security and safety. This creates another and even deeper conflict.
Conflict then:
• builds in multiple degrees of strength — each conflict becomes stronger and more serious
• creates tension that builds as the conflicts build
• poses a loss factor for the character — one winner and one loser. Which will he be?
Conflict is not bickering or arguments. It is a battle of power and determination for something vitally important to the character. It’s deep-seeded and is based on the goals and needs of each major character. These goals move the story forward and conflict is what creates tension and keeps the character from reaching his goal.
Conflicts only work when the character has a strong opponent at least equal in power to the character, otherwise you can’t create a worthy struggle. This opponent can be a person, a group, nature, belief or value, God, or himself. To obtain what he needs, he must fight against those things holding him back. If he must cheat to gain his need, then his opponent might be his belief that doing wrong will cause him to fall in the end. If he believes he is unworthy, yet struggles to gain the woman he loves, he undermines his own attempts for happiness.
Remember that while creating backstory, you should search for needs of the major characters resulting from problems in their past—weaknesses, flaws, experiences, difficulties, birth order and family disjunctions. No one is perfect and each person has a nemesis of some kind. Say your hero grew up in a home plagued by poverty. He watched his family struggle for food and clothing, perhaps ate at soup kitchens, dug food from the trash bins at the grocery stores. Now let’s say the hero has grabbed himself by the collar and fashioned a good life for himself, but he does not forget his past. His need might be to help the poor, to work in soup kitchens, and to show kindness to others. Where’s the conflict?
There could be many. First he may not want people to know the reason for his kindness. He’s living in a new environment and he’s cut out a new life for him and his family. If he’s a single man and he falls in love with a woman from an affluent family, he might worry if found out, the woman’s father would think less of him. Worse, the woman would think less of him. Perhaps when he was poor, he stole some money to help his family. He was caught and put on probation but the stigma has remained. Now he’s in a position of trust. Knowledge of this information could be devastating to him.
Backstory is where you set up conflicts. Characters can have more than one need, in the scenario above, the man wants to help others, but he also wants to keep his new status of success. He is not willing to fail and might become a workaholic, fearing that if he lets go for one minute, his world will crumble back. If anyone threatens his position, this creates a new need and a new dynamic in his life. Perhaps his devotion to his job threatens his marriage or love relationship. The woman feels he love his work more than her. She wants his time. He needs to work for his own sense of security and safety. This creates another and even deeper conflict.
Conflict then:
• builds in multiple degrees of strength — each conflict becomes stronger and more serious
• creates tension that builds as the conflicts build
• poses a loss factor for the character — one winner and one loser. Which will he be?
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Question on Sustaining Conflict
A Writer Asked:
I have the hardest time creating book-long conflict. Can you give us any hints on what will be in your new book about how to come up with strong conflict for our stories?
Conflict is a major thread that runs through my book, Writing the Christian Romance. Without conflict, we have no story in any genre. Conflict is what drives our stories forward and makes the readers turn pages. Conflict is dealt with throughout the book, but it is an important element in building characters. I’ll be blogging on that topic on this blog soon, and I did include some points on conflict under the topic plotting, but for now, I'll give you a few ideas on how I develop strong conflicts. When I create backstory, I develop characters who bring baggage into the present story. This baggage is based on the things that have happened to them in the past—successes, failures, experiences, as well as birth order, family dysfunctions and dynamics. Here’s where we learn the kind of family discipline, the relationship with siblings, the support and love received in the home, long-term family illnesses, and family tragedies. We also learn the character’s education, social skills, and talents. As I create this background for my character, I think of opposites that might be in another character that will set up conflicts.
Remember conflicts are both external and internal. External are those needs and goals each person has based on motivation, usually from the past. If they grew up poor, they want to be rich. If they lived in a loving family, they want to give love to others who have little. Then we create a circumstance—a man wants to purchase a building to open a factory. Another person wants the building to open a home for abused women. Each has a dream, but the dreams are opposing.
