Tag: internal vs external

Writing Tip of the Week: The Importance of Conflict in Your Story

Posted on by Ian Dawson

Most of us go about our daily lives determined to avoid conflict.  In the real world, it can be a real pain dealing with angry, disagreeable, and aggressive people, which can, in turn, negatively impact your day as a whole.  If we find ourselves involved in a conflict, our primary goal is to end it or get away from it as fast as possible.

Obviously, there are those in the world that thrive on conflict and cause trouble for others, but for the most part, people like to have a semblance of peace in their day-to-day lives.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, Conflict equals Drama, and it’s true. Conflict is a must-have in the fictional world of a novel, a TV show, or a movie.  Conflict helps drive the story forward, reveal character, and create an intense dialogue between those in conflict. 

Suppose a story lacks a conflict for your protagonist. In that case, it can drag, feel aimless, and even cause the reader or viewer to lose interest.  So, let’s talk about conflict and how to keep things alive in your story.

How Big Should the Conflict Be?

Not all conflict revolves around world-ending superhero movie stakes.  A conflict can be as simple as a disagreement between the main character and another character.  It can also be during the final showdown between the protagonist and antagonist.  It’s something that puts a wrench in the protagonist’s day, and it’s something they have to work to overcome to get to their sense of normalcy once again.

Let’s look at story conflict on a scale of 1 to 5.  One is the bare minimum.  Maybe it’s a couple who can’t agree where to go to dinner or siblings who can’t decide whether to get a cat or a dog.  Simple, low-stakes conflicts that will probably have an amicable resolution sooner than later.  

A five is a relentless assault on the main character that has no clear end in sight, and the antagonist has the upper hand from the start.  Horror movies are often a 10.  Superhero movies can be up in the 10s.  Disaster movies as well.  High-stakes and a lot to lose if the main character is defeated.

In the middle are stakes and conflicts that can mirror real life, raise stakes, and create consequences for the main character. They aren’t easy to resolve but have some kernel of hope of a win nesting inside them.  

Think about what you’re currently writing.  What are the main conflicts the protagonist faces?  Are they Ones?  Fives?  In the middle?  Then ask yourself if the conflict is big enough for your main character to fight to defeat whatever the conflict is.  Will the struggle?  Will they suffer in some way?  Have setbacks?  Will these conflicts help them grow as a character?

Don’t Fear Conflict

It’s okay for your main character to argue with someone.  It’s okay for the protagonist to disagree with other characters.  If your protagonist gets their way from chapter one to the final page, it’s going to be a dull and predictable story. 

Hallmark movies have conflict.  As you read this, Hallmark Channel has started airing Christmas movies 24/7. Never seen one?  Watch one and jot down the main conflicts that the main character faces throughout the story.  On our scale, they are probably 1s and 2s (if you want 3-level conflict, flip over to Lifetime), but there is still conflict present.

When we hear the word Conflict, we think of shootouts, explosions, fistfights, and screaming matches.  But conflict can take many forms rooted in a more realistic world than Batman versus The Joker.  

Sitcoms can create a conflict out of a minor situation and expand upon it for 22 minutes.  One of my favorite shows, Frasier, does this beautifully.  From minor disagreements, misunderstandings, past rivalries, and more, these smaller conflicts can be a well-spring of material that can be used that don’t have to result in Metropolis or Gotham City being destroyed.

And just because your main character argues with someone doesn’t make them unlikeable.  It makes them appear more human, which is a good thing.

External & Internal Conflict

What’s causing the conflict in the story?  If it’s something outside the main character’s control, it’s an External Conflict.  It disrupts the protagonist’s world that has to be resolved to return to their sense of normalcy.

Most stories revolve around External Conflicts. There’s a threat, a natural disaster, an antagonist creating chaos.  Whatever it is, it’s outside the main character.

Internal Conflicts can be a direct result of an External Conflict. Still, these are things the main character is struggling to overcome that are causing issues within.  

Maybe they were just served divorce papers.  The divorce is an External Conflict, but the feelings the main character has are an Internal Conflict.  The protagonist must resolve the External Conflict (why does the partner want a divorce?  Where are they?  How can we fix this problem?).  At the same time, they must deal with the Internal Conflict (what did I do to lead up to this moment?  How can I change and become better?  Is there something wrong with me as a partner?).

