My gradual truce with conflict

For a long time, the word ‘conflict’ bothered me.

In writing advice, it always looms large. Stories tend to need conflict. Otherwise, they can wither and die.

The problem I had was my understanding of what ‘conflict’ meant.

In real life (an assumption, of course, that life is ever real), conflict usually suggests rows, stand-offs or situations where things have clearly gone wrong between people. It feels noisy and uncomfortable. Most of us would happily avoid it if we could at all.

But I learned – slowly, through painful, peaceful trial and error – that conflict in a story can look very different.

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It can sit quietly in the ether. A person can be in conflict with many things: themselves, a neighbour, a colleague, a decision they regret or a reaction they wish they weren’t having.

Sometimes a character isn’t even on one side of the conflict. They might simply be the witness to it.

One thing I have noticed about my own writing is that I tend to shield my characters from conflict. I like to keep things manageable for them. My instinct is that the stakes should be high for the person involved but low for the wider world.

The danger, of course, is making them too low.

It’s something I’m working on. Don’t protect the characters. Let them go broke. Don’t have them win the lottery too early. Let them lose the house rather than offering a last-minute reprieve.

If the car is running low on petrol on a dark country road, maybe let it run out. Or at least let the reader experience those minutes when the vehicle might splutter to a halt.

Buy On The Way Out in your local bookstore or from our online store

MORE ON THE CRAFT OF WRITING: See HERE. I’m adding to this on an ongoing basis. As I learn, hopefully you can too. Every day is school day for us all.