Q&A: Conflict! How to decide and write the conflicts your characters face.

If you've kept up with my blog this past year, you might be familiar with my go-to advice for plotting. "Where do I start?" is probably one of the most often asked questions that I get. The answer I give is usually to plot in reverse. Start from the ending and work your way back. This time, I'm going to go more into a 'step by step' explanation.

One of my favorite parts of the writing process is daydreaming and brainstorming. You get yourself your drink of choice and relax in your favorite place. Once cozy and set, open up a window in Word or whip out your notebook and get to jotting! Normally, I would say "What kind of story do you want to tell?" or "What kind of theme are you feeling needs to be portrayed?" or my favorite... "Tell me about the book that you've always wanted to read... but doesn't exist yet." For this blog, I'm going to start a little further ahead.

So you have the characters. You have the setting. You have the theme. Now what? You can't have a story without conflict, right? But how? Where do I start? My suggestion: Start by answering this... what does your character want to accomplish? What are their goals? This is for the protagonist as well as the antagonist. Jot down each of their major plot points, every cool, scary, tear creating, or giggle inducing scene. Including a note about whether you intend for them to succeed or fail. Is little Timmy trying to win a spelling bee? Is Debra trying to get a promotion? Is Devontay trying to save the city from a bomb? Are the trio of superheroes trying to save the world?

Great... now put on that hat.

Yeah, the one with the big red horns.

Yeah, that's right... now do your worst!

How can Timmy study his words if his friends are pushing him to go play? Oh no... Debra's new boss is the guy she broke up with in High School, and he's totally not over her. Wait... the bomb was never armed... but now the police have arrived and it totally looks like Devontay was the one SETTING the bomb! One of the trio lost their powers while protecting the other one whose leg got broken... and the third can only save them if they let a certain secret be known. Do your worst! The harder it is for the reader to imagine them finding a way out of it, the better.

Remember, once you've decided the problem, you can come up with a solution and plant the seeds for it as you move your way from the ending to the beginning. Sometimes people write themselves into a corner, forcing themselves to resort to making stuff up on the fly. Sometimes they'll throw some magic bull-crap that was never hinted at, or make an item just happen to be there that solves their problem... you know... a 'McGuffin' that comes out of nowhere. The reader ends up thinking, "Oh so now all the sudden they can fly?" or "Seriously, the answer just fell into their lap?" and their eyes roll.

We don't want that.

People like for the victory to be earned. They also like to be surprised by the unpredictable... or feel smart for being able to piece things together on their own. So now, you can go backwards and think, "What secret can the third hero have that they don't want the other two to know and how can it come in handy?" or "What dirt can the boss have on her to manipulate her?"

So long as you're going backwards, you can sprinkle all the breadcrumbs and hide the answer in plain sight! To make it even better, you can always add more suspense. You can have the character say the spelling be is Monday over and over, while having their mother keep saying it's on the 12th. Then after you trick your audience into thinking Timmy succeeded the trial you put them through, you have them notice that today is Wednesday the 10th. He thought he had the weekend, but now there's only one day between him and the big day! Once that is decided, you just go back through your plot points and make notes to make sure that everything falls into place.

One more thing to remember... tension. Give the audience the stakes. Give them the plan. Make them think the plan is going well... then throw the wrench into the plans. The thing they need costs $15. The bully threatens them and takes it. The kid works their butt off to earn $15 in the short amount of time. They get to the store... oh no... it's only $15 BEFORE TAX! Now the protagonist is short! Well, as the writer, you can go back and have them put a $5 bill in their jacket pocket in chapter one and forget about it. Then when they need it in chapter 8, most of the readers will have forgotten about it and be like, "Oh yeah!" You can do the same thing by having the lady take a take a picture as a teen and have the boss' younger self be caught in the act in the old picture. "Holy crap! I never noticed before, but he's holding Lisa's hand right there! That's totally the hat that I bought him! That's him!" or something even more incriminating. You just casually point it out in a way that most will glance over... then boom, when it comes into play, they probably won't have seen it coming!

Once you've got all these notes down, look at what you did. You just plotted an awesome book! Now, you can sit down and fill in all the space between with your style of writing! So there you go. You plotted the story backward, you created the conflict, and solved it in reverse! Have you heard this angle before? Do you have any good advice for creating conflict? Let me know in the comments!

Now... get your drink ready, get cozy, then GET TO WRITING!

Good luck!