by Sacha Black
Fears
There are a million fears a person can feel — spiders, heights, candy floss… But they can severely impact a protagonist’s life. They could stop them applying for the big job they wanted, prevent them leaping off the bridge into the water to save their sibling. A protagonist’s fear is a form of test. It makes the protagonist decide how important their goals and desires are. Can they face their fear to achieve their goal? It’s the ultimate question. How much do you want it? Are you willing to face your fear to get it?
Love
The age-old war cause. Philosophers will tell you that love is the only thing worth fighting for. It certainly causes enough strife for characters. Love is fraught with doubt, self-consciousness and uncertainty. Falling in love makes you vulnerable, and that in itself is enough to create conflict in a character’s psyche. The yearning for the other person butts up against the terrifying need to trust another person and give yourself to them. It’s why you see the yo-yo’ing in romance novels as the couples try and fail to come together before the story’s climax.
Values
Value conflict is one of my favorite forms of conflict. Values reveal our deepest held beliefs, and that often tells you a lot about a person. It’s like slicing someone open and spreading their insides out like peanut butter and jelly on toast.
Values are fiercely held beliefs because they’re integral to a person’s sense of self. That’s why when another character challenges them (like a villain or an antagonist) it creates excellent conflict. But you don’t need another character to conflict against your protagonist’s values. Your hero can do that by himself quite easily. I’ve already mentioned a Game of Thrones example (Ned Stark) who suffers with inner turmoil when the King asks for help. His loyalty demands he help but his wisdom tells him not to.
Micro conflict
Family
Family. That beautiful rose covered in thorns. I love my family dearly… in small doses. I’m sure they’ll forgive me for saying that. There’s something universal about the love-hate relationship we have with our families. We’d slay our sibling’s enemies, donate kidneys to our parents and just as quickly punch our brother in the gut when Dad wasn’t looking… Just me? Oh, behave yourself. You know it’s true. Families are a cesspit of conflict. It doesn’t matter who you are; everyone’s family is as nutty as everyone else’s. And there’s always a sordid secret buried about that trampy cousin or the odd aunt who kept a locked room that stunk like decaying flesh… Nobody needs those secrets revealing. Conflict arises when your character’s values are put to the test. Is blood thicker than water? Do you protect your murderous aunt or do you value justice more than family?
However, it doesn’t need to be life-altering conflict like murder. In Bridget Jones’s Diary, her family wants her to date Mark Darcy, who she thinks is a Christmas-jumper-wearing plank. Mini conflicts are equally crucial to ratcheting up the tension and doubt, which drive pace.
Secrets
Secrets are pesky little things. Most commonly, they create conflict at the inner and micro levels. They can be put to good use at the micro level if the secret being kept impacts someone else in the hero’s life. Heroes have a habit of thinking they’re protecting someone by not telling them the secret. But, in reality, the opposite is often true. This kind of secret creates an inner conflict for the hero. They will then make mistakes and tell lies, trying to hide the original secret, producing even more inner turmoil over what the best course of action is.
Competition
Competitiveness — that secret sin we all profess not to have. Liars. All of you. Deep down we’re wired to want to win. It’s science. And if you’re not competitive, then tough luck bitches. It’s survival of the fittest. Darwin said so.
Macro conflict
Macro conflict is like rolling out the big guns of world-ending conflict, instead of focusing on people and inner battles the characters have. This type of conflict can span worlds and generations. It also makes it a less tangible form of conflict — often framed as the big bad society with no face.
The Society or Government
This is typically found in dystopian, fantasy, science fiction, literary fiction or any story not set in contemporary society. There’s usually an element of reality twisted to make a philosophical or moral point about a dysfunction in our world. These dysfunctions are an excellent source of conflict because, however the world is shaped, these governments and societies make life more difficult. They create separation between rich and poor, or skilled and unskilled or any other division. This inequality creates unfairness and hardship for huge swathes of humanity, which, ultimately, create my favorite type of character: rebels. For examples, think of Day of The Triffids by John Wyndham (one of my all-time favorite books), 1984 by George Orwell or The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
When a society or government device is used (and particularly in dystopian novels) it usually creates environmental and setting pressure. By that I mean that the physical environment a character is in becomes harder to survive in, thus creating a struggle and the possibility of conflict. In these settings, the basics needs of a human are compromised.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
We interrupt this transmission to discuss something super awesome: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Maslow, an infamous psychologist, is famed for having created the hierarchy of needs in 1954. In dystopian, or other literature settings for that matter, one of the easiest way to create conflict is to restrict one of the lower more basic needs: food, water, oxygen, sleep and shelter. They are essential to life, and when you don’t have them you die. Sounds dramatic, right? Well, that’s why it creates conflict and characters will fight for them.
