Creating conflict in your story is no small task, but you probably shouldn’t pull it out of your hat without thinking what actually belongs in your story. In this post, we’re going to talk about what conflict and how you can insert it into your story without making your readers go “So what?”
Related posts: Conflict ideas for your story – How to plot a novel – How to write a good antagonist – The right way to write character flaws
What is “conflict” in stories anyway?
Okay, so maybe you already know that your story needs conflict, but… you’re not entirely sure what conflict is. Is it war? Arguments? A car crash? It could be, but it doesn’t have to be.
A conflict is whenever (at least) two things try to exist at the same time, but can’t. Two people trying to get the final Hello Kitty mug at Walmart is conflict just as two countries fighting for the same plot of land is conflict. Two different people or forces could be fighting for the same thing, or maybe their respective goals are mutually exclusive.
All of that can (and should!) show up in small and big ways – all of it is conflict as long as it can’t be solved in a way that all parties are happy.
Not all conflict is explicit
Three men fighting for the same horse is a pretty obvious conflict, especially if fists and swears are flying around, but not all conflict is so obvious and on the surface level. One of the guys saying “Sure, take my horse, and why don’t you take my missus, too?” sure does sound like conflict, and it isn’t called passive-aggressive for nothing.
And actually, if that horse is important to any of those three guys, then even seeing it taken by someone else is still conflict, even if there’s no exchange of words of any kind. Think of how many times you’ve been upset with someone or something without ever saying or doing anything about it.
And hey, what if it wasn’t about the horse at all? Maybe guy #1 has also wooed guy #2’s wife, and guy #3 just thinks #1 is annoying and #2 smells bad. When they’re fighting over the horse, it’s not actually about the horse at all. Still conflict, though.
Why do you need conflict?
If your story has zero conflict, it’s just going to slide from the beginning to the end with nothing much happening and your readers won’t really be feeling anything.
Most stories (at least in the West) are about problems or about opportunities that are too big to be easily tackled. If the problem can be solved straight away with no friction, it’s not a real problem. You need conflict there in order to have a story. Like I said earlier, you can’t just slide from the beginning to the end without bumping into anything.
It depends on your genre and your individual story what your conflicts are like. Having arguments with people is more frequent in stories where relationships have a heavy focus, because the conflicts in those stories are often interpersonal, while something like a horror novel would have more physical conflict. The monster needs food, you want to keep all four of your limbs.
Conflict in stories isn’t just the conflict. What led to it? How were they totally unequipped to avoid it? How will the characters try to solve it? Where does it lead? That’s a whole lot of stuff for your story. That’s your plot.
Conflict in a novel shouldn’t be random
When you’re only just learning to write stories, it can be tempting to just throw something at your characters and see what happens. If you’re just practising or writing for fun, that’s totally fine, but if you’re trying to write a cohesive novel that other people will read, too, it all needs to work together.
If your character is going to get fired, then you need to show them having a job, first. If you want your character’s girlfriend to be mad at him, it should be for some reason that already exists in the story world, no matter how small or petty.
And yes, I’m sure you’ve read books and seen movies where the conflict makes no sense and where misunderstandings come out of nowhere and people annoy others just because. That’s just lazy writing, though, and I’m sure you’re better than that. It’s not difficult to make it make sense without digging yourself into a plot hole.
However, you still don’t need to be like “Jimmy going to the grocery store without a shopping list will make Stacey blow up on him later, but he did it anyway” – we don’t always need to know in advance something will lead to a conflict. All it needs to do is make sense in hindsight. Sometimes, of course, you do want your readers to know something will lead to a conflict and have them fear for your characters, and it’s good to have a variety of situations.
Your character’s flaws and existing problems play a big part
When you create characters who are destined to clash with other people and circumstances, you make it easy for yourself. This character is stubborn, so of course they’re going to butt heads with their supervisors. That character has lost all their money on the horse races, so naturally they’re going to get in trouble with their landlord.
If you want your writing to be good, and I’m sure you do, you can’t just say “Mary was a stubborn old lady”. Show Mary being a stubborn old lady! You don’t need to force-feed your readers, they understand what’s happening.
What are the different types of conflict in stories?
I don’t think it’s necessary to be able to name all the types of conflict before you can use them, but perhaps knowing that there are different kinds will help put some variety into your stories. Let’s see what they are.
Character vs other character: Here there are two (or more) characters with different agendas, and to be able to win, you need to make sure the other guy doesn’t get what they want.
Character vs themselves: The call is coming from inside the house, as in, the character’s biggest struggle is with themselves. Maybe they need to stop being so lazy or maybe they need to stop criticising themselves so much, who knows.
