C is for CONFLICT

Hi and welcome to day three of the A to Z Blogging Challenge! 

I’ve been looking forward to this letter: C is for Conflict.

It can be said that not many people like conflict.  If there was some way to guarantee a life free of anger, argument and disagreement, I suspect that almost everyone would sign up without question.

Conflict serves a purpose, however.  Only when clashing against opposing forces does a person discover what is right for them and where they stand.  In school we are given paper tests to question our knowledge.  In life, we are given tests of personality, sometimes competition, to reaffirm who we are and what we believe.

And conflict is a necessary tool for an author for this reason.  As a romance writer, I’m pretty adverse to conflict.  I want my couple to be together; happy and rolling in fields of daisies, but unfortunately that would make for a saggy story.

Where is the joy of victory when there is no challenge?   As a writer you have to make the winning worth something.

Many authors joke that it’s their job to “torture their characters,” which is sort of true.  I like to think of it more as agitation.  Like the cycle on your washer, a writer shakes up and spins their characters lives until change occurs.  And you can amp up the conflict in several ways.

From my studies, I've learned that the most dynamic form of conflict is death.

           There is no bigger fight than that against the loss of life.  Staying alive is a primal struggle and one that challenges the character on a core level.  The first and most utilized type is physical death.  That one’s kind of a no-brainer; a character is running, fighting for their life or the lives of loved ones and innocents.  You see this premise the most.  There is a mortal danger that must be countered and conquered in order to survive.

          A second form of death is failure to achieve an objective or dream.  Here you have a character perusing something important to them, like a job or a goal. When fate throws up hurdles, the aim for your character is to keep the aspiration alive, and that is a great source of conflict.

         The third type is emotional or psychological death.  The shift in a characters personality brought about by events that “kill” a part of them inside.  This type is a fight against transformation; the threat that a part of your character will irrevocably change or “die” from the agitation.  This is a complex kind of conflict because your character will emerge renewed after they have faced the grim reaper, having released what has been killed in their psyche, leaving them with a new essence.

On the lighter side you can also work with contradiction.  Differences in personalities and motives can make for strong conflict.

           I refer to this kind of conflict as “squares.”  It’s a term used in astrology when two signs exhibit the same level of energy, but express it in incongruent ways.  It's when two characters peruse the same goal, except each approach it from a different direction and with a different strategy.  Two characters at cross purposes is always a good bet - the good ol' conflict of interests.  And the opposing attitudes reflect a lot about both the characters involved, which is a perfect foil.  Let your characters irritate one another, and sit back and allow the circumstances reveal the best and the worst in them.

If you need inspiration, think about the way one reacts under pressure.  How do you want to test your character and what boons await them for surviving the conflict?  

Then maintaining conflict is like flying a kite.  You need enough argument to keep the sail aloft and to pull your kite string taut.  Then you can either glide it down or crash it to the ground when it’s over, based on how the story is meant to end.

So in closing, what do you think makes for good conflict?  Have you seen situations in real life or in fiction that make for good example?  Let's talk about it.  :0)

          And please join me tomorrow for day four of the blog challenge:   

           D is for DIALOGUE.

           See you then!

- SNG