Internal conflicts are those we can’t see. They are the gut-level struggles we have and often try to hide from others. In Christian fiction, the internal conflict is often a conflict that involves faith and so it involves God. Let’s say the woman above who wants a home for abused woman hides the fact that she was once an abused woman. She hides this because of her status in this community and her pride. Or let’s say this woman once embezzled a small amount of money from her employer when life was difficult for her, and though she got away with it, she lives with the weight of that sin and guilt. The man who wants the building for his business also has an internal struggle. He wants it because the father of the woman, who wants the building, fired his father, and his father was so desperate he committed suicide. So the man’s desire for this particular building is vindictive. Since he is a Christian, we know this motivation would oppose God’s will and so it is a double internal conflict for him.
As I develop characters, I look for both small and large conflicts. Small ones might be personality quirks—one is neat the other messy. One has a driving, no-nonsense personality while the other is a laid back dreamer. One character might value nature and write poetry while the other is hands-on and technical. One is prideful, the other not. These flaws and differences cause small conflicts between the two, but then I create outward conflicts where each is trying to meet a goal that’s in opposition of the other character, and finally my darkest moments, those black conflicts, are usually the ones that have the deepest meaning because they are internal and affect the character’s relationship with God.
This deep conflict often reveals the dark secrets that each has tried to hide, and the trust they've had to develop to allow the secret to surface. The darkest moment is when one walks away and leaves the other wallowing in shock, but then something happens that makes the character realize the need to forgive or to face his or her own phantoms and admit them so that true acceptance, love and acceptance can open the doors to true love.
Writing the Christian Romance has so much more in it with examples and details but hopefully, this will give you some ideas.
I have the hardest time creating book-long conflict. Can you give us any hints on what will be in your new book about how to come up with strong conflict for our stories?
Conflict is a major thread that runs through my book, Writing the Christian Romance. Without conflict, we have no story in any genre. Conflict is what drives our stories forward and makes the readers turn pages. Conflict is dealt with throughout the book, but it is an important element in building characters. I’ll be blogging on that topic on this blog soon, and I did include some points on conflict under the topic plotting, but for now, I'll give you a few ideas on how I develop strong conflicts. When I create backstory, I develop characters who bring baggage into the present story. This baggage is based on the things that have happened to them in the past—successes, failures, experiences, as well as birth order, family dysfunctions and dynamics. Here’s where we learn the kind of family discipline, the relationship with siblings, the support and love received in the home, long-term family illnesses, and family tragedies. We also learn the character’s education, social skills, and talents. As I create this background for my character, I think of opposites that might be in another character that will set up conflicts.
Remember conflicts are both external and internal. External are those needs and goals each person has based on motivation, usually from the past. If they grew up poor, they want to be rich. If they lived in a loving family, they want to give love to others who have little. Then we create a circumstance—a man wants to purchase a building to open a factory. Another person wants the building to open a home for abused women. Each has a dream, but the dreams are opposing.
Internal conflicts are those we can’t see. They are the gut-level struggles we have and often try to hide from others. In Christian fiction, the internal conflict is often a conflict that involves faith and so it involves God. Let’s say the woman above who wants a home for abused woman hides the fact that she was once an abused woman. She hides this because of her status in this community and her pride. Or let’s say this woman once embezzled a small amount of money from her employer when life was difficult for her, and though she got away with it, she lives with the weight of that sin and guilt. The man who wants the building for his business also has an internal struggle. He wants it because the father of the woman, who wants the building, fired his father, and his father was so desperate he committed suicide. So the man’s desire for this particular building is vindictive. Since he is a Christian, we know this motivation would oppose God’s will and so it is a double internal conflict for him.
As I develop characters, I look for both small and large conflicts. Small ones might be personality quirks—one is neat the other messy. One has a driving, no-nonsense personality while the other is a laid back dreamer. One character might value nature and write poetry while the other is hands-on and technical. One is prideful, the other not. These flaws and differences cause small conflicts between the two, but then I create outward conflicts where each is trying to meet a goal that’s in opposition of the other character, and finally my darkest moments, those black conflicts, are usually the ones that have the deepest meaning because they are internal and affect the character’s relationship with God.
This deep conflict often reveals the dark secrets that each has tried to hide, and the trust they've had to develop to allow the secret to surface. The darkest moment is when one walks away and leaves the other wallowing in shock, but then something happens that makes the character realize the need to forgive or to face his or her own phantoms and admit them so that true acceptance, love and acceptance can open the doors to true love.
Writing the Christian Romance has so much more in it with examples and details but hopefully, this will give you some ideas.
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