Find out how to discover the battle in a narrative
One of the biggest challenges in writing better stories is knowing exactly which scenes to write. The best scenes focus on the core elements of the conflict. So before you can write amazing scenes, you need to find the conflict in a story.
You may have a great story idea in mind. However, the details – which moments should be captured – are unclear. The result is often writer's block or a story that feels "out", meaning it isn't focusing on the right thing.
This is where conflict mapping can make your writing even better!
Strong scenes arise from strong plans. And visualizing the conflict between your characters is a great way to do just that.
When a conflict in a story is unclear
Conflict is essential to a strong story.
But rarely does the conflict of a story magically appear in our minds. That's because inspiration often comes from other sources: beauty, music, or situations. Rarely do we get inspiration from a purposeful sequence of events aimed at pursuing a goal (which is a story) as it usually happens too quickly to be noticed.
So when we sit down to write, we are really just translating the picture or idea we had into a word image.
Except that this is not a conflict. I experienced this in 2012 when I decided to write a crime thriller about a family in New Orleans. My wife and I even vacationed there and stayed just outside the French Quarter. And while we saw a lot of beautiful things, heard amazing music, and came up with a lot of interesting situations, there was no strong conflict between the stories as we sweated through the city.
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The beauty, music and situations that inspire you to write are wonderful – but these alone are not the conflict of your story.
How can we translate inspiration and ideas into clear conflicts in a story?
Easy: first draw two circles.
Conflict map: drawing a relationship
Draw two empty circles to start your conflict map. Then connect them with bow arrows like this:
Now decide which two people are related in your story. You don't need names. Just people. Mother and daughter? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Owner and dog?
You decide.
Just put something in.
Then write what he or she wants from the other character on the arrow coming from one character's bubble. It can be physical (preferable) or non-physical (okay – just add something physical, like "affection = hug").
Then think about what the other character would like to begin with. Write it on his arrow.
When doing this, take into account properties that can be essential for any character. Write them in the circles. This is the time to create without fear or reservation.
And to keep it fear free, do it in pencil so you can erase and change it to your heart's content!
Create 4 relationships
According to Robert McKee, there are four character types that almost every protagonist has a relationship with in most stories. Whenever I build a new story in a new world, I find that this is a fantastic place to start, and that's exactly what I did when I was building the world of my New Orleans play.
The four types of characters you need to fill in first, as planned, are:
- friend: What do you want from a friend? What does the exchange of goals look like in friendship?
- authority: How does this relationship generate benevolent and / or negative energy?
- love: How does the protagonist think about his love interest and possibly plan to pursue it?
- enemy: Who is against the protagonist? Is it direct opposition (that contradicts the protagonist's goal) or competition (that pursues the same or a similar goal)?
Once you've determined what the protagonist wants each of these characters to do, draw arrows connecting the characters together. What could the authorities want from the friend? The friend from love? And so on.
Not only does this give you more characters to work with, but it also plants the seeds of conflict that will blossom into powerful scenes. When characters are involved in authentic relationships, the conflict between them occurs more naturally. It doesn't feel unclear, nor does it come out of nowhere.
So plan for two (or more) characters who want things from each other that cannot simply be given.
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When you have characters in conflict, you have what it takes to make a strong story.
You can see my protagonist Isabel's relationship with two of these characters below: the boyfriend (her adoptive brother) and her authority (her mother, Natasha). Note that I hadn't figured out Andre's destination yet. This really is a way of discovering your protagonist's "world"!
Add goals and get started
By the time I finished my conflict map, it was so big that my game might not contain all of the characters and relationships. So I cut five of these!
However, the map was invaluable in planning the relationships and conflicts I would need to make the story work. It gave me the seeds of great, dramatic scenes.
And the result was a fun, exciting game that surprised everyone with its authentic conflict!
However, there is one thing I haven't done that I highly recommend to you: Add action verbs to the goal of each character. There is a big difference between an enemy who chooses to "destroy" in order to achieve his goal and one who "humbles".
My protagonist, a future bride, decided to "calm down" her arrogant mother in order to achieve her goal of "real love and appreciation". The piece would have been a lot different if she'd chosen "guilt", "lying" or "ignoring". Verbs are important and can help you create those crucial scenes.
You can see a large view of my final map here. It's a mess – four pieces of paper are glued together and scanned into the computer in three stacks.
But the planning process is supposed to be chaotic, not a perfect, finished product! And a well executed plan can lead to a wonderful end product!
Try character mapping and see how your story gets stronger instantly!
How do you find the conflict in a story? Let us know in the comments.
WORK OUT
Take fifteen minutes to create a character map for your protagonist's four "world" characters: friend, authority, love and foe. Make sure the arrows go from each character to the other and identify what each wants in each relationship. Then add action verbs that describe how each character gets what they want.
In the comments, summarize one of these relationships by sharing what each character wants from the other and what he / she is up to to get it! Then be sure to leave feedback for your note-takers!
David Safford
