How To Think About Conflict

On story drivers for your characters, wants, desires and the things that get in the way of them.

One way of creating good drama is through creating conflict for your characters. Conflict forces your characters to act, to make choices, and those choices always have consequences. Consequences that often lead to more conflict. Conflict is a really juicy way of entertaining readers, keeping them guessing and driving your characters’ stories forward.

Often, my students think that conflict has to be big: exploding mountains, explosive arguments, excruciating pain. Sure, one way of creating conflict is to have aliens invade the earth, another is for a rich billionaire to die without naming their successor, or have someone follow their partner, assuming they are cheating, only to find out they are a superhero.