By Thomas Kies
Syd Field, author of Screenplay: The Foundations of Screen Writing, said, “All drama is conflict. Without conflict, you have no action; without action, you have no character; without character, you have no story; and without story, you have no screenplay.”
On the other hand, Ursula Le Guin claimed that not every story needs to revolve around conflict, advocating for the importance of other human experiences like connection, growth, and understanding.
I happen to agree with Mr. Field. Even stories about connection, growth and understanding stem from conflict.
What types are there?
Man (or Woman) against Self. In my mystery series, the protagonist, Geneva Chase is an alcoholic. She also suffers from body dysmorphia and depression that leads to self-defeating actions. The very fact that she succeeds at what she sets out to do (while being a smartass and snarky at the same time) is what makes her relatable. I believe that most of us have inner demons that create conflict. Have any doubts? Wouldn’t you like that piece of chocolate you’ve hidden away in your drawer right about now?
Good against Evil. This is the straightforward Good Guy versus Bad Guy scenario. Superman versus Lex Luthor, Sherlock Holmes versus Dr. Moriarty, Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader. In real life, this might be more relatable if it’s you versus your boss at work…or you versus the insurance company…or you versus the cable company. You get the picture. It’s still good against evil.
Man (or Woman) against Nature. This is where your protagonist struggles against storms, earthquakes, animals, revived dinosaurs, or surviving in the Andes Mountains after a plane crash as in the movie “Society of the Snow”. With climate change becoming more of a factor in our lives, we see this in real life with increasing intensity of hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, floods, and snowstorms. Oh wait…they don’t want us to talk about climate change anymore, do they? That seems to be a bit of conflict with nature.
Man (or Woman) against Society. Examples in literature are Orwell’s 1984 and Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Examples in real life…well, just watch the news.
Man (or Woman) against Technology. A literary example of this is Asimov’s I, Robot. An example of a movie is M3GAN. With technology accelerating so quickly, it’s difficult to use in your writing. By the time you’re published, your premise might be obsolete. I’ll have to check with AI to make sure I’m right about this.
Man (or Woman) against the Supernatural. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts…oh my. So many examples here. Wait…what was that sound in the attic?
It really doesn’t matter what your genre is, conflict will be part of it. Crime novel….will the cop catch the murderer before he kills again? Romance…will the boy get the girl? Historical fiction…will we win World War II?
As Syd Field stated, without conflict, you really don’t have a story. I’m teaching another Creative Writing class and last week I gave a prompt to write a scene of about 500 words dealing with conflict. I’m eager to hear how they did. They’ll be reading their work in tonight’s class.
Heck, just giving them the assignment, I gave them conflict to deal with.
