Today, I was put in a situation that I was not at all comfortable with. In fact, I was stuck in a situation that I frequently have nightmares about.
I was back in middle school.
Well, today I was an adult volunteer at my son’s middle school and proctoring a state exam (the North Carolina EOGs). But gosh, the flashbacks. The lockers with unworkable combination locks. The hormones. The cliques.
When you proctor a test, you’re basically there to ensure that the teacher and the students aren’t cheating and that nothing funny is going on. Yes, it’s hours long and borrrrring. My mind wandered.
I started thinking that if I were writing a book about myself, this would be a fantastic conflict for the character representing myself. Because middle school was miserable. I mean, you could promise me eternal youth, but if I had to spend it as a middle schooler, I’d turn you down flat.
That’s the best way to create internal or external conflict for your characters. What’s their worst nightmare? What scares them the most? That’s what needs to happen to them, for the best internal/external plot conflicts. That’s what keeps us, as readers, interested. It’s an: “Oh Lord! How are they gonna get out of this one?”
So make them rush into a burning building. Make their child get kidnapped. Have them lose their job or their home. Torture them a little for the sake of the story and see what happens. Riveting reading is usually the outcome.
I think it is really important to know what your central conflict is and how you are going to resolve it, before you begin writing. I know some people come up with a basic premise and then have a go at it, to see where it ends up, but I find the conclusions are usually unsatisfying.
As far as what the conflict is, I find internal conflicts far more satisfying as far as the character development they produce. External conflicts are good for setting things in motion, but I like to see my character really sweat through their internal thought processes before finally resolving an issue.
Thanks for the great post.
Hi Elizabeth,
Without internal and external conflict, there really isn’t much of a story. Fear is a great place to start.
My character lost his parents and his three siblings have all moved out of state, so his fear is being alone. Then, he totally screws up (if you know what I mean) with the one girl he feels he can plan a life and family with.
That’s one of the numerous conflicts in the book. Happy ending: the girl, Susan Anderson, turns out to be one of the stronger personalities in the book and takes him back when she has every right to walk away.
Feed back: As a visitor to your site I prefer to have a separate wndow open up for comments. I like to refer to the original blog when responding.
Great site. I enjoy visiting and getting ideas for bringing my site into the 21st century.
Stephen Tremp
Author – Breakthrough: The Adventures of Chase Manhattan
http://www.stephentremp.blogspot.com
Your post got me thinking and I’ve just posted a blog that is following the random trails of thought that I went on. Great post – very much liked the thoughts it lead me toward.
Good point. No way in hades would I return to middle school, let alone high school. Always up the stakes for your protagonist. Keep making things worse and worse until the final breakthrough.