Simple, quick tips for improving both your writing quality and your Wattpad experience. Open, friendly, and conversational, this book will give you that little info boost you need to tackle common problems and often-overlooked issues.
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Conflict is the necessary part of any story. It is the driving force behind the plot and without conflict, we cannot have the story itself. Conflict, in its basic form, is an obstacle. What is the character's goal? What is keeping them from that goal? The interaction of these two is your conflict. Conflict can be both overarching book conflict or a scene-by-scene conflict. It can also be external or internal. When we talk about conflict, it usually needs to be a healthy balance of these. Every scene needs to have some conflict, just like every character needs to have some internal conflict as well as external conflict.
When we talk about increasing conflict, we need to increase the stakes of the situation. Before we can do that, we must examine the situation and identify the key elements. Then we will talk about increasing conflict. Feel free to apply this to both the plot in general or a particular scene. Let us construct a story based on this together.
Conflict
1. Who? What? Why : Main Player
Identify who the main player is. What is the main player's objective? Why do they want to achieve that objective? What does achieving the goal mean to them and why? Let's name our main player Grace. Grace wants to get into Harvard because that's where her dead best friend wanted to go with her. Now she wants to honor her friend's wish when she used to laugh it off before.
2. How? What? Why? : Obstacle
Figure out how the main player, who may or may not be our protagonist, is going to achieve that goal, what the obstacles standing in their way are, and why they're standing in the way. What is the goal of the obstacle, if it's a person? What is the emotional turmoil they're facing? What are the physical problems standing in their way? In our story, Grace is guilty because she used to laugh her friend's wish off and now the guilt is what's making her want to go to Harvard. Physical conflict is that she hasn't been preparing for this, unlike other applicants, and she has grades too low to get into a college of that prestige.
3. Now what? How? Why? : Reaction
How will the main player react to the obstacle? What will the obstacle make them do? Grace, for instance, debates giving up. She figures she'll get over the guilt someday, but she doesn't want to put in the hard work she knows she must. But she watches the funeral's recording once more and remembers how moved she was when she vowed to fulfill her friend's wish. So she decides to put in that work.
Now that we have the main player, the conflict and the reaction, let's see how we can make this more impactful.
