Conflict = Tension = Emotion - Part II

In Part I, I defined conflicts and described the kinds. As I said, conflict is the backbone of fiction, and understanding this important element helps the author become a better writer. Hopefully I have added a few new thoughts to this blog.

Nature of Conflict
 1. Complexity
Conflict, especially internal conflict, is complex because it tests the character’s problem solving abilities and wiles. It forces the character to devise a plan and to test his or her strength, and it results in change. The conflict inherently opens emotional doors that add to the tension.

2. Choices
Conflicts offer choices. The character must make decisions which path he will travel to resolve the conflict. These choices are important to the integrity and worth value of the character. If he fails, his self-esteem crumbles or his life could end, depending on the type of genre. Making choices is when backstory comes into play. What were the beliefs of the character’s family? What was right and wrong? What old saying did they believe as true? A stitch in time saves nine. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Do to others as you would have them do to you. These beliefs influence the way in which a character thinks and acts, so make sure to use these childhood/family’s beliefs to enhance poor decision-making or unexpected choices. Surprise the reader. With choices, you have tension, and whether the right or wrong choice, an emotion is a result for both the character and the reader.

3. Conflicting Choices
In real life, people are often faced with decisions in which they must choice the “lesser of two evils.” Decisions are rarely easy and sometimes they are not perfect. When a character must make a choice that creates a new problem or clashes with a deep-seeded belief or value, a new conflict is created. When clashing into a value or belief, emotion is expelled.  Let’s say to save himself from being accused of a crime, he must incriminate his brother or a parent. Or Finding a lottery ticket, he wins a large payout, but he knows the person who lost the ticket. Does he keep the money? Split it? Or tell the person who lost it that he won the million dollar jackpot? Can you imagine the emotional reactions characters have dealing with this kind of conflict.

4. Conflict Grows and Deepens
When you peel back one layer of an onion, beneath you find another thicker layer. This is conflict. A novel depends upon layers of conflicts—the thin ones first and then they grow deeper and more dramatic. As a character believes he is resolving one issue, it is important to add another problem in his path that creates a new conflict. Always save the most dramatic and worst one for last. Don’t make your character’s life easy. Drama and emotion go hand in hand.

5. Immediate Conflicts
Every novel opens with a conflict. This is what hooks the reader and keeps her reading. Often the early conflicts come from a situation appearing on the first pages that causes the character to act or to make a decision. This can happen from a letter, a telephone call, a new character with a message, a strange situation, finding a clue to something important or a person needing to run away from a situation. Whatever it is don’t plop heavy backstory into the opening chapters. Hint at the past through introspection or dialogue. Cause the character to do something that leaves the reader with questions (he receives a letter and hides it). But don’t spew out information that pulls the reader from the action. Let the conflict tug the reader along.

6. Conflict Introduction
Introduce a new conflict building before ending the current one. Don’t give the character a moment without a conflict. Be real. Life is filled with small and large problems. Organize the difficulties in the character’s life and present them one at a time. This keeps the novel moving along, and allows emotion to build in a realistic way.

Conflict = Tension = Emotion - Part I

So many articles offer tips on creating conflict and talk about the kinds of conflict and why they’re important. The reason is simple. A novel is not a story when it lacks conflict because conflict breeds tension and tension is offers emotion in your novel which is a vital ingredient to a story that grabs the reader and lingers in his mind.

What is conflict?
Too often writers present disagreements and arguments as conflict. Although in a broad sense, disagreements and arguments are a form of struggle, they do not arouse a reader enough to glue her to the book. You and I have conflicts daily. They’re commonplace and boring. Obviously then those two types of conflict are not what a plot needs. I’ve talked about this before, but I hope this new article will provide some different takes on the issue.

Conflict is when a need or goal are opposed by another character, a serious situation or an internal struggle that holds the character back from reaching a goal.

Two people who want land to use for their important purpose creates an opposition. Two people vying for one job that will make all hte difference in each one's life is conflict. A family illness that ties a character to the same town or the same job when an  offer draws him away, yet he cannot fail his dying mother or his love interest. Those scenarios are conflict. A woman, needing money to resolve a serious problem that endangers her well-being, is tempted to steal money from her employer, and though she has a plan and the capability, something in her values or experience, causes her to struggle with the means to resolve her need. These are all examples of the external, internal and even inherent conflict that can result in strong tension and create grabbing emotion.

