How to Create Conflict in Your Story


Conflict is when opposing forces rub together. It invokes curiosity and empathy in readers because it reveals the story world and characters. Essentially, a story is a series of smaller conflicts that relate back to an overarching one.

Creating friction in your story begins with the character’s goals - for the whole story and for individual scenes. Give your character something sympathetic to strive for (love, freedom, honor, etc.) and keep her from getting it. The obstacle can be the character herself, another character, or a task or object. The pursuit of their goal results in a dilemma that pushes the character into action, which causes a reaction, which sets up their goal for the next scene. As the story progresses, the character’s responses to difficulties should reflect the change in their heart or skills.

Conflict can be internal (wanting joy, acceptance, forgiveness, etc.), interpersonal (connecting with distant parents or trying to flirt with a crush), or external (defusing the bomb before time runs out or getting past a laser grid to get to the hostage). They should progressively become more difficult to overcome, personal, and emotionally charged. Furthermore, the stakes (what the character has to lose) should always become more dire. It should never be easy to escape conflict and there must always be consequences to the characters’ actions.

Here’s how to create conflict:



External Conflict: Look for friction in your story world. Are there magic systems, opposing governments, religious systems, economic statuses, or oppressed races in your story? Are there geographic landmarks or terrains that could potentially challenge your characters? In specific scenes are there ways to use objects or buildings as a means of keeping your character from achieving their goal? As much as possible, try to put your character at a circumstantial disadvantage right from the beginning of the scene. This will create empathy and make her ultimate victory more satisfying. Usually, external conflicts emphasize and reveal what a character is capable of.

Interpersonal Conflict: Give characters opposing traits, beliefs, statuses, or goals, and put them in a scene together. Create romantic tension by keeping lovers apart or use subtext rather than blatant yelling to show disdain. Play, experiment, and watch what happens.

Internal Conflict: Make things personal for your characters by asking them personal questions. What do they love, hate, and fear? Force them to lose what they love or face what they hate or fear. I like to give characters two equally important convictions and pit them against each other. For example, a high school student wants peace in her friend group but has a crush on her best friend’s brother. Typically, internal and interpersonal circumstances reveal and change who the character is.



It’s not easy to create conflict. Basically ask yourself, “How can I make things worse?” Always raise the stakes, twist readers’ expectations, make promises about what’s coming, and withhold those promises. Best of luck.

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