This is a quick piece on the finer arts of writing I just got done writing. I'd like some comments and criticism on it, as we need some content for the articles and columns part of the main site, and I'd like to work out some myself.
Conflicts are the cornerstone of storywriting. Without conflicts, there is NO story - well, there is, but it would be compltely boring and uninteresting. Conflicts make you character's life harder, and conflict make the tale interesting. As the old chinesse curse goes- "May you live in interesting times", meaning that when things get interesting, they also become hard or dangerous.
Each tale rely on a central conflict as its main point ; it may also develop secondary and tertiary conflicts. In the anime, the primary conflict would be "Ash vs the League to become a master", the secondary conflict could include "Ash vs Gary" and "Ash vs Team rocket", and a tertiary conflict could be "Ash vs the mayor of that town in the Mystery Menace" or the ilk. The primary conflict is the driving force behind the story, what the tale is about. Secondary conflict are important subplots : they're not what the tale is about, but they still are imporant plot points (either because of how they affect the story, or because of how long they last). Tertiary conflicts are those small side-conflicts that you add in to liven up the story (say, haggling with an innkeeper about the price for a room).
A conflict has the following element :
An origin : this is the source of the conflict ; the event that triggered it.
A goal : this is the protagonist's objective in the conflict.
A resolution : how the conflicts turns out in the end. Either a)The protagonist achieve his goal or b)The antagonist achieve his goal or c)Another event put an end to the conflict (for example by making both the protagonist's and antagonist's goal unatainable).
Let's take the pokemon anime's central conflict
Origin : The conflict stems from Ash's dream to become a pokemon master. The gym leaders are tasked with testing his skill to see if he is good enough.
Goal : Ash's goal in the conflict is to become a pokemon master
Resolution : Unknown
Or, a secondary conflict, Ash vs Team Rocket :
Origin : Team Rocket wants to obtain Pikachu
Goal : Ash is trying to keep Pikachu safe
Resolution : Unknown
But these are only conflicts where humans faces other humans. This is hardly the only kind of conflict there can be.
There are seven generally agreed on forms of conflict.
Man vs Himself
This is usually a very common form of conflict, and often the primary form of conflict in Japanesse theater (loyalty and duty versus love and personal feelings). A character is caught having to make a hard choice. Note that every fic should be choke-full of this kind of conflict as tertiary conflicts.
Origin : The character has to make a choice (between love and duty, for example)
Goal : To chose which path the character will follow.
Often there is one he WANTS to follow and one he knows he SHOULD follow.
Man vs Man
Probably the archtypical form of conflict, found in just about every story. Two characters (or group of characters, such as a pokemon league for a random notion) have conflicting goals, and are thus brought in conflict. It could be that they both desire the same woman, or that one desires to accomplish something and that it's the other (group of) characters' role to test him to see if he's ready for what he wants to do.
Origin : Character A (not necessarily the protagonist) wants something, and Character B wants that same thing (or an opposite thing - character A wants to destroy a gold ring and character b wants the ring for himself, for a random example), or must test character A to decide if he's worthy of what he wants, or, or, or (etc).
Goal : Very open. Whatever the characters want to do.
Man vs Society
Someone (generally the protagonist) is challenging the basic laws or structures of a society, trying to change them, or acting outside of them. The great forces of society - wheter it be the government or the church or whatever - seeks to stamp down the opposing individual.
Origin : The Protagonist has come into conflict with the established social order. Either he seeks to change the social order, or else he is ignoring it toward his goal.
Goal : The protagonist either a)Wants to change the social order (by bringing equality despite skin colors - Martin Luther King ; by reforming a corrupt religion - the other Martin Luther ; by ensuring a more equal distribution of riches instead of letting the nobility steal it all and leave peasant starving - Robin Hood - etc) or B)Wants to achieve his primary goal (whichever it might be) without being prevented from doing so by the social order (say, a girl want to lead the army of her country against an invader despite the fact that social structure says women should stay home and certainly shouldn't fight. Any ressemblance with Joan of Arc is purely unfortuitous).
Man vs His Creation
Something created by mankind has gotten out of hand. The protagonist must somehow find a way to put an end to the creation's menace.
Origin : A creation of mankind has gotten out of hand and is now posing a threat. Say, a crime leader ordered a genetically altered much more powerful version of a creature made. Alternatively, the electric fences of a zoo of cloned dinosaurs have been shut down.
