CONFLICT

by Pam Zollman

This is Part 2 of my blogs on Scene and Sequel. Remember that every Scene has three parts: Goal (which we discussed last time), Conflict, and Disaster. This week we’ll discuss “conflict.”

One definition of conflict is “a state of open, often prolonged fighting; a battle or war.” Another definition is “a competitive or opposing action of incompatibles.” But the best definition I’ve ever seen of conflict is “two dogs, one bone.”

Some books have major battles in them, some physical and some mental. Some books have good vs evil (think Harry Potter). Some have two people wanting the same thing, but only one can have it. Depending on the age of your readers as well as the type of story you’re telling, you’ll have different degrees of conflict.

Conflicts are the results of obstacles blocking a goal. When your character is trying to get from point a to point b, you need to put something in the way to stop him. As he confronts the obstacle, he must decide how to deal with it. This, in turn, reveals the true nature of your character and allows him to grow slowly throughout your story.

· E Every story has conflict.

We don’t want our lives to have conflict; we go out of our way, in fact, to avoid it. However, we don’t want to read books without conflict. Those books are boring...and don’t sell. Since your story has a goal, then your story must have something to prevent that goal from being easily achieved. Plots usually concern one (or more) of these: man against man, man against nature, man against society, or man against himself.

· E Every character has conflict.

Obstacles for a character are developed from two main places: his goal and his nature. When you are devising obstacles, you must make them fit the story and move it forward. So examine your character’s main story goal and ask yourself ways to stop him from achieving it. What are some of the natural obstacles? If a boy wants to hit a home run, but usually strikes out, a natural obstacle would be a lack of time to practice. Also examine your character’s nature and use his weaknesses and fears as obstacles. If that boy had a weakness of not being able to say “no” to his friends, then he would give up hitting practice time to hang with his friends...and not be any closer to hitting a home run, which is his goal.

· E Every scene has conflict.

While your character has a major over-arching story goal, he also has smaller goals that move him forward in the story. Each scene has a goal, so therefore, each scene has conflict – something to stop your character from achieving his goal. The obstacle doesn’t always have to stop your character; it can also just hinder your character along the way. The size of the obstacle depends on the importance of the scene. The more important the scene, the bigger the obstacle, and therefore, the bigger the conflict. Your reader wants to see conflict “on stage,” not “off stage.” In order words, he wants to read about it as it happens, not hear about it from the author after it happened. If you do that, your reader will feel cheated.

Even though conflict and its preceding obstacles stop your main character from achieving his goal easily, it should not stop your character completely. Don’t paint your character into a corner; allow him a way to escape. If you don’t, then your story ends. But each obstacle and resulting conflict moves the story forward and strengthens your character.

Conflict: it’s what your reader wants!

Next time we’ll discuss “disasters.”

Scene Goals

by Pam Zollman

I was working on a scene in my WIP middle-grade novel and it was causing trouble for me. It made me go back and review what I was doing. I learned how to write scenes from Dwight Swain’s book, TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER.

Scenes have three parts:

• Goal
• Conflict
• Disaster

Today, we'll discuss "goals.”

Every story has a goal.

Your character has an overarching story goal -- the problem he or she has to solve, something he/she wants to achieve. My character, Joetta, wants respect from her family, but she doesn't understand at first that *that* is what she wants. She thinks she wants revenge for her twin brothers' pranks. She thinks she wants relief from a copycat younger sister. She thinks she wants her parents to punish her siblings, while giving her a break. This is what drives her through the story.

Every scene has a goal.

Her brothers continue to prank her, and in the previous scene attacked her with pillows until she screamed for help from her parents, who were unhappy at being awakened. So now she's lying there in the dark in her great-grandmother's home, thinking about revenge. She decides to wait until the twins are asleep and then write on their foreheads, "dumb" and "dumber." Her goal in this scene is to write on their foreheads without waking up them -- or her parents -- and getting away with it.

Goals create active characters.

Scenes are action. You want your character to be active, not passive. Passive characters react to what happens to them; they seem to allow things to happen. Active characters make things happen, good or bad. They don't wait for something to happen. Not all of their decisions are good, but they do make decisions and ACT. These characters are more interesting and engaging for readers.

Every scene goal leads eventually to solving the overall story goal.

As your character moves forward, scene by scene, goal by goal, he or she gets closer to solving the problem or achieving a desired outcome. Your character will not only reach the final goal, but will grow in the process. As your character handles each problem presented by each scene, he stretches and grows and is able to make new and better goals.

So give your character a goal in every single scene. It's what moves your story forward. Next time we’ll talk about “conflict.”

The Secret to Writing a Compelling Scene: Less is More—More or Less

Writing a powerful scene is a precise balance between what you say and what you don’t. The author has to provide enough detail to transport readers into the story, but not so much it clogs the flow of the story.

Let me give you an example using a movie I’m certain almost everyone’s familiar with—Jaws. Jaws was one of Steven Spielberg’s early movies and a lot hinged on its success. It was filmed in a time before CGI (computer generated images) so everything had to be filmed in real life.

Originally Mr. Spielberg planned to use a gigantic mechanical shark. He envisioned it providing the realism he thought the movie needed—slicing through the water, devouring swimmers and creating havoc. But one thing stood in the way, they film crew couldn't make the shark work.

The further they got into filming the worse things got, and the further behind schedule they lagged. Finally, the soon-to-be-great Steven Spielberg had to admit defeat—and come up with another way to make the movie—without the shark. He struggled, trying to determine how to add fear and terror without showing the audience the shark. It was then he hit on the answer, concentrate on the character’s reactions—physical and psychological—and let the shark be implied.

Well you and I both know the rest of the story, and it was arguably this movie that started his meteoric rise to success. Even today I can call to mind that iconic music and the terrifying opening scene. So what can we learn from this movie classic? Here are some things to remember when crafting a scene.

• Don’t name emotions – give your characters believable reactions and your readers will get it.
• Amp up the conflict – with powerful conflict comes heightened stakes. Your readers will get drawn deeper into the scene when they care about what happens.
• Don’t tell every detail – describe enough to let your reader feel they know where the characters are, but don’t be afraid to let your reader fill in some of the blanks. When the reader gets personally involved it becomes more real.

Paying attention to these three tips will help any scene get started on the right track.