Kinds of conflict
I’ve just named the basic kinds of conflict: inherent, external, and internal.

1. Inherent Conflicts in Plot
Setting is something in the novel from the beginning that causes problems: such as, the setting, distance in relationships, bad memories, or a dangerous environment.

2. External Conflict
This is the outside world pressing in, two or more whose needs or goals are in competition, or a person with two goals that oppose each other.

3. Internal Conflict
These are conflicts rising from a character’s fears, weaknesses, doubts, or failures. These conflicts also some from spiritual struggles or a character wanting to protect him or herself from another bad experience.

4. Extra Personal
Robert McKee identifies a fourth conflict as extra personal. These are often visual conflicts that are delivered in the form of action or farce. If you recall, the old I Love Lucy show with her classic chocolate factory plot, you will see how this create tension and emotion for the character as well as the viewer. The young camper lost in the woods finds an abandoned cabin—she thinks. Fear and foreshadowing danger arouses tension and thus emotion.

Part II will cover the Nature of Conflict

Part IV Suspense - Red Herrings

Red herring is a literary term to describe an author’s method of diverting the reader from the truth or a meaningful item. In suspense or mystery fiction, this is done by making an innocent character seem suspicious and thus drawing away attention from the true guilty party. This technique introduces one or more suspects or sets up false possibilities to add more tension and conflict in the novel and, in the process, prolongs the suspense and confuses the reader. These suspects will have motive and opportunity to have committed the crime.

The pattern with red herrings begin with a first distraction or character looking suspicious. Then additional red herrings can be added as one is resolved or found to be a dead end. Just as with conflicts, once a conflict is resolved a new conflict worse than the last shows up on the character’s doorstep. In the same way, a red herring (a suspect or a false clue) is introduced and once cleared or pronounced innocent or meaningless, another red herring can appear, and this one should seem even more likely to be the villain.

Secondary characters are often used as red herrings. Though they might have a legitimate goal in the plot, they can also be set up ti mislead the reader to think they have a part in the criminal action. Secondary characters can be red herrings by:

• Distracting the main character

• Appearing to lend support but things go awry

• Getting in the way

• Causing things to happen that are not always helpful

• and remember, they should have a motive of some kind and opportunity.

Secondary characters serving as red herrings are usually introduced early in the story, often by chapter 3. They may not appear immediately, but they are talked about which provides a foreshadowing that they have a purpose in the novel. It alerts the reader to look for the character, and while they wait, they anticipate how this character might be part of the crime or solving the crime. Suspense has to do with anticipation and expectation which helps create anxiety and tension.

When the pacing slows and a lull occurs in the action, the main character: in this case, Kyle, a police officer and the stories hero reviews the suspects. From A Love for Safekeeping

Then he pried names from his mind. Celia, Len, Malik, Keys. Anyone else? The principal came to mind. Skylar? He seemed far-fetched, but Kyle shrugged and added the name to his list. Somewhere in his mind other phantom characters jogged through his memory, but he couldn’t put a name to the faceless people. He’d have to ask Jane.

As you plot your suspense novel, don’t forget to include red herrings as a plotting technique to keep the story interesting with tension and to give the readers things to worry about.
 
Next:  Suspense: The First Sentences

Tension and Conflict Part 7 - Stretching Tension

You know how a rubber band works. You can pull it very taut so it will snap across a room if you let it go, or you can pull it only to stretch around an item. Tension in fiction is similar. It can be so taut the reader can’t stop reading, or it can be only tight enough to hold the plot together so it doesn’t fall apart. All types of tension are needed. Not every scene should be edge of the seat tension. Some scenes can only leave the reader asking questions or the character struggling with a dilemma.

Learning techniques that add various kinds of tension to your novel will help you keep the stress level high. Here are a few that you can use, and I’m sure you will think of more. If so, please add them to the comments for others to read as well.

Accelerate and Decelerate Details
Think about an old John Wayne Western. The bad guy faces John Wayne. Each stands waiting for the first one to draw his weapon. The camera pans in on John Wayne’s hand posed close to his holster. The camera swings to the bad guy with a closeup of his evil eyes. The camera moves to John Wayne’s boot as it shifts a half inch, then to the muscle in his jaw that is jerking with tension. Back to the bad guy, his fingers twitching.

