Tone is tied to theme and intent. The tone should support your intent. Think like a film director: how will you light your sets? Will you have a lot of darkness and rain? Or sunshine? Will you put a filter over the camera lens?
Conflict: The Fuel Of Your Story
The Kernel Idea starts your creative process. Conflict is the fuel that keeps your story going. Conflict reveals your characters’ true natures and draws the reader closer. It gives the reader a reason to keep turning the page. Without conflict, your idea cannot be translated into story.
Every scene in your book must have conflict. Earlier I mentioned how Jennifer Crusie labeled every scene in our first collaboration by Character A vs. Character B. Without the versus, there is no conflict. This is an easy way to check every one of your scenes.
Conflict keeps a story going and reveals much about your characters. Conflict is the gap between expectation and the actual result. There are 3 levels of conflict for your characters:
inner (inside the character). In many cases inner conflict occurs when a person has a disagreement between values he or she holds to be important. By adjusting a character's circumstances, you can develop internal conflict.
personal (between characters)
universal/societal (characters versus fate/God/the system)
You have to consider what your main character faces on each of these levels.
There are five major sources of conflict for people (although you can probably come up with more):
Money
Sex
Family
Religion
Politics
Keep these sources of conflict in mind when developing your characters.
Remember all characters have an agenda/goals they want to achieve. That gives them a driving force, even if it is a passive or negative one. Characters can pursue their goals aggressively or subtly. Or they could not pursue their goals, which also says something about them.
What is Conflict?
A serious disagreement or argument
A prolonged armed struggle
An incompatibility between two opinions, principles or interests
(v) be incompatible or at variance, clash
The Basic Story Dynamic Is:
The Protagonist (the character who owns the story) struggles with . . .
The Antagonist (the character who if removed will cause the conflict and story to collapse)…
Because both must achieve their concrete, specific . . .
Goals (the external things they are each trying desperately to get, not necessarily the same thing)
The Protagonist
Must be someone the reader wants to identify and spend time with: smart, funny, kind, skilled, interesting, different
Must seem real; flawed, layered, have a blind spot
Must have a unique voice
Must be in trouble, undeserved if possible, but usually not random
Must be introduced as soon as possible, first is preferred
YOU ARE READING
Novel Writer's Toolkit: Revised Edition
Non-FictionWriting a novel and getting it published: That's your goal. And nothing will keep you from making it happen. Such a goal, of course, presents a number of challenges. Make sure you have the tools you need to overcome them and succeed. In THE NOVEL WR...
Theme and Intent/The Conflict Box
Start from the beginning
