Conflict or tension is a necessary element of storytelling. Without conflict, you don’t have a story.<\/p>\n

a : competitive or opposing action of incompatibles : antagonistic state or action (as of divergent ideas, interests, or persons)<\/em>
\nb : mental struggle resulting from incompatible or opposing needs, drives, wishes, or external or internal demands<\/em><\/li>\n

the opposition of persons or forces that gives rise to the dramatic action in a drama or fiction<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Pay close attention to Definition 2 – conflict can be entirely internal and still provide a ripping yarn.<\/p>\n
Here are some tips for providing good conflict in your stories:<\/p>\n
\n
Want vs Need –\u00a0<\/strong>The conflict between what a character wants and what he really needs makes for good reading. A character with strong wants and desires provides endless opportunities for tension and conflict.<\/li>\n
Between a Rock and a Hard Place<\/strong> – Giving a character a selection of choices might seem like an easy “out.” But what if none of the choices appeals to that character? Having to choose between two or more undesirable outcomes gives a lot of good tension to your scene.<\/li>\n
Size Up the Opposition<\/strong> – Make sure that your character has opposition that is strong enough to create conflict. It’s not going to be a tense scene if the villain is a little old lady in a Hover-Round sitting\u00a0between the hero and the Big Red Button on the nuclear weapon panel. Likewise, nobody is going to care if the hero must choose between chocolate and vanilla ice cream for dessert. Create worthy opposition, whether the conflict is external or internal.<\/li>\n
Connections<\/strong> – one good place to look for conflict is in the connections a character has, both to other people and to the things and places around him. What ties your hero to that dead-end job? What prevents her from moving to a better location? Create internal tension by tying your character down.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What is the best conflict you’ve ever read in a book or story?<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t Tweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Conflict or tension is a necessary element of storytelling. Without conflict, you don’t have a story. First, let’s hop over to Merriam-Webster and define our terms: Fight, battle, war a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,24],"tags":[728,512,6,5],"class_list":["post-933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-onwriting","category-plot","tag-4-tips-for-great-conflict","tag-conflict","tag-creative-writing","tag-writing","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":934,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions\/934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}