You get the point. To create tension provide second by second details showing the growing danger or growing action. Two guns snatched from the holster followed by gun shots shows conflict but lacks the power of the tension as the viewer watches the danger build.
This same technique can be used in a family saga as we watch the mourning widow touch her dead husband’s pipe, lift his sweater and buries her nose in it. We feel the emotion. It happens in a romance as we watch the camera move to the hero’s eyes, his fingers twitching to run his hand through the hero’s hair. Though it is more difficult to capture some of the emotion through writing rather than seeing it on the screen, you can bring these emotions to life by delving in the sight images as well as the introspection of the POV character.

Interrupted Action
Use various disruptions to stop a conversation or action. The serial killer hiding behind the drape is drawn back to hide when the light turns on and a group of people enter the room. The hero leans forward planning to kiss the heroine when the telephone or doorbell rings. Two people sharing confidential information halt when a third party enters a room. This kind of interruption can also delay the action totally. The killer slips back out the window, realizing this isn’t the right time to strangle the woman. The hero has lost the moment to kiss the heroine, and the conversation may have to wait for a more opportune time. These delays add to the tension of the reader and the characters.

Distraction
In the same way interrupted action causes stress, a lesser technique can be used to give the characters time to pause and to even rethink what they are about to do or say. Use car headlights flashing on the wall. Someone might be passing or even pulling into the driveway. A barking dog can be a good distraction. It fuzzes the mind of the person talking or it makes them wonder what’s going on outside. Again could someone be coming. No matter why the dog is barking, it stops the action for a moment and in the process adds a small slice of tension.

Cliffhangers
When writing novels with multiple POVs, a great tension creating technique is to stop the scene at a place that leaves the reader hanging. The heroine hears the doorbell and opens the door. She grabs her heart and screams. Scene ends. The hero is driving along the highway, a truck swings into his lane, brakes squeal. The hero yells and veers his car to the left. Scene ends.
When you read thrillers and suspense novels, notice how chapters tend to end in this fashion. This is why it’s a thriller. But you can use this in other genres also, by cutting the scene following one character asking another a very pointed question that will make a plot difference. When she asks, have his jaw clamp and blood drain from his face. Scene ends.

Short Scenes or Chapters
In the same way as a cliffhanger, use shorter scenes that leave questions unanswered and then move on to a new scene with another POV character. This pulls the reader along anxious to find out what is happening in the previous scene.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
To add tension to your stories, allow your characters to make mistakes and misjudge situations. A husband sees his wife at lunch with a strange man. He draws the wrong conclusion. In suspense provide clues that lead to dead ends. When a criminal is about to be apprehended, turn the action around. Allow him to get away or to be proven innocent. This kind of tension is excellent in thrillers, mysteries or suspense novels. In all genre, try to develop plot situations that aren’t always perfect. Say no instead of yes. Bring on rain rather than sunshine. Miss the ride to an important appointment. Lose a phone number that is vital to the story’s plot. These conflicts add excitement and tension.

Word Choice and Sentence Structure
Words and sentence length contribute to the overall feel of a novel. Shorter sentences help create tension and thus provides a feel of action to the story’s pace. Longer sentences work in romance, some women’s fiction and literary novels because it provides a more lilting rhythm to the sentences. Keep this in mind when developing more tense scenes.

Word choice is affected by the sounds a word makes. In the English language we have alphabet sounds that are hard and some are softer. The hard sounds are p, t, b, g, k, c, d, q, and s while the softer sounds are found in m, n, l, w, f, h & in vowels. To create tension, use the hard sounds. "Shut up, and keep quiet." He toppled the table to the floor as he trapped the woman in a death grip. In a romance, use the softer sounds. He wrapped his arm around her and eased her to him, mesmerized by her luscious lips longing to be kissed. Notice the use of softer sounds, the m, l and vowels. Keep this technique in mind when creating tension in your novels. It’s one more way to create emotion.

Tension can be stretched in a multitude of ways, and these are only some of the methods. If you have other ideas share them in the comments. I might pull them together and add some of yours to the blog.

Tension and Conflict Part 6 - Scene and Sequel Structure

Creating strong emotional tension is needed for conflict to be as effective as it can. As mentioned in a previous blog article on Tension and Conflict, conflict is the action and tension is the emotional response to that action.

An author can enhance tension by creating effective pacing techniques. This has to do with a balance of fast moving scenes to ones that are more contemplative. Each type of scene has a purpose, but along with purpose, the technique enhances tension.

