Bumps In The Road — Increase the Conflict in Your Story

Think of your story as a car. Your car starts a road trip in one place with a destination in mind. Depending how the journey progresses your car either follows the map and ends up where it intended to go, or it becomes diverted and ends up in a different place.

Wherever your car winds up, you want to bring the reader along for the ride. Let them experience the potholes and detours, the lazy country drive and the crush of city traffic. That’s why a reader reads, at least reads fiction.

Here are some of the reasons readers pick up a book.

1. Escape Reality

2. Take the Mind on an Adventure

3. See Another Point of View

4. Relaxation

5. To Get Outside One’s Self

6. For the Suspense of Watching a Good Plot Unfold

7. Become Immersed In Another World

8. Entertainment

As writers, we don’t want to leave our readers standing by the side of the road watching our cars go past. Like riding a rollercoaster, the reader wants to feel the anticipation of the slow climb, that moment of hesitancy at the top, then the awesome thrill of decent before the next climb.

When your reader is immersed in your story they will laugh, scream, and cry along with your characters. They care. They want to be there to share the drama of the ride.

The greater the emotion, the more energizing the action of the story grows, the greater the effect on the reader.

Those strong emotions are developed through the conflict you create. Conflict is the core of your story, and your characters are the heart. Those bumps and hills and detours your story car takes as it moves toward that end destination are the challenges your character faces on their journey. Conflict creates drama and drama draws the reader in; involves them in the story.

However, if you write your action scenes in sequence, as if merely transcribing the movie images in your head, the story becomes flat and boring. Emotion is needed to give the action force.

What if a mother and daughter-in-law were the kitchen cooking Thanksgiving dinner? The scene could become blasé. So you throw in some obstacles. The daughter-in-law forgets to turn the oven on. Mother puts too much salt in the gravy. Still the scene is ordinary and flat. There is no emotion. Remember, happy families equal a boring story. What is needed are conflicting emotions.

What if the mother resented the daughter-in-law for taking her son away? How would that emotion charge this otherwise ordinary scene of two women cooking Thanksgiving dinner, even if not a word was spoken between them?

Conflicting emotions mean drama. Delve into the feelings of your characters — sadness, greed, fury, fear. Show us why the feelings are there and how they will influence later actions and feelings.

Create uncertainty to build suspense. Think about the red wire or the blue wire — the lady or the tiger? Will the young soldier die to save his buddies? Will the unemployed single mom be able to take care of her children or will child services take them? Pauses add drama because the answer isn’t immediate. It leaves room for possibilities.

Think about this question in the early rush of mom heading to work and the kids to school.

“Where’s your back pack?”

“Right here.”

No pause. The simple question is ordinary. It lacks drama. Now, we’ll add a pause.

“Where’s your backpack?”

“I don’t know.”

This uncertainty leaves room for possibilities. Anything can happen. The reader waits, anticipating what might happen next. Is the child’s English assignment inside? Will the son or daughter fail English if isn’t turned in on time? Will failing English keep them from graduating? If Mom takes the time to look for the bag, will she risk losing her job if she is again late for work? How will she pay the rent? Might she lose custody of her children?

The stakes must be high in order to create tension. Life and love are two powerful stakes, but they must be significant enough to produce tension. The higher the stakes, the higher the tension.

Now let’s put those same two lines at the Boston Marathon a year after the bombing.

“Where’s your backpack?”

“I don’t know.”

We must know who or what is pitted against who and we must understand the consequences. If we understand what’s at stake for the character if he/she doesn’t succeed, then the reader will care. Give the reader a chance to jump in a root for your hero.

Each obstacle we throw at our character causes a reaction in our character, which then causes them to make a decision and take action, which then causes the next reaction, decision, etc., etc.

Let the story unfold as we watch. That way the drama touches us. It puts the reader in the scene and creates immediacy. Remember to show each obstacle. Don’t leave the reader outside your story watching it pass by.

“I was in my office when I received an emergency call about a warehouse fire on Ten Rod Road. I called Dan and picked him up on the way. When we arrived the fire department was already there and the back of our warehouse was engulfed in flames.

“Once the fire department got the fire out they stayed for several hours watching for sparks and hot spots. The arson investigator showed up and walked through some of the rubble.

“Guess what he found? The charred remnants of Jake Spinner’s baseball cap. I knew he was mad at us for firing him, but I never expected this.”

This scene has elements of drama. There is a fire, arson is evidently suspected, and a clue as to the identity of the arsonist is discovered. However, there is no drama because the scene has no immediacy. The reader wasn’t there. The reader is being told about it after the fact and therefore while mildly interesting, the reader has no emotional investment in the scene.

Many writers do this in a scene at a restaurant or at the dinner table. They’ll use the meal as an opportunity to efficiently share information that the reader needs in order to move the story forward. Instead, if the stakes are high enough, forget the dinner scene. Put the reader at the warehouse fire. Use sensory detail to describe the heat, the smoke, the crackle of the burning building, the noise of the firemen moving trucks and hoses. And share the reactions of the characters as they watch their building go up in smoke. Let the reader know the cost to the characters. How will this fire affect them? How will this loss keep them from reaching their goal? What will happen if they can’t? What’s at stake?

Add layers, escalate the cost, make it harder. Let the reader cry when your character fails and cheer when they succeed.

Remember, you can never have too much conflict.