Conflict, the engine of story
A story where everyone gets along and every wish comes true at the first attempt isn't a story: it's a report. Conflict is the engine that turns pages, because it creates uncertainty, and uncertainty creates the need to know how it ends. But "conflict" is a word that suggests shouting and gunfire, and that leads people astray.
Conflict doesn't mean arguing
In fiction, conflict is anything that stands between a character and their goal. A mother who wants to protect her son without letting him know she's ill lives an intense conflict, even if she never raises her voice. Two lovers who can't be together are in conflict with circumstances, not with each other.
A character who wants something and meets resistance: that's all. The forms that resistance can take are countless.
Types of conflict
- With another person: the antagonist, the rival, the parent, the partner. It's the most immediate, because it has a face.
- With society: laws, conventions, institutions, prejudices that stop the character getting what they want.
- With nature or circumstance: a storm, an illness, distance, time running out.
- With oneself: two incompatible desires, a fear, a guilt, a mistaken idea of who one is.
Inner conflict gives outer conflict its meaning
The stories that stay with us are almost always those where the external conflict puts pressure on the internal one. A detective who has to solve a case is a plot; a detective who has to solve a case involving his brother, and must choose between loyalty and truth to do it, is a story.
A useful question: what has to change inside the protagonist for them to win outside? When there's an answer, the two conflicts feed each other.
Escalation
A conflict that stays at the same intensity wears the reader out. It has to rise:
- harder obstacles: every failed attempt makes the next one riskier;
- higher stakes: at first the job is at risk, then reputation, then family;
- fewer ways out: the alternatives close, until only one choice is left, the costliest.
The high point is the moment the protagonist has to choose, and the choice reveals who they really are.
Conflict in every scene
Conflict doesn't live only in the overall plot: every scene needs some, even on a small scale. In every scene someone wants something (information, forgiveness, five minutes of peace) and something makes it difficult. A scene where nobody wants anything specific is almost always a stalled scene.
The danger of artificial conflict
Conflict shouldn't be forced. Two characters arguing for no reason just to "create tension", or an obstacle appearing out of nowhere, ring false. Believable conflict grows out of what the characters want: if desires and personalities are clear, the clashes come by themselves.
Frequently asked questions
Can a story have only inner conflict?
Yes, but it needs an external situation to bring it to the surface. Even the most introspective novel puts the character in front of events and people that force them to face themselves.
How many conflicts should a novel have?
One main conflict carrying the whole book, and several smaller ones in the subplots and individual scenes. What matters is that the smaller ones connect, even just thematically, to the main one.
Does the conflict have to be resolved at the end?
The main one does, one way or another: victory, defeat or transformation. An open ending can leave questions, but the reader has to feel that the central tension has reached a point.