As you know, a novel is a series of chapters often divided into scenes. But scenes also can be thought of in two ways—scenes and sequels. Dwight Swain covers this technique in his book Techniques of the Selling Writer.

SCENE:
Scenes are a moment in time that can last a few minutes to a few hours. The scene is more active than sequel and therefore it means getting into the “meat” of the action as soon as possible. Swain says that each action scene is made up of a goal, a conflict and disaster. Logically each scene will not have the black moment kind of disaster, but a scene should end with something going wrong or a situation that leaves the reader and often the character with questions.

As you approach writing a scene, ask yourself these questions.
• What is the purpose of this scene.
• What is important that the character and/or readers should learn?
• What should this scene accomplish?
This means that a scene is more than getting to know each other or rehashing events of the past. Something new and important must happen in each scene. Use these questions to help write quality scenes.

Scenes provide action, insight, unanswered questions, and foreshadowing of coming events or situations. Each scene is pointed toward achieving a goal through the eyes and emotions of one character. This means one point of view (POV).

A scene provides conflict. Again, this is not an argument but opposing ideas or beliefs, or conflicting goals. The conflict should move the story forward in someway. Think of a staircase with the prize at the top. Each step upward draws the character closer to the prize, in this case his or her goal. Each step then has a purpose. And remember that sometimes the opposition comes from within one character. Moving in one direction opposes another need or goal that the character finds important. Falling in love means opening up about past problems. Resolving an issue with a sibling means another sibling will be angry. These are situations that happen in real life.


Swain also adds a disaster element to each scene. In my opinion, the author can use ether a disaster or a dilemma. The character is in a quandary when he faces two choices and must decide which way to go or which one to act upon. If he makes the wrong choice, he might face a disaster.

SEQUEL:
A sequel is another moment in time. It is often shorter than an action scene and usually will be shown from the POV of a different character. More than action, this scene focuses on reaction. It is more introspective, a time of reflection and contemplation. The character will weigh what has happened in a previous scene and relay his feelings about the decisions made or the problems encountered. Yes, other characters may be part of this scene and some of the reflection delivered as dialogue, but the dialogue tends to be more problem-solving than active.

Sequels do not always follow the an action scene. Your story may need actions scenes back to back, but times will come when the reader needs to look into the heart and mind of another character or you may realize the pacing is being rushed and you want to slow down the action. This is when a sequel scene serves a double purpose.

In a suspense, the sequel can be a time to review clues or develop a new plan. In a romance, it is a time to make decisions about how to approach the romance or it can be a quieter time to heighten the romance. In any genre, the sequel can be a time to weigh choices and to propose a plan or a new direction. In Christian fiction, it can be a time to work on a spiritual issue.

While the structure of a scene, according to Swain is goal, conflict and disaster, the structure for a sequel is: reaction, dilemma, and decision.

As you work with pacing, decide which type of scene—action scene or sequel will work best for your plot. All good writers know that solid action is over-kill, so use sequels as a time to pull back and breathe, then charge forward. As yourself, what will keep the readers wanting more? What will keep them on the edge of their seats wondering what will happen next? This creates tension, and that’s exactly what you want in fiction. Without tension, your story lacks emotion. So both conflict and tension are important.

Tension and Conflict Part 5 - Methods to Create Tension

Earlier I described the difference between conflict and tension. Conflict is the action of two opposing forces. It is the butting of heads between ideas, needs, desires and wants, or it can be a single individual wanting two opposing things. What makes conflict important is the tension it creates. Tension is the emotional response to the conflict. Without it, the conflict would not have much impact on the reader.

Many methods can be used to create tension, and I will cover some of them here, but I’m sure you can add others to your list.

1. Introspection:
Introspection is the head and heart of the character, a combination of their thoughts along with the emotional encroachment on the person’s sense of security or confidence. When a character delves internally into a conflict, he reveals something unknown to the reader or even a new awareness for him. He is encouraged to dig deeper into the problem, and it leave readers with questions about how this situation can be resolved.

Introspection dramatizes the conflicting feelings and clashing ideas within the character or between two characters and it creates dilemmas for both parties. Often backstory is used here to introduce past problems and bring them to the present. When incidents or beliefs from a person’s past affects how he or she responds to life today, it creates this kind of internal tension. These are often secrets that the character doesn’t want others to know, but fighting for their idea or goal can result in revealing this secret. Think of people running for political office. They knew their past follies will be displayed to the world.