Goal : The goal is either a)To eliminate the threat of the creation or b)To survive and escape it.
Man vs Nature
Origin : The protagonist find himself faced with the forces of nature. Either a)He must overcome natural obstacles on his way to something (in this case the conflict of man vs nature would probably be a secondary conflict) or b)He finds himself forced to confront nature by events (airplane crash, wrecked on a desert island, etc)
Goal : Either the character must overcome nature (cross a difficult mountain range, hetch out a life on a desert island) or he must survive against nature's fury (snowstorm, shipwreck, etc)
Man vs Supernatural
A mysterious, unknown force (alien, ancient evil spirit, dark creature, dangerous magical cards) poses a threat, and the hero must confront that threat for some reason (perhaps he has a gold ring some terrifying ghostly black riders wants to take back...)
Origin : The protagonist awakens OR his selected as a target by an unknown force outside the natural order, OR realizes such a force has awakened/arrived in the world, OR he is destined to eliminate the force.
Goal : The protagonist must eliminate the Supernatural threat, or at the very least survive the threat until he can reaches a safe haven.
Man vs God
Probably the ultimate form of conflict : a (human) protagonist finds himself in conflict with a driving force of the universe. The Dark Lord, Death itself, Destiny, Time, or even God Incarnate and the characters have a disagreement of views, and the character seeks to defeat
Origin : Either a)A driving force of the universe has decided to pursue the protagonist with his wrath (cursing him in some fashion ; see Tolkien's tale of Hurin's children in Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales) or B)A character has decided to overcome a basic driving force of the universe to accomplish a goal (defeat TIME, DEATH, DESTINY, etc) or C)A character is set to confront (and possibly defeat) a divine being.
Goal : The character seeks to defeat a basic force of the universe. Perhaps by escaping a curse on his life set by a God, or by resurecting a loved one.
------------------
Now how does this applies?
When writing the story, you should always keep in mind all the ongoing conflicts, especially the primary one.
Here is an example of a conflict schematic for the Fellowship of the Ring, using only some of the conflicts there
Primary Conflict : Free People VS Sauron
Origin : Sauron want to dominate Middle Earth
Goal : Prevent Sauron from taking over.
Secondary Conflict : Fellowship VS Ring
Origin : The Ring attempts to corrupt members of the fellowship.
Goal : Resist the corruption of the Ring.
Secondary Conflict : Fellowship VS Gollum
Origin : Gollum wishes to recvoer the One Ring
Goal : Prevent Gollum from recovering the Ring
Secondary Conflict : Halflings (and Strider) VS The Ringwraiths
Origin : The Ringwraiths were sent by Sauron to recover the Ring
Goal : Carry the Ring safely to the Elven City of Rivendell.
Secondary Conflict : Fellowship vs The Creatures of Moria
Origin : The creatures of Moria opposes to intruders going through their realm.
Goal : To succesfully pass through Moria.
There are many others conflict, but this give an idea. Try writing this kind of schematic when working on your fic, to give you an idea of all the conflicts you can fit in. Decide early on a primary conflict (which should either A)Be introduced directly at the start, or B)Events leadign to that primary conflict should be introduced at the start). You don't need to write the tertiary conflicts in the schematic.
Say I wanted to write a trainer fic.
Primary Conflict : Joe vs The League
Origin : Joe wants to become a pokemon master ; it is the league's task to test him on that goal.
Goal : for Joe to become a pokemon master.
Result : Joe will eventually come to realize there are more important things in life than being a master, and will give up on his dream after failing to defeat the elite four.
Secondary Conflict : Joe vs Jake
Origin : Jake and Joe are always trying to outdo each other
Goal : For Joe to outdo Jake as a trainer.
Result : Jake will get himself killed trying to outdo Joe, putting an end to the conflict.
Secondary Conflict : Joe vs Danielle.
Origin : Danielle is persuaded that Joe is responsible for something bad that happened to her family, and is following him to exact her revenge.
Goal : Avoid being badly mauled by Danielle.
Result : Danielle and Joe will eventually make peace and part.
Secondary Conflict : Joe and Danielle vs Team Zulu
Origin : Joe and Danielle have been captured by Team Zulu agents who wants to steal their pokemon
Goal : Escape from Team Zulu
Result : They escape, and realize that Danielle's family "bad luck" was actually the work of Team Zulu.
