My two cents! Which cost me significantly more after this morning's referendum result, mind you...

What's conflict?

Conflict exists when one desire is opposed to another.

The opposing desires can belong to two different characters:

Batman wants to punch Joker in the face
But Joker wants to not be punched in the face

Or the opposing desires can belong to the same character:

Batman wants to save Rachel Dawes from the bomb at Location A
But Batman wants to save Harvey Dent from the simultaneous bomb at location B

This definitely won't end well. Oh goody.

Of course, those come from a big-budget action movie — they're concrete and external to the characters to hopefully better illustrate the point. But good fiction will also build conflict from desires which are internal. More subtle or emotional. (Say, 'I hate endangering Aunt May, but I have to fight crime because of my Uncle-Ben guilt.')

Where should you use conflict?

Your story should have conflict, and your individual scenes should have conflict.

At a story level, conflict might be

Dick Punchman P.I. wants to stop the killer
But he also wants to save his marriage

Wait! Those aren't opposed. There's not necessarily any conflict here.

Dick Punchman P.I. wants to stop the killer
But he has to be less obsessed with work to save his marriage

Much better. Now we're ruining his life. Mmmmmm...

At a scene level, conflict might be:

Dick Punchman wants information from Sultry Broad #14
But she wants to see him punished for putting her boyfriend in jail

Two desires, check. Opposed, check. Completely dumb? Also check! But it's a conflict. Woohoo!

How should you use conflict?

There are two considerations, as I see it:

Watching characters resolve conflict is satisfying
Scenes which don't have any conflict are boring

In the example above with Sultry Broad #14 , if Dick finds a way to give them both what they want, then that act of problem solving is satisfying for us as readers; you've got a potentially compelling scene; but don't then continue it for fifteen pages if you've just resolved the only conflict. Either close the scene, or sprinkle in more conflict to keep us interested.

I think your headache might be...

And I might be completely wrong here, because, of course, I don't really know what I'm talking about. But I think you're potentially getting tied in knots because you're thinking of conflict as a single absolute to be identified for the book, then ticked off. You're cooking a meal, and you need to choose the meat — will it be chicken or duck or lamb? What's your 'main conflict'?

Instead, think of conflict like the spice. You need some here and there. Make sure every part of the story has enough — taste it, and if it's boring, add more — but don't stress about what is 'the spice' of your dish. It's about multiples and degrees, rather than an absolute.

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