Sometimes through introspection, the characters face competing desires. They want two opposing things: success but they want privacy. A common conflict that creates great tension is when a character’s wants actually is opposed to what he needs. He wants success but what he really wants is happiness, and the success will not provide it.

Introspection can also reveal how a character’s perspective is not necessarily the truth, as illustrated in this dialogue from one of my unpublished novels.

Heroine: “I keep reminding myself it’s not the same, is it? Things change. We’re different now.”
Hero: “Are we?” He studied her face, hoping she’d back down on her comment. He’d stayed pretty much the same, always wishing he’d find another girl like her. Someone he could talk with and be open with. Be himself. With others, he felt as if he should try to impress them.

2. Ticking clock:
Tension is always created by adding a ticking clock to the plot line, such as a time restraint or deadline. The problem must be resolved in a certain amount of time. Stories that deal with marriages of conveniences are usually based on this premise. The hero or heroine must marry within a certain time period before they can inherit the family wealth. This works well in a suspense. The bomb will detonate at midnight. It must be found. The kidnaped child will die without it’s medication. The good guys must find the treasure before the bad guys. This technique creates exciting tension.

3. Dialogue:
Novels are dependent on dialogue, but dialogue can be used in a variety of ways to create tension other than arguments. What creates tension for the reader is to hold back information by leaving things unanswered or interrupted or by creating doubt when the character says something that doesn’t quite fit or adds an issue that hasn’t been initiated. Other elements of dialogue that creates tension are silence, subtext, and avoidance.

• Silence - Silence is when the character doesn’t respond or when a conversation falters and no one speaks. The reader knows that the characters are dealing with what’s been said, and it helps create tension. Here’s an example from my novel And Baby Makes Five.

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Chad making gentle circles on Nate’s back, the child’s contented look evident.
"I fed him a short time ago so he shouldn’t be hungry,” she said.
“He wants attention. We all need that some times.”
His words sounded melancholy as her pulse tripped. Everyone needed to be loved and caressed. She’d been without that kind of relationship since she’d married Miguel. His love had become rough and his drunken words, vile.
Silence settled over them until Chad turned toward her. “Do you understand what I’m saying?"

In this lack of response, the reader is drawn to their own questions. They last two pieces of dialogue spoken by Chad demonstrates his personal need for attention and his need to hear her response.

• Subtext - Subtext is difficult to create but it’s an excellent form of subtle tension. Subtext is the implicit or underlying meaning behind the words.
Women 1: Do you like my dress?
Women 2: The color’s great.
Obviously reference to the color doesn’t answer the question, but it says a lot. A man flirts with a woman as they look at a lovely handcrafted table and chairs
She: Gorgeous. Those legs Look at the lines.
He: I have been.

• Avoidance – Avoidance can is witnessed when a conversation seems to go in two different direction as one character is evasive or non-committal, or when one character answers a question with question. This is an excellent example from: Lisa Samson’s Tiger Lillie in a conversation the home owned by the first speaker’s mother. You can feel the tension as you read it.

“I asked Rawlins if I could work for the ad agency, Mom.”
“I already know his answer. Do you think you could paint some murals here for us? It will be a while before we move in—until your father retires, which might be years from now.”
"Rawlins said the ad world is too competitive. He doesn’t want me to become jaded.”
“I was thinking maybe a garden scene in the kitchen.”
“Maybe I could sell my paintings.”
“Or do trompe l’oeil. Here would be a good place to start.”
“I really want to go to college.”
Mom looked around. “Of course, the master bath has lots of potential, too.”

4. Character’s Perception:
In real life, we each see things differently. Our perception brings with it memories from our past and undertones from our experiences and beliefs. Tension is created not by what’s been said but what the words mean to the character. For example, if we’ve had a happy childhood and a good life, the word “home” brings a warm and happy feeling. If home was a horror for us, then that word will trigger other ideas. Give the character some perception challenges and use this technique to create an intriguing kind of tension.

5. Pacing:
Pacing has been covered in other articles, but it is a great tension technique. Remember while the plot is the journey of the characters in your novel, pacing is the speed at which you deliver the action. It’s like a roller coaster ride with moments of calm but always with the anticipation that the next challenging hill is coming until the roller coaster pulls back into the station and you climb out. Journey’s end. By moving a scene to another character or situation while you leave another scene hanging works very well to create tension. You can read other articles on pacing to learn how to create the fast and calm scenes. One style is using scene and sequel which I’ll cover in my next blog.

