Degrees of conflict
It's a truism that good fiction always needs to contain conflict of some kind. While most of us seek to avoid it in our real lives,we do like to be entertained by the conflicts ands struggles of fictional people.
Conflict in fiction can take many forms. At the top of the tree has to be all-out war where millions of people are killed. Conflict in this physical sense can also involve a person murdering another being.
But many forms of conflict we encounter in stories are much more subtle than this. Conflict can be a husband forgetting to collect a wife from a party she's insisted on going to. Was his omission pure forgetfulness, or part of the conflict between them about her successful business? He might say that he's happy for her to be more successful than him, but his actions might tell a different story. It's quite likely that the conflict between them will come out in the open after she gets home from the party though!
A conversation about moving house can mask a wealth of conflict. Where one person is enthusiastic about the move but others aren't you have the scene set for conflict ranging from a refusal to discuss the issue, a stony silence when the details of a new house are produced, to changing the subject pointedly about how much a character enjoys a weekly class or the friendship of the person he or she is lunching with today.
So conflict can either be direct, out in the open, expressed in physical violence and angry words, or it could be hidden, a subtext that has to be unearthed and interpreted by character and reader alike.
Conflict in fiction can take many forms. At the top of the tree has to be all-out war where millions of people are killed. Conflict in this physical sense can also involve a person murdering another being.
But many forms of conflict we encounter in stories are much more subtle than this. Conflict can be a husband forgetting to collect a wife from a party she's insisted on going to. Was his omission pure forgetfulness, or part of the conflict between them about her successful business? He might say that he's happy for her to be more successful than him, but his actions might tell a different story. It's quite likely that the conflict between them will come out in the open after she gets home from the party though!
A conversation about moving house can mask a wealth of conflict. Where one person is enthusiastic about the move but others aren't you have the scene set for conflict ranging from a refusal to discuss the issue, a stony silence when the details of a new house are produced, to changing the subject pointedly about how much a character enjoys a weekly class or the friendship of the person he or she is lunching with today.
So conflict can either be direct, out in the open, expressed in physical violence and angry words, or it could be hidden, a subtext that has to be unearthed and interpreted by character and reader alike.
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