I'm always worried that the conflict in my story is stalling the plot/ tiring out the readers or, conversely, that my story isn't exciting enough.
How do yall know when to place conflict/ battle/ drama in your story?
Jun '22
Jul '22
Some advices I always give: (I'm a writer majored in creative writing and film studies)
Construct a structure first. You can follow the five-stage structure; exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. OR, you can choose the three-act structure; act 1 (setup), act 2 (confrontation), act 3 (resolution). Your story won't work without a structure.
But it doesn't mean you have to do everything by the book. The structure is simply to help guide you. Then, make a sketch of your story. It will help figure out where to start your conflict, and where to end it. Or where to include the twists etc.
The reason a conflict seems to be dragging out/stalling the story is most likely because the writers are just writing without knowing what to do next, hence the reason a story sketch is important.
Make sure your character's goal is clear. The obstacles, the conflicts will all relate to that goal.
I hope this helps a little bit. Good luck! ^^
Drama is less a thing you "insert" into a story, and more a thing that emerges from conflict. When two or more people are opposed in a way that means that they can't both get what they want, you'll get drama.
If the characters being at odds over something feels like it comes out of nowhere, the drama will feel manufactured or forced, but if it doesn't feel like there's enough drama in your story, it usually means your characters are all too closely aligned in their needs and desires and the protagonist is achieving their goals and getting what they want without causing any kind of friction.
So "forced drama" tends to be things like... two people are getting along great, but then suddenly one of them overhears half a conversation that taken out of context makes it sound like the other doesn't like them, and then doesn't ask for clarification from anyone, just storms off! Or say, two characters are suddenly vehemently at odds over something that's literally never come up before, but feels like it ought to have if they felt this passionately about it, or in a way that feels out of character or contradicts past behaviour. It always feels like the writer went "ah crap I'm at the end of Act 2, the character needs to get into conflict here, errrr...."
While a lack of drama is like... the supporting cast always go along with whatever the hero suggests and never criticise them, complain or push back even when they're being treated unfairly (like how in a lot of movies, a highly competent woman who has been training for years teaches a complete newcomer man how to use super-powers and then he surpasses her in days and becomes the chosen one hero... and the lady is totally okay with this, like not jealous, upset or depressed at all). Or perhaps all conflicts are solved very cleanly and easily; the hero beats up all the baddies easily without killing or horribly injuring any, and nobody questions if that violent approach was okay and the hero never has any doubts or second thoughts, everything just goes very smoothly, and then the person the hero likes reveals that yes, they do like the hero back and it's all very convenient!
Ideally you want to have it so like... the protagonist has something they want, but their journey to getting it needs to cause them problems or create friction, and we should be able to see the problem looming on the horison based on the characters personalities or goals that are established early on. Obviously a cliched example is a love triangle; that girl you like has a crush on somebody else, or there's a rival for her affection, but other examples of creating drama might be say: The magic healing potion the protagonist wants to heal their sick dad is also being sought out by another decent person who wants it to heal their sick sister, or say, the protagonist finally has the offer of a promotion at work, but taking it will make them their best friend's manager and create a weird power imbalance that may damage the friendship. A really simple one can simply be "protagonist and foil want the same thing, but they're both convinced they know the best way to achieve it and their ideas are mutually exclusive".
That's a bit difficult. I just try to keep things as peaceful as possible but when I feel like the hypothetical pot is boiling then I just... let it everything loose.
Just imagine that pot boiling. That'll make things naturally uncomfortable.
@darthmongoose
Oo so many helpful tips! thanks yall. I guess an extension of that in my question is about pacing.
for example, for the opening arc of my comic my one of my main character got his parents imprisoned. I could end the arc there and the character starts his journey to rescue his parents. Instead, I had him try to fight the prison guard to stop them from taking his parents, but he's beaten down quickly. The fight kind of shows the character's love for his parents and his hardheadedness, but I'm also afraid it's bogging down tthe plot
As others have said, drama shouldn't be something you "insert". It will feel more natural and less like "stalling the plot" if the ingredients for it are part of the story itself. It should be less of a question of "when" (as if you can just sprinkle it in wherever you want...) and more of a question of "why" and "how".