Tension and Conflict Part 4 - Mirco Tension

While conflict is action between people, ideas, or needs, tension is the response to that action. It is the emotion that drives the story. Tension shows urgency, requires choices, and leaves the reader with questions. Donald Maass in Fire In Fiction refers to Micro-Tension which is an inherent sense of tension built into the novel with the use of your writing style.

• Moment By Moment
Provide a step by step view of the scene, especially in suspense, that keeps readers in a state of tension as to what will happen. Think of an old John Wayne movie: two gunman facing each other. Focus on eyes of the good guy/eyes of the bad guy, focus on pistol in holster of both, shifting of their stance, fidgeting fingers, long distance view of the gunman facing each other, close up of a tick in the cheek of one, muscle jerk of another, motion, gun from holster, shot.

With each movement you will enhance the tension. This can be done in any novel in a
dramatic scene by detailing the scrap of a chair on the floor, table tips as he rises, women steps back and hand reaching for a kitchen drawer, man’s feet moving toward her, drawer opens, man reaches for her, her hand plunges into the drawer, man attacks, knife flashes, bloody shirt, man falls, woman screams.

You get the idea. Focus on each step, but only use this for scenes of drama that make a dynamic move forward in the plot.

• More Than Details Along with the moment by moment action, provide moment by moment details of emotion. Show how the main character responds to the action as it unfolds, and notice I said show and not tell. Use the body’s response such as: intake of breath, trembling, wrenching heart, galloping pulse. Use small pieces of introspection but give them a first person feeling. He can’t do this to me. I will not let him win. She won’t treat me like this again. Use introspection sparingly.

• Sense Of Foreboding
Leave readers with the feeling that more is there than they can see. Use subtle foreshadowing, leave sentences unended or questions unanswered, struggles unspoken but the reader feels them. Use situation that involves the senses—gooseflesh, pricking sensation up the spine, head spinning. Creating the feeling of ESP for the character or the reader who anticipates something is going to happen.

• Anxiety And Twists
Create anxiety and twists to the “normal.” Man walks into his office and the room is empty. Rattled by problems, woman drives to pick up her child at school, but he’s not there. Person plans a party and no one shows up. Fourth of July celebration and it rains.

It can be small to knee-jerking twists, but put them in your novels to create tension.

• Conflicting Emotions
Life produces conflicting emotions. A man wants a promotion but realizes it will take away time from his family life. Woman wants to have a child but realizes it will affect her career. Man wants to prove he’s innocent of a crime but must put the blame on a friend. Dieter faces her favorite dessert and struggles. Emotions in real life are often conflicting. Look in your own life and take note of what you struggle with. If you struggle, then so do many others. Work these kinds of conflicting tensions into your novels.

Emotions are often conflicting when someone is reluctant to accept or believe what they see, hear or feel. If you see a friend’s husband in a restaurant with another woman, you have conflicting emotions. Is this a romantic dinner? Is it really him or a look alike? Do you tell your friend or do you pretend that you didn’t see it? Each decision has with it inherent problems.

Another reluctance to accept or believe something comes with the character’s flaws. He is impatient, but does not accept that he is. She is fifty-nine but behaves as she did when she was twenty-one. He steals from his company but thinks he deserves the “bonus.”

Whether it’s facing our own conflicting emotions or dealing with someone else’s issues, tension is created for the character and the reader. Build these techniques into your basic story structure.

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.

Tension and Conflict Part 2 - The Nature of Conflict

While tension is the emotion of a novel, conflict is the power. It drives the story forward and causes the reader to hang on and go with the ride. Without conflict the scenes would be a slow walk through a park. Who cares?

Yet conflict has some “need to” factors. An argument over what color to paint a wall or whether the evening will be spent watching a good movie or a sports event is a common event in many households, but it doesn’t fit the definition of conflict in fiction. Many new writers think an argument between two people is what it takes, and though an argument that severs their relationship or causes one character to do something drastic is a form of conflict, arguments are not the ultimate.

So what is the nature of conflict? What is it that conflict needs to be in fiction?

• Make a difference to the plot. The conflict must matter to the character so that the final solution will make a difference in the character’s life. The conflict must be worth the prize, meaning the solution to the conflict must be important to the character. Thinking of the movie or sport night, you can see in the long run that doesn’t make one bit of difference to a character reaching a goal.

