The central conflict of a story is like an engine that drives the book. Without a central source of conflict (or, better, several sources of conflict), many aspects of the book suffer: the pacing, the tension, and overall reader engagement, ultimately detracting from the overall success of the book.
The conflict of any successful story must be immediately noticeable, as without a central source of conflict, it makes it difficult for the reader to follow the story and stay engaged with it. Your story’s conflict should be revealed by your book’s 25% mark.
What is Conflict?
Conflict is a struggle between two forces in your book, and goes against the protagonist’s wishes. The books with the best sources of conflict highlight character motivations (and therefore add to character development). The book’s conflict and plot are closely intertwined: The conflict is the problem that your character must solve, and the book’s plot is how he or she does it.
In Holly Spofford’s crime thriller novel Hot Ice, Cold Blood, the book’s main source of conflict was the book’s main character Daisy being caught up in a diamond heist, without being a willing participant. When Daisy accidentally disrupts the transfer of thousands of dollars worth of diamonds, she unwittingly sets off a chain of events that puts the story’s antagonists on a path to reclaim the diamonds, at any cost. This was a great source of conflict that led to much action and intrigue in the book. It’s a straightforward but effective source of conflict.
There are six types of literary conflict, including character vs. character, each with its own rules and methods.
Make Sure the “WHY” is Clear
A big part of the story’s conflict is making sure that the WHY is clear, an issue that I find is common among authors’ work. In the first draft of Ian Hellers’ hard sci-fi novel Ultima Veritas, the book’s main source of conflict was Rich, the main character, receiving mysterious videos depicting real-life events, including the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 (cool concept!). Yet the second part of this source of conflict—Rich’s WHY—was never really explained well.
Because of this lack of clear conflict, the book suffered a decline in pacing—particularly in the third act, the book’s ending.
Add Subplots
To add sophistication, intrigue, and more layers to your book, consider adding in subplots—after all, more sources of conflict make for more subplots. Internal conflict, where the book’s main character struggles with acceptance or some other mental block, is a great way to add more conflict and tension. While most sources of conflict are external, many books also rely on internal conflicts to drive the story forward and increase tension.
On top of this, I’d suggest adding smaller conflicts—plot arcs—where the characters must overcome smaller obstacles along their journey to achieving their big goal. When there are not enough obstacles for the characters to overcome, it often leads to slow pacing.
The book’s conflict is one of the things I look at in my manuscript critique service, and these are the questions I ask when reading an author’s manuscript:
- Does your story begin with some sort of conflict—either internal or external?
- Does the beginning set up the bigger “conflict” of the entire novel, the issue that drives your protagonist toward his/her end goal?
- Is your protagonist conflicted or is embroiled in some external conflict?
- Are there too many conflicts going on in the book? Too few?
- Is there an overarching conflict present in the story that is key to the premise and grows to a climax and resolution?
- Does your protagonist face one conflict or obstacle after another (each worse than the previous) that force him/her to have to make a tough decision(s)?
- Does the conflict serve the interest of the story or is it just thrown in the book for excitement?
Book editor Kristen Hamilton is the owner and sole employee of Kristen Corrects, Inc., where she provides manuscript editing services for traditionally and self-publishing authors. Several authors whose books she has edited have won awards and have topped Amazon’s best sellers lists.
Reading is Kristen’s passion, so when the workday is over, she can usually be found curled up with a good book alongside her four cats. She loves watching cat videos and scary movies, eating pizza, teaching herself French, and traveling, and she is likely planning her next vacation. She lives outside of Boise, ID.