Writing about conflict: tips to incorporate it in your novel

Writing about conflict is hard for my peacekeeping soul! Conflict in real life makes me anxious, how about you?

Feedback I’ve gotten any time (every time) I enter a writing contest always includes comments about conflict – or the lack of it – in my writing.

But apparently, conflict is key. Conflict is what keeps the story moving forward. Yikes!

I took my question to a Facebook group of mom writers: “I have such a hard time putting conflict in my writing!! I’m a peacekeeper at heart so it’s just really hard for me. Any ideas? I like conflict in a story but hate when it’s overwhelming. If that makes sense. Mine ends up underwhelming! Help!”

And I got some amazing ideas and tips! I want to share some with you:

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Writing about conflict doesn’t always involve arguments or fights

Arguing makes me nervous, so reading this really helped me. I don’t have to have some big dramatic argument or fight for conflict. Whew!

Provide an obstacle to overcome

Writing about conflict can mean you come up with a goal, desire, need, or obstacle for the character to overcome. In the cozy I’m working on, which is about a recent empty nester, my MC, Peg, doesn’t want to be alone. That’s a big obstacle. How will she overcome it? There is my conflict!

My character must fail

Oh! I have to give my character a failing (see more below). It’s not that she doesn’t have failings, I just have to uncover them and let them show.

What’s the worst thing that could happen?

One of the answers in the FB group cracked me up! She said something about losing legs in a chainsaw accident, catching on fire, and listening to country music!

But, she has a point! When you’re writing about conflict, what is the absolute worse that could happen to your character? And how can he/she recover from that? That’s what I (and you) need to discover and focus on.

Internal vs external conflict

I knew a little about this, but in case you don’t or need a refresher, here’s the difference with some examples:

Writing about conflict – internal conflict:

Characters, like real people, should have feelings and character issues they deal with. Things that are conflicting for them plus flaws in your character. This type of conflict is character vs. self.

According to a MasterClass article, Sharpen Your Writing Skills, “internal conflict involves a psychological struggle that takes place within a character, caused by their own emotions, fears, conflicting desires…. Internal conflict tends to be a battle of reconciling two opposing forces within the same individual.”

The best example of character vs. self that I’ve found is Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story. He doesn’t know he is a toy! This defines his role in the movie and as I read in 10 Fantastic Internal Conflict Examples, “It (internal conflict) is the conflict between who you think you are and who you really are.”

I understand that!

Writing about conflict – external conflict:

External conflicts fall under character vs. character, character vs. society, and character vs. nature.

This I understand more. Although I don’t want to write about fights necessarily, I find it easy to incorporate a hurricane or natural disaster (character vs. nature).

Good examples of character vs. society are the books 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale.

An overt character vs. character conflict can be seen in the Hunger Games trilogy. Also in my personal favorite high school book, The Outsiders.

Writing about conflict is starting to make sense

I watched this amazing YouTube video that Rachel Bateman did called How to Write Conflict Effectively She’s given me permission to share a few tips that I got from it (go watch it, trust me!):

• give your protag two motives and make her choose between them
• let your character be wrong
• have the character’s decision be the direct cause of the conflict
• the character has a flaw that becomes a barrier to her achieving her desires

What do you think?

All of these tips have helped me so much and I now have some internal conflict and external conflict to add to my WIP that I do think will amp the conflict aspect up exponentially! See, I’ve discovered Peg’s flaw! I’m so excited!! Plus it’s set in Florida, so a little hurricane might be headed her way. 😉

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Check out my post What is a Cozy Mystery to learn more about my WIP!

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About the author

Hi, I’m Jen! I’ve been married 37 years, have 5 amazing kids and 2 adorable grandkids and one on the way. I homeschooled our three youngest children. I used to blog about homeschooling and taught Oral Communication as an adjunct instructor for over 5 years.

Jen Dodrill Writes is born of a passion of mine – to write a novel! When I’m not working, you’ll find me writing, spending time with my family, or curled up on the couch reading and drinking a mug of dark roast coffee. (Don’t forget to check out my mug shop – JDMugs!)