The purpose of conflict

Your soup needs spice, AKA drama.

In today's post for the boot camp, we are, or more specifically I am, going to explain the relevance of drama in your story, and how it can bring your story out of the dark.

When I say drama, I don’t mean the exaggerating type, I mean conflict. Read this post to find out more about conflict

Conflict is an integral part of your story, your plot depends fully on the conflict, which without, your story will have no aim. Give the character some struggles, make him or she seem like they have troubles like us too, relating to the reader is the first step to building a bond between the character and the reader.

There are two types of conflict your story needs, 1. Internal Conflict, 2. External conflict. Why two? Because the more drama the more better! Keep the stakes high and give the character some flaws that obstruct him/her from achieving their goal, give them something to learn and full character development, that is a well-planned story.

Both types of conflict, internal and external, are useful because they create:

Tension: Because of conflict’s uncertainty, we want to know how it resolves and keep turning pages to find out

Stakes: Conflict suggests worst-case outcomes and makes resolution urgent (the hero must overcome the antagonist/environment or themselves ‘or else…’)

Character development: Conflict allows for dramatic incidents and confrontations that test characters and cause them to learn and adapt

So how do you use external and internal conflict to develop characters?

External Conflict:

This must be known to everyone, the external conflict is the main problem your story revolves around, it what influences your character's thoughts and aims, and if what enthralls the reader the most.

External conflict relates to the story’s goals, and effort to solve a problem, and it's the outcome that is being sought in a story goal.

External conflict can be said to be between two characters.

Your Protagonist will be the primary character who pursues the Story Goal and the person whose action or choice determines the outcome. Your Antagonist will be the character opposed to the Story Goal, who wants the Protagonist to fail, and who does everything in his/her power to make sure the Goal is not attained.

External conflict comes in several varieties:

Man vs. Man (Or to be politically correct Person vs. Person)

Person vs. Nature

Person vs. Society

Person vs. Machine

Person vs. some supernatural agency such as gods, aliens, fate, etc.

However, we can simplify this and say your Antagonist can be dressed up in any guise (as a person, animal, a force of nature, monster, society, institution, machine, abstract idea, etc.). All that matters is that he/she/it can effectively oppose the Protagonist's effort to achieve the goal.

The external conflict is what keeps the reader interested in the overall plot, finding answers to questions and making assumptions, is what's all about external conflict.

Internal Conflict:

If you want to make your story deep, you will NEED internal conflict, one of its big takeaways is the amount of development it can add to your character.

The internal conflict concerns your main character's self-doubt - his or her dilemma over the best way to achieve the Story Goal.

All of us have been in situations where we were outside our comfort zone, where we were uncertain if our usual way of being or behaving is the right way to achieve our goals.

Readers relate to characters who have internal conflicts as well as external conflicts. More importantly, your main character's internal conflict creates suspense, because readers won't know how he will resolve his personal dilemma until the moment of crisis. Will your main character make the right choice? What is the right choice? These questions keep your readers interested in the story.

Give your characters some flaws that oppose the traits needed to solve the external problem, give him or her a reason to hesitate before getting into the conflict, because of a personal flaw that is preventing her from trying to succeed.