Of course, you can create conflict using the higher needs too, although the higher you go, the more personal the conflict is likely to be. Self-actualization is an internal battle to achieve your personal potential. It is influenced less by external factors and more by personal grit and determination. Self-actualization is in the name: it only affects the ‘self’, whereas basic needs like food and water are a global need and affect billions.
The lower the need, the more global the conflict. The higher the need, the more internal the conflict.
Religion
In the same way that values are extremely close to a person’s sense of identity, so is religion. Many wars fought throughout history have been over religious conflicts. I won’t get into a religious debate in this book. Suffice to say, religions — like values — are fiercely held. And this, when challenged, can escalate to conflict. Secondly, like society and government, religions have their own set of rules and law and, no matter the context, be it school, work or society, rules always get broken, and that leads to tension and conflict.
Power Struggles
I’m going to be philosophical and possibly controversial for a minute. Power is recognized as desirable. It’s accepted by readers worldwide as a realistic cause for conflict: your villain wants power to do things. But what’s often missing is the reason why. We’ve talked at length about why ‘why’ is so important, and that’s no less true of a villain (or hero) pursuing power. There should be a reason, whether it’s to create armies, control a sector of society or seek revenge. But even they aren’t the real reason one goes after power. It comes back to the theme but also your personal philosophy (as the author). Why, at the core of a desire for power, do you think a person will fight for it?
Me? I think power is freedom. If you have enough power, you don’t have to conform or adhere to any rules or laws. You’re free to do as you please, be who you truly want to be. No more suppression, inequality or strife. As an author, you need to decide what the why is behind not just power conflicts, but all the conflicts. What will the thing being fought over give to your characters? More often than not, it will come back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Impossible Odds
They’re impossible for a reason. It’s impossibly di
fficult to make the perilous journey to retrieve specific items (Indiana Jones), beat Apollo Creed (Rocky movie), or beat Johnny Lawrence (Karate Kid). Anything that’s difficult creates conflict for several reasons. Two of the most popular reasons are because decisions are required over how to achieve the goal. The concept of impossible odds, when broken down, is really about winning something, whether that’s power, respect or a Kung Fu cup.
Impossible odds often arise in brutal training regimes, too. Like G.I. Jane, who spends most of the film in a hardcore Navy Seals training ground. Almost all of the film’s conflict occurs during her training because of power struggles, sexism and the desire for respect. More recently, Arya Stark from Game of Thrones goes through brutal training with the Faceless Man. She’s beaten and temporarily blinded to succeed in her training.
From success comes disaster
I love anything that twists the expected into something unexpected. Turning what your hero thought would be a success on its head is an easy way to do this. For example, in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Victor creates Frankenstein. However, instead of being happy and overjoyed, he’s actually sickened by his creation.
Jurassic World is another example of this, I mean, really? Bring back the man-eating, world-destroying dinosaurs, and what? Hope for the best? Phssst. That was never going to be a good idea, was it?
Emotion
“The most pivotal moments in people’s lives revolve around emotions. Emotions make powerful stories.” Brandon Stanton, author and photographer.
Emotions drive humans. We feel our way through life, hurting and loving, caring and hating. It’s the age-old adage head over heart — or is it heart over head? In either case, what we do when our emotions butt up against someone else’s can cause problems. When you love something, you fight to the death over it. Therein lies your conflict. But it’s not just love that creates conflict. Jealousy can cause a person to do vile things too, as can hate and many other emotions.
If your conflict needs to crank up the pressure, add in some emotional tension. Make the scene/action/journey you’re writing deeply important to your protagonist (or your villain). Emotion makes everything more intense.
Emotions are universal, and that’s what makes emotive scenes so appealing to readers. We all know what it means to be resentful, or angry, and we’ve all had those first flutters of love. I said it in STEP 3, and I’m saying it again now: emotions are the only universal language.
Pinch of salt, a sprinkle of pepper and leave to boil
Creating and layering conflict is one thing, but conflict is like a work of art — far too beautiful to be left unappreciated. It’s a sculpture standing in a museum waiting to be touched and prodded. It wants to be touched. It needs to be touched. Poking conflict rattles it and riles it up until it bursts open and spills tension and pace from its loins. Okay, I’m getting carried away. Back on topic, Sacha. We’ve established that conflict should force your hero to face his flaw. The reason this is so important is that facing your flaws allows for growth. Why? Because it shows you new parts of yourself.
But in order to get your hero to face his flaw you need to build up the conflict to a ferocious level of tension. Just as with creating conflict, there are a multitude of ways in which you can build it too. I’ll give just a few here.
