How Conflict Creates Change

This Sunday I’ll be opening the paywall on my paid-subscribers-only post about story structure and using a Structural Analysis Chart. A natural follow-up to this post on story conflict and narrative arc, I hope you enjoy it!

A beloved teacher once said to me: “You can’t have a story without change. And you can’t have change without conflict.”

Classic story structure demands some level of change. Either change in a situation or in a character or narrator. Even nonfiction has an arc of change: how-to books hope the reader will change their understanding of the topic that the book presents, right?

If there’s no conflict, though, there’s no reason to change. If you don’t have any interest in moving out of your status quo, in your memoir story, there’s no conflict—you’re fine as you are. So there’s not much change. If the reader of a nonfiction book isn’t interested in the topic, has no need for what it might offer, same. Fictional characters that are static, that mostly sit around and drink good coffee, are content where they are. Nothing is conflictual, so nothing changes.

There’s nothing forced on anybody. So there’s very little tension. Readers don’t engage.

Forcing action

Conflict is basically a dilemma presented to someone (character, narrator, reader) in a way that forces action. 

A character might stall for a while before making the change (think of Wally Lamb’s narrator in She’s Come Undone which has mostly stayed in my mind all these years because of the sheer number of pages where there was zero change).

But eventually, in most story structure, conflict will build pressure. Slowly or quickly, it will force change.

Because of this change, the character can grow.

Conflict might make this character realize a truth, right a wrong, change their behavior or thoughts, move to a new city or job or relationship, do something different. 

Conflict can’t be ignored

To be effective, conflict in story must be something that can't be ignored--even though we might try.  The stronger the force of conflict, the sooner the character must change.  

What you’re creating, ideally, is far from comfortable. And that’s another basic rule of story: conflict brings discomfort, which creates the urge for something different.

Without discomfort, there is no change.  Without change, in my view, there is no story structure. 

Narrative arc  

Characters grow in chartable steps. Conflict also is chartable—ideally, there’s a parallel series of steps that reflect or create the character’s growth steps.

In most stories, you can track how each conflict creates a reaction in the character, stimulating change. In other words, growth.   That’s called the "narrative arc,"  a fancy term for the specific way the character, or narrator, grows because of the conflict presented in the story. 

Each conflict presents an opportunity to change. Each decision a character makes is a step along their narrative arc. When in doubt, check the steps on a chart. You can quickly see where there are scenes that don’t fit your story structure.

It actually doesn’t matter if the conflict is large or small, internal or external.  The steps, if chartable, create a pattern of change. This pattern defines the character’s narrative arc.    

Plot

The series of small or large dilemmas that instigate change in the character, creating the narrative arc, can be plotted along a structure like a storyboard or plot line.  We compose our plots from the dilemmas the story presents and the actions the character takes to either confront or avoid them.  

Plot is strongest when your choice of internal conflict and your choice of external conflict create friction.  Try to set up a situation where your character or narrator wants something, and this particular want is thwarted by an event in their outer environment.  

Change must be manifested in outer decisions, turning points, and new actions and directions. To create tension, make it not an easy ride.

Happy story? Uh-oh

Some writers tell me, "I want to write a happy story that will help others and change lives."  Or, "I've been through so much horrible stuff in my life; I want my memoir to be uplifting, not a downer." 

We all need upliftment and happiness in our lives.  In real life, you can be contented, and deal with conflict in a low-key way. 

In story, you can't.  Story is all about facing the odds and changing because of them.  Without the grit of sand, the pearl is not formed.  

When everyone is happy, when conflict is ignored, when nothing is happening, story is dead in the water.  Why?  Because there is no movement, no change.    

Desire, fear, longing

If you feel there’s not enough movement in your plot, check out your character’s desires, fears, or longings.  The things they want and try to get, the things they are afraid of, the things they know they'll never have create that urge to change—a movement from inside the person that manifests in their external world.   

Even if the desire, longing, or fear doesn't manifest but stays locked inside, it creates pressure. Pressure often leaks out as an unconscious action or behavior. That’s even more effective, sometimes, to intensify the overall conflict.

You can also play with upping the intensity of the forces outside the person.  What might cause them to change, alter course, make a decision?  For instance, a death, an accident, a disaster, a loss.  External conflict can also be a discovery--finding lost letters that reveal something, discovering you are not your parents' child.   

What we’re after is friction. Create enough friction and it will demand a decision, a change of course.  A movement forward. Et voila. You have a story.

Your Weekly Writing Exercise 

1.  Make a list of the external conflicts in one chapter of your book or one story or essay.   

2.  Then chart the steps of the narrative arc: how the character, narrator, or reader changes during this same period of time.

3.  Ask yourself if you can see any parallels between what you chose for the series of external conflicts and the way the person changes.  Is it fairly easy to follow? Have you skipped any steps?

4.  Brainstorm on paper about anything you could , remove, add, or adjust to create a stronger pattern of change.