First of all, what kind of conflict do you want? If it's the usual physical conflict, then you should consider the physical obstacles your characters could face-- natural phenomena, monsters/wild animals, enemies who want to hurt them, enemies they want to hurt. Where are these things in the fictional world, how and why could the characters encounter them?
Once you figure that out, you can build a story that will get your characters into those situations, and the speed at which that happens will determine the "when".
Now, if it's interpersonal/emotional conflict, that's when things get trickier. Time and space don't necessarily have to be factored in here; bad feelings can come up whenever or wherever. What you should focus on is cause and effect.
You can start the same way as the above, thinking of the mental obstacles your characters could face-- a prideful character might come up against an embarrassing failure, or a cowardly character might come up against a difficult decision they can't run away from. Who or what could cause these situations to arise, and what effect would that have on the character in question? How would they choose to respond to it, and would their choice make things better or worse? (If you're looking to create drama, I'm assuming you want 'worse'.)
And then, what effect will that initial response have on the rest of the story, and the character's behavior? How will they try to solve the problems caused by these effects, and so on and so forth?
You have more control over the "when" in this case, but that comes with more responsibility as an author, and a greater awareness of how the pace of these conflicts will affect the reader's experience. In general, I think it's a good idea to wind your biggest dramatic moments around the most important parts of the story, the ones you really want your readers to pay attention to.
Like, if the climax of the story is the character's confrontation with their long lost mother, that should be a spot where you consider creating drama. Maybe the character hates their mother for leaving them; maybe the mother wants to keep the character away from them and is too ashamed to tell them why. Maybe a third party is forcing them to hurt each other when neither of them wants to.
To give a different example, if there's a point in the story where the character needs to learn some important information, make it happen in a dramatic way. Maybe they learn it from someone they never thought would want to help them. Or maybe they find out just before they're ready to give up, and it completely changes their mindset, motivating them to continue furthering the plot.
Basically, when all else fails, you can use drama as a sort of 'highlighter', where it simply follows the pacing of the story around it, and makes the crucial events stand out the most.
Ah, then I guess it's less that you're looking for places to insert drama and more that you already know what drama is going to have and when they take place, but you don't know how much of it to show.
I guess I'd consider the following:
I know the prison guard fight you're talking about, and I did feel like it drags things on a bit (though I only read it after seeing your comment so my brain might've been primed to think it's draggy; idk how I would've felt about it if I read it earlier :'D)
In instances like that, I think it could work to just show the character charging at the guard with clear intent to fight, then cut to the next scene. Being hardheaded, willing to fight for one's family and being outclassed at the start of the story is somewhat expected of MCs in your genre, so if you do that, they audience would probably assume your character tried to fight to the end but was defeated. Unless your character subverts that expectation during the fight (e.g. actually wins or gives up half way and happily abandons his parents), a fight scene is probably not necessary 
It's like yes, logically given his personality your character should be trying to fight the guards at that point, and logically, characters travelling from Point A to Point B are going have to pass through the terrain in between. But that doesn't mean we should show 10 pages of the characters walking through a desert :]
thanks for wording it in a much clearer way! Good to know how the chapter feel to a reader.
Yeah maybe I'll figure out how to trim down certain parts and the best way to tell the story in a more snappy way. Sometimes I think about events way too moment-to-moment.
closed Jul 19, '22
| Topic | Category | Replies | Views | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novel Release Speed? | Questions | 5 | 237 | Oct '24 |
| How did you start coming up with your story? | Questions | 18 | 434 | Jul '24 |
| Question about “Damsel in the Red Dress” blog posts (for DITRD readers) | Questions | 1 | 228 | May '24 |
| Pls help me find this bl | Questions | 0 | 135 | Oct '24 |
| App Technical Difficulties? | Questions | 9 | 567 | Oct '24 |
