Chapter Twenty-Two

The Conflict Column

Conflict and risks that involve tense and suspenseful action shake a story. Without conflict, a story doesn’t move. When a story doesn’t move, the character doesn’t grow. The significance of conflict earns it an important place in the essential elements of scene.

We discussed the Dramatic Action Column in the last chapter. The Conflict Column discussed in this chapter serves as yet another test to determine whether the action in each scene is dramatic or passive. We covered the need for conflict and how to go about creating tense situations in an overall plot in the Plot Planner section of this book. Now we want to examine the dramatic action in each of the scenes we filled in under the Dramatic Action Column, searching for conflict, beginning with the case studies. Then you’ll be asked to track the conflict in your scenes.

Case Study: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Our example from the previous chapter, the first scene in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, contains conflict. The reader does not yet know that Tom’s aunt is a softy and would never actually use the switch on Tom. So, as her frustration grows because she is unable to find him, the reader anticipates that this mischievous boy is going to get a whipping for not answering her and for hiding out and eating the jam. There is no reason for the reader not to believe her when she threatens: “Well, I lay if I get hold of you I’ll—” By using phrases such as “seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight,” Twain sets us up to believe that this “small boy” is in for it.

Note the active verbs—seize and arrest. These verbs work on the surface of providing action and also on an implied level of what must be coming.

As the story continues, it becomes obvious that the boy is lying:

Of course he knows. And the reader knows he knows, and fears for him, because lying can cause dire consequences. Twain goes on to put an actual threat in the mouth of the aunt, and we know disaster is imminent.

This scene is crafted to keep the reader in suspense by creating conflict on several levels at once. Therefore, an X goes under the Conflict Column, indicating that there is indeed conflict and tension in this scene.

Case Study: All the Pretty Horses

Since All the Pretty Horses opens in scene, not only must there be action of some sort, there must also be some sort of conflict, tension, or suspense. This tension is implied by what comes at the end of the action itself. A dead man laid out for viewing creates curiosity and a certain suspense that forces the reader to read on to discover who died, what caused his death, and what that means to the overall story.

Case Study: The Sea-Wolf

Jack London gives us a hint of what is to come when he closes the first paragraph: “… found me afloat on the San Francisco Bay,” a phrase that creates curiosity and suspense that forces the reader to read on. Also, whenever a stranger appears, tension is created because the reader wants to know who the stranger is and the part he will play in the story.

The best way to improve your writing is by reading.

Case Study: White Oleander

Not much tension is produced by the action itself, since the action of the scene primarily revolves around the daughter climbing to the roof to find her mother. However, throughout the scene the author sets the tone of the story and hits the reader repeatedly with hints and details that foreshadow what is to come. For instance:

The scene continues for another page, and the foreshadowing continues, full of ominous “telling” details, all of which create a sense of doom of what is to come.

Case Study: Where the Heart Is

Though the action of the scene in Where the Heart Is is limited to sitting, albeit uncomfortably, in the front seat of a car headed for California, the author creates tension in the fact that Novalee is not speaking up for herself and thus is not achieving her goal. The reader reads on, curious as to what is standing in Novalee’s way. It does not take long for the reader to learn that Novalee fears the antagonist in this scene, her boyfriend.

Tracking Your Story

With your Scene Tracker in front of you, refer to your manuscript and mark an X in the Conflict Column if conflict, tension, or suspense is present in the first scene of your project. As you scan your Scene Tracker, you’ll be able to quickly assess how many scenes have dramatic action and, more important, how many scenes do not. Seeing the big picture of your story noted on your Scene Tracker gives you an immediate sense of where to focus your attention in your next rewrite. Some writers choose to write a brief summary of the conflict or a list of details about the conflict in the box. Other writers assign the conflict a number between 1 and 10, with 10 carrying the most conflict and drama. Remember that there is no right or wrong way to use the Scene Tracker. At any time, feel free to adapt this tool to suit your individual needs.

Janet Burroway writes in Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft that “conflict … is the fundamental element of fiction, necessary because in literature, only trouble is interesting.”

Story is conflict shown in scene, and conflict is what makes readers turn the page. Yet one of the most common problems writers struggle with in my plot workshops and private consultations is that the conflict in their stories is flat, there’s not enough conflict, or the conflict is inconsistent. Without some sort of conflict, you do not have a scene or, for that matter, a story.

Conflict does not have to be overt, but it must be there in some form of suspense or the result of something unknown lurking in the shadows. These elements are built through setbacks, not through good news.

I covered conflict in more detail in Part One of this book. For our purposes, I want you to determine if there is conflict in the scene or summary you are analyzing. Summary does not always have conflict, which is another reason not to overuse summary in your stories. Scenes at their best always contain some sort of conflict.

Tips for Creating Conflict

When deciding on your story problem, use the tension of the action that is unfolding center stage as a reflection of the protagonist’s internal tension. Be sure to show this internal tension through action and reaction in scene, thereby avoiding too much telling through internal monologue.

For each scene, ask yourself the following questions:

• Where is the conflict?
• Who is the conflict between?
• What is causing the conflict?
• How much tension is caused by the conflict?
• How can more tension be created?

The following list shows a few of the many ways you can heighten the conflict in your story through the use of your character’s psychology:

1. Show something or someone your protagonist loves being threatened. This will force your protagonist to make a decision and act on it. Raise the stakes and increase the threat in the next scene in order to create “rising conflict.”
2. In real life, most of us avoid conflict at all costs. But this shouldn’t be your philosophy when telling stories. People read stories to see how characters grow and change, even if this change and growth is not for the better. Turn up the pressure on your story characters. Put your protagonist in the middle of what he hates the most and then show the choices he makes in his attempt to avoid, change, or escape it.
3. Show, in scene, your protagonist taking center stage alongside his greatest fear.
4. Establish your protagonist’s dream and then show him constantly sabotaging that dream by the choices made based on his character flaw.

The choices the protagonist makes create the action. Both the character and the action will ultimately reflect the underlying theme of your story, the thematic plot. With this interweaving of character, action, and theme, the story you create will be rich in character and conflict, making for a compelling and satisfying page-turner.

By using something within the character’s psychology to create tension or conflict, you create a multilayered plotline, one involving character growth (the emotional plot) directly linked to the action (the dramatic plot).