Character vs the environment: Sometimes it’s just a man against the world, though “the world” here could mean anything from nature (try fighting those moonsoon rains, pals) to unsympathetic bureaucracy. It’s not just one person against your character, it’s the way things are
Think about the big picture of your story
What, exactly, is your story is about? What is the central conflict of your story? You might have a great character idea and they might live in an interesting setting, but your story needs to be about something. We need to know where it begins and where it ends, and that’s where these problem-centric stories make so much sense.
The great thing about the main conflict of your story is that it asks a question, and by the end of your story, you need to answer it. Will Katniss get out of the Hunger Games alive? What happened to Rose on the Titanic? Is Thor going to get back home?
Sometimes, in novels like David Copperfield or The Gravedigger’s Daughter, the question is more like “Will X survive their life circumstances?” but those kinds of novels are much more difficult to write in a way that stays engaging and interesting to your readers. Read them, learn from them, but don’t try to write them until you’re confident you can keep it all together.
When you don’t know any of that stuff about your story, you don’t have a solid whole that you could fit between two covers, and that’s going to be a huge problem. Your story will lack a thread that keeps it all together and your readers will be wondering what the whole point even is. Sometimes a fantastic idea actually works better as a short story, and that’s fine.
Every scene needs conflict, too
Once you’ve got your main conflict present and correct, you can start writing or outlining your story, and you’ll need to add conflict to *almost* every scene you write. In your scenes, you need to think of what’s trying to stop your POV character from getting what they want.
Here are some examples of how scene conflict can turn up:
- somebody is lying to your POV character or simply not telling them what they want
- a person or thing your character is looking for is not there
- your character wants to do something with another character who’s busy doing something else
- the car breaking down/a fallen tree/bad weather/etc stops your character from getting from A to B
- your character gets what they were after, but there’s a catch or they don’t like what they ended up with
Generally, in most scenes, someone should end up doing something they weren’t planning to do. If people and circumstances are perfectly co-operational, your story will stop being interesting. Make your protagonist suffer and sacrifice to get what they want.
How to solve the conflicts in your stories
No matter who or what are butting heads in your story, it’s not very interesting if all these conflicts are solved by the opposer being like “Okay, you win, take the trophy”. It’s also not very realistic and it would show very weak motivation behind these opposing forces.
Yes, eventually your character will have to get what they want, or at least what they need, even if that isn’t what they thought they wanted. In other words, they need to get something and not just fight with people and circumstances. But how?
One thing that makes your story interesting is solving problems in unexpected ways. When your character faces opposition and they can’t get what they want straight away, they need to come up with an alternative way to get it. Yes, sometimes they end up giving something up altogether, but not until after significant troubles, failures and other shenanigans. They need to be forced to see things differently first.
It’s very hard for me to try and tell you how to solve the conflicts in your story when I don’t know what those conflicts are and what else is going on, but I’d recommend you go and look at other stories and take some advice and inspiration there. What do the characters do when other characters stop them from reaching their goals? How do they change tactics when the world is against them? There are endless options, so go and explore them.
Writing exercises for conflict
I can’t tell you how to put conflict into the specific story you’re writing, but these exercises should help you become a right troublemaker. I’ve given these characters names to make it easier to distinguish them from each other, but feel free to use any names you want.
- Sylvia wants her mother to explain what happened on the day she was born, but the answer is nothing like what she expected
- You would think going to the pharmacy next door to get bandages to stop the bleeding would be an easy job, but actually there are three different things that stop Carla from getting there before the pharmacy closes
- Winning a beauty contest at the farmer’s market should be a piece of cake, but Marie has one problem and one character flaw that make it nearly impossible
- Against all expectations, Alexei says yes to Sofia’s date invitation, but something happens at the date that makes Sofia get the ick
- Veronica tries to scare her dad as a joke because he’s always pulling pranks on her, but he gets so startled that he gets a heart attack and ends up in a hospital
Lastly, here’s some dialogue that sounds perfectly innocent, and it’s your job to put the underlying conflict into the scene without changing the actual dialogue:
“You’re late.”
“Yup, there was traffic.”
“Of course, there’s always traffic. Did you see your father on your way here?”
“No, did you?”
“I’ve been here all day.”
“You should get yourself a coffee then and have a little rest.”
Use conflict to plot your story *for you*
Flaws and conflict are THE BEST plot fuel you can have, and that’s why I created the Troublemaker Method. Actually, I created it for myself when I was stuck with one of my stories, but I don’t want to keep my best stuff to myself and that’s why I’m sharing it with you guys. You’re welcome.
All you need to use the method is to have a character, and then you can start throwing problems at it. Simple! You get a full explanation of how it all works, and then you get the interactive Troublemaker Sheet that helps you map out your story from the problems to their solutions.
If you need more help with plotting your story, you can find everything you need on this page.
Protagonist Crafts is a blog about writing fiction, written by a published author and creative writing teacher. You can find more writing tips and inspiration in the blog and you can get the best author tools at Writer Lifestyle on Etsy.