From that point, it's easier to decide on plot twist if they all relate directly to the story's various major conflicts.
Hope this will help...
Conflicts are the cornerstone of storywriting. Without conflicts, there is NO story - well, there is, but it would be compltely boring and uninteresting. Conflicts make you character's life harder, and conflict make the tale interesting. As the old chinesse curse goes- "May you live in interesting times", meaning that when things get interesting, they also become hard or dangerous.
Each tale rely on a central conflict as its main point ; it may also develop secondary and tertiary conflicts. In the anime, the primary conflict would be "Ash vs the League to become a master", the secondary conflict could include "Ash vs Gary" and "Ash vs Team rocket", and a tertiary conflict could be "Ash vs the mayor of that town in the Mystery Menace" or the ilk. The primary conflict is the driving force behind the story, what the tale is about. Secondary conflict are important subplots : they're not what the tale is about, but they still are imporant plot points (either because of how they affect the story, or because of how long they last). Tertiary conflicts are those small side-conflicts that you add in to liven up the story (say, haggling with an innkeeper about the price for a room).
A conflict has the following element :
An origin : this is the source of the conflict ; the event that triggered it.
A goal : this is the protagonist's objective in the conflict.
A resolution : how the conflicts turns out in the end. Either a)The protagonist achieve his goal or b)The antagonist achieve his goal or c)Another event put an end to the conflict (for example by making both the protagonist's and antagonist's goal unatainable).
Let's take the pokemon anime's central conflict
Origin : The conflict stems from Ash's dream to become a pokemon master. The gym leaders are tasked with testing his skill to see if he is good enough.
Goal : Ash's goal in the conflict is to become a pokemon master
Resolution : Unknown
Or, a secondary conflict, Ash vs Team Rocket :
Origin : Team Rocket wants to obtain Pikachu
Goal : Ash is trying to keep Pikachu safe
Resolution : Unknown
But these are only conflicts where humans faces other humans. This is hardly the only kind of conflict there can be.
There are seven generally agreed on forms of conflict.
Man vs Himself
This is usually a very common form of conflict, and often the primary form of conflict in Japanesse theater (loyalty and duty versus love and personal feelings). A character is caught having to make a hard choice. Note that every fic should be choke-full of this kind of conflict as tertiary conflicts.
Origin : The character has to make a choice (between love and duty, for example)
Goal : To chose which path the character will follow.
Often there is one he WANTS to follow and one he knows he SHOULD follow.
Man vs Man
Probably the archtypical form of conflict, found in just about every story. Two characters (or group of characters, such as a pokemon league for a random notion) have conflicting goals, and are thus brought in conflict. It could be that they both desire the same woman, or that one desires to accomplish something and that it's the other (group of) characters' role to test him to see if he's ready for what he wants to do.
Origin : Character A (not necessarily the protagonist) wants something, and Character B wants that same thing (or an opposite thing - character A wants to destroy a gold ring and character b wants the ring for himself, for a random example), or must test character A to decide if he's worthy of what he wants, or, or, or (etc).
Goal : Very open. Whatever the characters want to do.
Man vs Society
Someone (generally the protagonist) is challenging the basic laws or structures of a society, trying to change them, or acting outside of them. The great forces of society - wheter it be the government or the church or whatever - seeks to stamp down the opposing individual.
Origin : The Protagonist has come into conflict with the established social order. Either he seeks to change the social order, or else he is ignoring it toward his goal.
Goal : The protagonist either a)Wants to change the social order (by bringing equality despite skin colors - Martin Luther King ; by reforming a corrupt religion - the other Martin Luther ; by ensuring a more equal distribution of riches instead of letting the nobility steal it all and leave peasant starving - Robin Hood - etc) or B)Wants to achieve his primary goal (whichever it might be) without being prevented from doing so by the social order (say, a girl want to lead the army of her country against an invader despite the fact that social structure says women should stay home and certainly shouldn't fight. Any ressemblance with Joan of Arc is purely unfortuitous).
Man vs His Creation
Something created by mankind has gotten out of hand. The protagonist must somehow find a way to put an end to the creation's menace.
Origin : A creation of mankind has gotten out of hand and is now posing a threat. Say, a crime leader ordered a genetically altered much more powerful version of a creature made. Alternatively, the electric fences of a zoo of cloned dinosaurs have been shut down.
Goal : The goal is either a)To eliminate the threat of the creation or b)To survive and escape it.
