Your Guide to Writing the Perfect Story

Creating Conflict

Every story needs conflict. Without it, what story are you even telling in the first place? To start off, I should probably talk about the two different kinds of conflict. Both are necessary to a good story.

1. Outer Conflict

Outer conflict is the problem your character must overcome in order to reach their goal. It should be fairly obvious and for your character, defeating this external force isn't an option. There are three main types of outer conflict.

a) Man Vs. Man

Man Vs. Man is your character going against another character: the villain. In most cases, this is one person or thing that opposes your character, not many. You see this in a lot in superhero stories.

b) Man Vs. Nature

In this case, your character is probably stranded somewhere and has to survive. There is no "antagonist" unless you consider bears and dehydration and whatnot to be it.

c) Man Vs. Society

This is particularly common in dystopia's, where a corrupt government rules the world and your character needs to defeat them.

Now that you know all of the main different types of outer conflict's, you can mix and match them. Don't confine yourself to just one if your story is forcing you in another direction, but know what your main conflict is.

2. Inner Conflict

For the most part there is just one inner conflict, which is man vs. self. Your character probably isn't aware of their inner conflict, but it is one thing that constantly holds someone back from achieving their goal. Usually the inner conflict is that your character must cross a moral line to stop their outer conflict or something of the like.

Example:

Outer Conflict: Jenny must rescue her father from the dungeon of doom.

Inner Conflict: To free him, she must present the heart of an innocent.

Those are the two types of conflict. There's no way for me to tell you how to pick your conflict but there are tips that I can give you when you are.

Tip #1:

Whenever you are creating conflict for your character, think "how could I possibly make this situation any worse?" This may be the most effective way to create conflict. It's easy to throw yourself in someone else's shoes and think up all the things that you would be most screwed if they happened.

Tip #2:

You might have heard people say to put conflict on "every page". That's easier said than done. The thing is, it isn't possible to have conflict on every single page, but you can aim for 90% of the pages. The sooner you set your character on their path to doom, the more absorbed your readers will be.

Tip #3:

Kill your darlings. Yeah, it hurts. You get so attached to a character and then, oh, they're gone. Now, you don't have to necessarily kill them, but if you put them in danger, your character will freak and if they're an especially good or important character, your readers will be dying to know what happens to them. This really gets the pages turning.

Tip #4:

Constantly throw problems at your character that force them to make a decision that will go poorly no matter what they choose. This is seen very often and it's a lot of fun to play with.

Tip #5:

Give your readers the head fake. What this means is to give them a happy scene or a hopeful scene where everything seems like it's going to be okay and then give them a nice plot twist that drops the world off of it's axis and tips everything upside down. Plot twists are the best tools to man-kind if you are an author.

Tip #6:

Create tension between characters that are constantly forced to work together. There's nothing better than feuds among the group of people that are supposed to be on the same side. This one really puts a wrench into any good plans that could help their cause.

That's all that I can think of for now. I hope that this was helpful for you and you'll take these tips to heart when writing your stories!