« Story Ideas – the Earth-Sun Connection | BLOG HOME | Writing Resources – Grammar Tools »
Writing Resource – Using a Conflict Generator Effectively
By Deb Gallardo
Today’s writing resource is designed to put your protagonist(s) into difficult circumstances. It’s not something all writers do instinctively. In fact, many try to avoid putting their characters in harm’s way, or get them out of trouble as quickly as possible. The problem is, no difficulties = no real story.
One of my favorite science fiction authors is Anne McCaffrey. I recently re-read the entire Pern series and was especially impressed with how she is a master at creating conflict – and not just on an interpersonal level. Often her smaller personal conflicts mirror global conflict affecting/afflicting Pern and “her” inhabitants. From a deadly space-borne spoor that devours everything in its path when these threads enter the planet’s atmosphere, to complacency that spells disaster for all Pern’s inhabitants if the people are not prepared for the next cycle of Thread Fall and if dragon riders are not provided with the means to maintain their holds and the resources to fight thread, to a plague that must be kept from thread-fighting dragons and dragonfolk at all costs with the next thread pass due in only a few years.
I highly recommend Ms. McCaffrey’s Pern novels, plus additions to this 20+ book series from her son Todd McCaffrey. He, too, puts his characters into conflict that isn’t resolved until nearly the last page. (Talk about your page-turners! This mother and son have kept me up far too many nights with books I couldn’t put down.)
The resource I have for you randomly generates what the site creator terms “a sticky situation.” If you want to create fiction that people must read to find out what befalls characters they care about, then here’s how I recommend you use this great little tool:
Conflict Example
Betrayal: What is your character’s greatest treasure? Someone your character trusts is going to sneak away with their pockets full of it.
This conflict, taken merely at face value — in other words LITERALLY, might work for a short story, but unless you want to keep creating greater and possibly newer conflict as your novel progresses, you’ll need to increase the scope and intensity of this betrayal. First of all, remember that these generated conflict scenarios are ideas expressed as simply as possible. And that’s a good thing. You need to see all the many variations on this theme that you might use. Too much detail would lock you into a single scenario.
For instance, a character’s “greatest treasure” might be a literal treasure stash, such as a chest of jewels. But it just as easily might be: a mother’s engagement ring, a novel or script the character has been working on for nearly a decade, a long-awaited infant after years of infertility, a scientific formula for an inexpensive fuel source (wouldn’t we all love to own the patent on that one!), an antique heirloom s/he inherited from a beloved relative, an important letter from an historic figure to one of the character’s ancestors that holds the key to clearing the family name, a map to the site of modern-day pirate booty — or anything else that the human mind might hold as precious, that would be treasured as much as gold doubloons and pieces of eight.
Another way you can ramp up the conflict is to try to increase the scope of the betrayal so that it is all-encompassing. Make the person who absconds with the “treasure” (whatever you determine it to be) someone the protagonist trusted implicitly. If you do it skillfully, you could even fool the reader as to who is the betrayer. All the clues have to be there, however, although they might be “hidden in plain sight.”
To start generating sticky situations for your characters (you could also use this for secondary characters, too – for that matter, you could create conflict for your antagonist. Why not?), go to Sticky Situation Story Idea Generator (opens in new window). If you don’t care for the conflict it creates for you, (I got “aliens attack” when I refreshed a minute ago), you can either brainstorm possibilities for what “aliens” might mean in the story you have in mind, or click on your browser’s reload/refresh button to generate a new scenario.
One word of caution: you never know when the same conflict is going to re-appear in the generator. It could be 100 reloads later or 1000 or “never,” given the nature of randomness. I recommend, if you’re even mildly interested in any of the “sticky situations” created for you, that you write them down.
I hope you enjoy this tool. Let me know in the comments below how you used the conflict generator in your own writing and if you would recommend it to other writers (and why).
Some of the links on this page lead to products for sale. Please go to my material connections page for important legal information about off-site sales.
Related Posts
4 Comments »
February 21st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
[...] favorite variety of idea generators for writers is a script that has only a few elements, and with the push of an online [...]
February 22nd, 2009 at 1:06 am
[...] Writing Resources – Using a Conflict Generator Effectively Creative Writing Resources – Another Set of Tools Idea Generators for Non-Fiction Writing Online Story Idea Generators Story Ideas – Online Story Idea Generators Story Ideas – Online Idea Generators Story Ideas – Short Fiction Idea Generators Writing Resources – Story Idea Generators Revisited Share and Enjoy: [...]
October 31st, 2010 at 10:20 pm
[...] by Literary Chick Blogger in Uncategorized I found a fabulous writing resource blog for writers who want energize their creativity. It’s chockfull of writing ideas, prompts, tips and lot’s of goodies to help you or your children write. I honed in on the Conflict-Generator. Lot’s of ideas to stir up your mind. Go to: http://www.debgallardo.com/virtuoso/1335/writing-resource-using-a-conflict-generator-effectively/ [...]
March 6th, 2011 at 8:31 am
I came across this website while trying to come up with a story idea for my creative writing class. I have yet to click on anything; however, I am quite impressed with what was already written. I felt you should know that.