All characters, like real people, need to have an External and Internal life, which assists in creating the External and Internal Conflicts that serve the story and help the character grow and change within and without.

As you work on your story, think about how the external events are affecting the main character internally.  How are their thoughts, feelings, and fears impacting their ability to stop the External Conflict they’ve been thrown into?

Conflict as a Driving Force

Conflict creates problems for the protagonist.  In turn, the active protagonist sets out to resolve and end the conflict.  Other conflicts may pop up in the meantime that must be tamped down as the main character continues their pursuit toward their goal of ending the conflict.

The majority of main characters in mainstream entertainment want to end the conflict they’re dealing with and go back to their life before everything got out of control.  Of course, in working to stop and resolve the conflict, they will grow as a person and learn from their experiences, which creates their Character Arc.

Viewing for Conflict

Grab a couple of your favorite movies, a few episodes of your favorite TV shows, a novel you’ve read before, a notebook and a pen, and analyze the conflicts in each. Make a note about the main conflict, how the main character sets out to resolve it, and how they evolve throughout the story to end the conflict.  

Now, look at your story and see where conflict can be increased and the stakes raised for your main character.  What is your protagonist’s goal?  How do they initially plan to resolve the conflict that has presented itself and upturned their calm state of being?  How will they change as they work to resolve the conflict?  Will they become a better or worse person by the story’s end?

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you in two weeks!

When You’re Writing, Don’t Be Afraid to Act It Out

Posted on by Ian Dawson

To the casual observer, writing can appear to be a low-energy, even passive activity.  But we as writers know that this is not the case. While our fingers may be the only thing moving externally, our minds are alive and active with ideas, thoughts, dialogue, and description that help bring our story to life on paper.  

But sometimes, even in that state of inner active creativity, we can get a little stuck.  Maybe a sequence isn’t coming together as effectively on the page as you want, or there’s an element missing from the dialogue or action.  

When this happens, get out of that chair and work through the scene.  As a writer, you are the creator, director, actor, and stunt coordinator of everything in your story.  It is your job to do whatever you can to get the story right.  And if you have to workshop it in your living room like a play, that’s 100% acceptable.

Here are some ways to do it.

Get On Your Feet and Move

As Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) demonstrates in this clip from I Love Lucy, working through the emotion, the conflict, and the drama of a scene as you write can help you create more realistic dialogue and scenes. 

Reading your dialogue aloud can also be a great benefit to ensure that the characters speak like human beings and not as literary characters on a page (unless that’s the style you are aiming for).  

If you have someone to assist you, you can improvise a scene you’re having issues with and work out what problems you may be having.  Often as writers, we internalize too often.  Getting your story’s words and situations into an external space can help you see them from a better perspective and make more substantial story choices.

Make a Model

Perhaps your story has a big fight sequence or chase that involves several characters and would be complicated to stage at home.  Legos, action figures, water bottles, or even cups can be used to create a mock version of your characters (I suggest labeling the characters so they don’t get mixed up while your working).  You can use boxes or other objects to create the setting, then position your characters accordingly during the sequence.  

In doing so, you can now visually see how things would work, where the character would be positioned throughout the sequence, and how best to end the sequence given your parameters.

Seeing clear visuals can also help you see any problems, so you fix them before writing out the entire sequence.  

Hollywood does this all the time with big sequences using animatics.  While their aim is to save money on costly reshoots, your aim is to save time on headache-inducing rewrites.

Use Name Cards and Drawings

Another method can be used for even bigger sequences like a giant battle or even a murder mystery with a dinner party.  In this exercise, you write the names of all the characters on separate index cards, then use poster board or another large piece of paper to map out what the room or battlefield will look like.  Then you can move the “characters” around and see where they are in relation to other characters and locations.  

In doing so, you can see if there is logic in who is conversing with who, helping who, and fighting who depending on where they are in the diagram.

This exercise was done by the writers of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End for the final battle involving three pirate ships, three crews of pirates, and the main cast.  As they were writing, they used the diagrams to see where characters started when the sequence began and how to effectively move them from ship to ship throughout the battle.

As you can see from the movement of characters in the clip below, this would have been very useful in the writer’s room!

With all three, I recommend filming and talking through each exercise so you don’t forget any details that may change or pop into your head while you’re working.  Once it’s done, and on the page, you can delete the footage, and no one has to know what great lengths you went through to make that big sequence work.

Happy Acting, and Happy Writing!