Doubt
Doubt is one of my favorite techniques to build conflict. Your readers see your story world through your hero’s eyes, like hero-tinted glasses. What your hero feels, your reader feels. Therefore, when the hero expresses doubt, the reader is unsettled and unsure of the beliefs they may have built in the earlier parts of your story. Earlier, I used the Matrix as an example. Continuing with that film, Neo’s biggest period of doubt comes after the Oracle tells him that he is not ‘The One’, making him face a deep fear that he is just an ordinary no-one who will let Morpheus and everyone else down. It casts doubt over who ‘The One’ is (for both Neo and the respective audience), and we’re all left questioning whether or not Morpheus can find the right ‘One’ in time to save humanity.
Doubting other characters
Continuing on from self-doubt is doubt over other characters. The Stepford Wives, a satirical thriller by Ira Levin, is one of the best expressions of a hero doubting characters. When the hero questions another character, so too does the reader. The act of doubting another character creates tension, a feeling of unease as we (the reader) don’t know the character’s true motive. It’s a great technique for making the reader keep flipping those pages until 3am on a work night.
In The Stepford Wives, Joanna, the protagonist, comes to the village and meets the wives of the local men. At first glance, the wives appear pleasant, perky, polite and submissive. Something anyone would mistake for friendliness. But as time progresses, and the wives continue to behave in the exact same way every time she meets them, she begins to feel unsettled. No one’s that perky all the time, right? Doubt seeps into her mind over the wives’ true nature. She questions how they can be so consistently happy. She’s right, of course — the wives are robots. But until she discovers the truth, the doubt creates both inner conflict over whether Joanna is mad for questioning the other wives’ behaviors and also the direct conflict between Joanna and the husbands who want to keep the secret of their robotic wives quiet.
Lies
“Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.” The Man in Black, Stephen King, The Gunslinger.
Lies are gorgeous little poison chalices. We’ve already covered the major form of literary lie — the lie your hero believes. But there are two other forms of lie: lies the hero tells and lies the hero is told. There are dozens of ways to craft mistruths for your heroes. And they don’t all have to be huge life-changing lies, like in Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. The lie is revealed in the climax when Ender discovers he is not actually playing a game like he’s been led to believe, but is committing mass genocide.
Or smaller lies
Villains often use the truth as a weapon. Characters (including the hero) lie to protect other characters. That means the villain can manipulate the deception to his advantage. If the truth is a secret, then someone doesn’t want it getting out, which means it’s also a weapon. A good villain will use that fact to create threats or control and manipulate the hero into doing things he doesn’t want to, and this creates conflict.
Example: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. President Snow makes a point of telling Katniss that he will never lie to her, which he sticks too rigidly. And despite his warped mindset, that makes him trustworthy. This is why, when Snow reminds Katniss of the fact he’s never lied, she knows that Alma Coin sent the parachutes which killed her sister, leading Katniss to kill Alma.
Example: Once Upon A Time, the TV series. Rumpelstiltskin also known as Rumple/The Dark One is a master of manipulation, using careful words and phrases to make deals that he would then manipulate to his liking. For example, The Evil Queen asks Rumple to frame Mary Margaret for Kathryn’s murder. Except when The Evil Queen makes the agreement she asks for something ‘tragic’ to happen to Kathryn. So instead of killing Kathryn, Rumpel merely abducts her.
Misunderstandings and assumptions
Misunderstandings are another excellent tool for driving conflict because they often lead a character to believe something that either drives her further away from her goal, further away from another character or becomes hurtful to her emotionally. Vivian from the movie Legally Blonde catches Callaghan (a senior lawyer) flirting with Elle (a young student) and assumes that Elle is using her good looks to get ahead when, in fact, the opposite is true, although this doesn’t come to light for Vivian until later in the story.
Hero sacrifice — what it really means
I like a little hero torture, so shoot me: I’m a hardened villain sympathizer. But what’s not always clear is what we mean when we say your hero needs to suffer for the win. Do we mean physical injuries and wounds? Sure, sometimes. Do we
mean psychological torture and trauma? If it fits your story, why not? I’ve also known the concept to be implemented through the sacrifice of a hero’s life, limb or all manner of other things.
But none of those really capture the essence of what’s meant by ‘your hero needs to sacrifice for the win’. What we — meaning me and all of the literary geekettes who care to have an opinion — usually mean is that the hero needs to give up a part of herself to win. The part is the flaw. The hero has to say goodbye to whatever flaw-shaped comfort blanket they had and sacrifice a piece of themselves in a heroic flaw-burning ritual with meditative chakra incense, mini blue-dyed party sausages, flaw-balloons, retro cheese-and-pineapple on sticks and halo-cake (yes, I mentioned cake again, shh). Or forget the party, but recognize that it’s hard for anyone to truly overcome a flaw. Not only does it take strength and courage; you have to say goodbye to a part of yourself to overcome your weakness.