• Must have a worthy opponent. If the conflict is involves another person, the person must be strong and clever. A dumb criminal is easily caught, but a smart one creates a dynamic story. As the main character expands his paths to undo the opponent, the opponent needs to also change and grow with the main character to make the fight worthwhile.

• Must connect with the reader. The conflict needs to be something in which a reader can relate. They can see the danger of the situation to the characters and to the even the world in a thriller. They must understand, and better yet the conflict makes even more impact if it’s something that has happened to them. This includes things like betrayal, fear, abuse, doubts, and internal struggles that many people experience.

• Must produce emotion. Emotion is the reaction to conflict and it is what creates tension. Conflict without tension is flat. This is the argument over a white or chocolate cake. A reader doesn’t care. They aren’t affected if a married woman comments on an attractive man, but if the woman finds herself dreaming of the man and looking forward to seeing him again, emotion is involved and thus tension since it signals a deeper conflict.

• Tests the character. Conflict that is powerful pushes a character to his limits. It forces him to demonstrate strengths & abilities he never realized he had, and it signals growth which is a must in good fiction. Readers want to see the character’s change and make progress in their lives.

• Gain causes loss. When the conflict is between people, someone wins and someone loses. Sometimes this could be an equally important character in the novel, and this creates another conflict. But conflict can happen inside one person. If the character wants to be successful and famous, he will lose privacy and freedom. It goes with the gain. Along the same idea, sometimes to reach one goal, a character must lose another. To obtain the job promotion to better himself, he must move and lose connection with his family who needs him.

If you can include these qualities in your conflict, they will be powerful and suited to a strong fiction novel that relates to the reader, provides them with excitement and draws on their emotions.

Tension And Conflict - Part I

The Set Up to Tension and Conflict
I recently presented a workshop on tension and conflict. The topic offers many steps to writing a good novel. I began this workshop with the basic elements needed to begin a novel because it sets up how conflict begins. Conflict is a concept you know is vital to any story. It is what drives your story and is an event that causes action between the opposition and the main character. Tension, on the other hand, is the character’s reaction to the event. This reaction arouses emotion of the character and the reader. Emotion is a must in any novel.


Vulnerable Characters
Major characters must be vulnerable. They have flaws, weaknesses, fears, and sinful behaviors which they often are trying to hide. Immediately you find tension inherent in this situation. Whenever a character wants to avoid facing a truth, tension creating emotion happens. Another side of these flaws and weaknesses might be the character’s inability or avoidance to face them. It is denial. I am not impatient. I do not look at everything in a negative way. I don’t feel sorry for myself. When you look at your own flaws, you can relate to this problem. No one wants to admit what makes them less than perfect.


Characters’ Goals
Every major character needs a goal. It is something they want to gain or something they want to avoid. They want to gain a good reputation. They want to avoid gossip. They want to find the treasure. They want to avoid being found. They want to find the killer. They want to avoid being killed. They want to find love. They don’t want to give up their freedom.

Goals fall into three other categories: possession, relief, or revenge. The character wants to possess wealth, charm, good looks, success, love. The character wants relief from fear, loneliness, hatred, domination, pain, sorrow. The character wants revenge for a loss, betrayal, lie, robbery, prejudice. You can add to the list with your own ideas that fit under possession, relief or revenge. Keep these ideas in mind as you create goals for your characters. Make sure the goal has issues that will create conflict.


The Hook
Every novel needs a hook, a premise that draws the readers in and an event that makes them curious or ask questions. A hook is introduced when something happens. It can be the result of a new character entering the scene, receiving a letter or phone call, being offered a proposition, reading something in a newspaper, or a character’s startling statement. Whatever it is, the thing that happens is best when it adds surprise, makes the readers ask questions, or creates an emotion that pulls the reader along.

Next, the “happening” creates opposition to the character’s goal. Opposition is conflict. Well-known writer, Dwight Swain, in his book, Techniques of the Selling Writer, says that conflict can:
• Hinders
• Complicates
• Blocks
A goal is hindered when another conflict or another goal gets in the way, especially a goal that must be reached before the larger goal is accessible. Complications can involve an accident, another person demanding time or energy, a new piece of information that changes the direction of the goal. Finally goals can be blocked when someone gets there first or when someone removes options. I’m sure you can think of many other things to add to this list.

The next article will cover the Nature of Conflicts.