Man vs Nature
Origin : The protagonist find himself faced with the forces of nature. Either a)He must overcome natural obstacles on his way to something (in this case the conflict of man vs nature would probably be a secondary conflict) or b)He finds himself forced to confront nature by events (airplane crash, wrecked on a desert island, etc)
Goal : Either the character must overcome nature (cross a difficult mountain range, hetch out a life on a desert island) or he must survive against nature's fury (snowstorm, shipwreck, etc)
Man vs Supernatural
A mysterious, unknown force (alien, ancient evil spirit, dark creature, dangerous magical cards) poses a threat, and the hero must confront that threat for some reason (perhaps he has a gold ring some terrifying ghostly black riders wants to take back...)
Origin : The protagonist awakens OR his selected as a target by an unknown force outside the natural order, OR realizes such a force has awakened/arrived in the world, OR he is destined to eliminate the force.
Goal : The protagonist must eliminate the Supernatural threat, or at the very least survive the threat until he can reaches a safe haven.
Man vs God
Probably the ultimate form of conflict : a (human) protagonist finds himself in conflict with a driving force of the universe. The Dark Lord, Death itself, Destiny, Time, or even God Incarnate and the characters have a disagreement of views, and the character seeks to defeat
Origin : Either a)A driving force of the universe has decided to pursue the protagonist with his wrath (cursing him in some fashion ; see Tolkien's tale of Hurin's children in Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales) or B)A character has decided to overcome a basic driving force of the universe to accomplish a goal (defeat TIME, DEATH, DESTINY, etc) or C)A character is set to confront (and possibly defeat) a divine being.
Goal : The character seeks to defeat a basic force of the universe. Perhaps by escaping a curse on his life set by a God, or by resurecting a loved one.
------------------
Now how does this applies?
When writing the story, you should always keep in mind all the ongoing conflicts, especially the primary one.
Here is an example of a conflict schematic for the Fellowship of the Ring, using only some of the conflicts there
Primary Conflict : Free People VS Sauron
Origin : Sauron want to dominate Middle Earth
Goal : Prevent Sauron from taking over.
Secondary Conflict : Fellowship VS Ring
Origin : The Ring attempts to corrupt members of the fellowship.
Goal : Resist the corruption of the Ring.
Secondary Conflict : Fellowship VS Gollum
Origin : Gollum wishes to recvoer the One Ring
Goal : Prevent Gollum from recovering the Ring
Secondary Conflict : Halflings (and Strider) VS The Ringwraiths
Origin : The Ringwraiths were sent by Sauron to recover the Ring
Goal : Carry the Ring safely to the Elven City of Rivendell.
Secondary Conflict : Fellowship vs The Creatures of Moria
Origin : The creatures of Moria opposes to intruders going through their realm.
Goal : To succesfully pass through Moria.
There are many others conflict, but this give an idea. Try writing this kind of schematic when working on your fic, to give you an idea of all the conflicts you can fit in. Decide early on a primary conflict (which should either A)Be introduced directly at the start, or B)Events leadign to that primary conflict should be introduced at the start). You don't need to write the tertiary conflicts in the schematic.
Say I wanted to write a trainer fic.
Primary Conflict : Joe vs The League
Origin : Joe wants to become a pokemon master ; it is the league's task to test him on that goal.
Goal : for Joe to become a pokemon master.
Result : Joe will eventually come to realize there are more important things in life than being a master, and will give up on his dream after failing to defeat the elite four.
Secondary Conflict : Joe vs Jake
Origin : Jake and Joe are always trying to outdo each other
Goal : For Joe to outdo Jake as a trainer.
Result : Jake will get himself killed trying to outdo Joe, putting an end to the conflict.
Secondary Conflict : Joe vs Danielle.
Origin : Danielle is persuaded that Joe is responsible for something bad that happened to her family, and is following him to exact her revenge.
Goal : Avoid being badly mauled by Danielle.
Result : Danielle and Joe will eventually make peace and part.
Secondary Conflict : Joe and Danielle vs Team Zulu
Origin : Joe and Danielle have been captured by Team Zulu agents who wants to steal their pokemon
Goal : Escape from Team Zulu
Result : They escape, and realize that Danielle's family "bad luck" was actually the work of Team Zulu.
From that point, it's easier to decide on plot twist if they all relate directly to the story's various major conflicts.
Hope this will help...
