Understanding Crisis Vs Conflict

How do we keep the reader on the edge of their seats, turning page after page? We use conflict and crises. A book can have both, and most do. You can have a book without crisis, but you CANNOT have a book without conflict.

“Conflict is what makes a story worth reading. Without a struggle, a moral choice, tension, and opposing forces, a story would be nothing but a boring discussion of facts.” "How to Write Conflict" (link no longer works, sorry)

The difference is that crisis is usually a circumstantial event or action, such as a car accident, a robbery, a break-up in a relationship. Conflict is the choices or struggles the character has to make, sometimes because of crisis. Conflict happens inside the character.

These are the Basic Types of Conflict in a Story:

• Inner Conflict: The character is struggling within themselves, with what they want or what they do
• Relational Conflict: The character is struggling with someone else
• Social Conflict: The character is struggling with a group
• Survival Conflict: The character is struggling with fatality
• Situational Conflict: The character is struggling with a situation -- in this case, the character’s problems involve the interests, problems, ambitions and situations of others and their affect on the character.
• Man vs Nature
• Man vs god or religion

The trick is taking one of those conflicts and making it feel real and unique.

More websites on conflict and tension in fiction:
Fiction Factor—a list of essays on conflict.

Nano Reality Check

I'm a week into Camp Nano. I feel like a runner ready to see how far I can get in this race to get another rough draft under my belt. A runner still sitting on the sidelines! Even though I started this month with 7000 words of the story already on the page, I'm floundering.

Not because I don't know where the story is going. No, I've got that all mapped out. I keep getting sidetracked by book two in this series. It's almost ready to hand over to an editor. Almost.

My publisher sent a note last week saying she was having trouble remembering who these characters are and what happened in book one. It's been two years after all! So, this week I've been trying to find the right balance of reintroducing the characters without completely rehashing the first book. It's a good thing because now I know I need to do that in book three as well. With any luck, I'll get back to it...next week.

Now, on to the point of this post. Did you catch that word in the first paragraph? I'm working on a rough draft. That word rough is very important. When drafting a new story during the summer, you should not expect to to query it in the fall.

Now most of you are going, "DUH! You shouldn't have to tell us that."

But, and oh what a large but it is. There are some who see Nano as the miracle pill to catapult them to published author. For the many years I've sat back in utter amazement at how many people start posting their query letters for review every December on the Nano forums.

I'm glad everyone is so enthusiastic about their work, but come on.

Ok, the first year I actually thought something must be wrong with me because I didn't produce a polished manuscript ready for publication at the end of Nano in 2008. What I had was a really good idea. The skeleton of a story at 60,000 words. I knew it wasn't ready. For the next two years (Yes two whole years!) I added the flesh and skin to those bones. I ballooned to over 90,000 words and then cut back to 83,000 (drat that backstory!).

The point is, Nano is wonderful if you have realistic expectations. It works for me because my only goal is to get the skeleton of my story on paper. Then I always walk away. I need time to let the story sit, percolate in my mind a little. Maybe read some great books. Then when I come back I can read my story as a reader. It helps me notice the problem areas before I dig into revisions. There's a deep satisfaction at the end of the revision and editing process. Don't miss out on becoming a better writer by calling it quits on December 1st (or August 1st, whatever the case may be).

There is an excellent post on Storyfix.com titled A Little Help for Nanowrimo Writers. I highly recommend it.

While you are at it, check out The Lyon's Tale: Top 5 Ways to Stay Sane as a Writer.

Have you ever picked up a free book on Amazon and felt like it must have been someone's first draft?

I have. I refuse to be THAT author.

Camp Nano World Building

Here's another post from my past Nanowrimo prep. This was written with my speculative fiction genre in mind, but no matter what kind of story you're writing world building matters. The reader needs to feel grounded in a place that you make feel real. These lists will help.

This is going to be short and to the point. Whether you are writing sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian, or whatever--go to SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions.

There are questions to cover:

• The World Basics
• Physical and historical features
• Magic and Magicians
• People and Customs
• Social Organization
• Commercial, Trade and Public Life
• Daily Life

Each of the above categories have more things listed under them. It says "This should not be considered as an exhaustive and final list, but as a beginning point from which each individual writer can compile a personal list." Yeah? Well it sure is a great place to start with more questions than I ever would have thought to ask myself.

OR...

I cut and pasted all of the questions into a word document. It is a 36 page list of questions! You can get it Here.

When reading, what pulls you into the world better than anything else?

Camp Nano Character Development

This week I'm going to revisit some of my earliest posts as a blogger. At the time I was deep in Nanowrimo prep as my local area's liaison. This month is Camp Nanowrimo. I've decided to give it a shot to move me forward a little faster on book three in my series. These posts are as much a reminder for me as for anyone else currently drafting or revising a novel.

Characters 

Characters are what make our novels compelling. Without characters, all of our plotting and world building would be a huge waste of time. Here are a few tools to help you get to know your characters as well as some tips on how to make them believable.

Elana Johnson (from her blog in 2010) gave these tips on developing characters. Which I highly recommend by the way!
“I only have one bit of advice: Exaggerate their humanness." EJ
1. Humans have flaws.
2. Humans have secrets.
3. Humans have fears.
4. Humans have emotions.
5. Humans do stupid things and pay the price because of them.
6. Humans grow and change.

KM Weiland gave the following five steps for creating minor characters that dazzle with color and personality (also from 2010):

1. Think beyond the cliché. Instead of a taxi cab driver who navigates the Chicago streets like a maniac, why not one who’s so timid he can barely creep across the intersection during a light? Instead of a wide-eyed young woman who comes to New York dreaming of acting on Broadway, why not one who dreams of building skyscrapers?

2. Give him a unique personality. If your protagonist is playing the straight man, you can often have fun with outrageous minor characters. Sidekicks, in particular, often get to fill this role. But even what author Sandra Dark calls “dead-end characters” should be brimming with unique personalities. She writes in her article “Life After Death” (Writer’s Digest , August 2005) about how Stephen King’s use of dead-end characters “ratchets up suspense by not telegraphing who will survive the story.”

3. Give him a goal. Nothing brings a character to life more quickly than a desire. If this desire can mirror your protagonist’s to strengthen the thematic arc or oppose your protagonist’s to increase the conflict, so much the better.

4. Give him stakes. What happens if he doesn’t reach his goal? Memoirist Melissa Hart writes in her article “What’s at stake?” (The Writer, August 2010) that “the reader must be aware of what’s at stake for every character,” not just the protagonist.

5. Give him an arc. If he has a goal and a stake, why not a full-blown character arc? If you can give one or two prominent minor characters a mini arc that either echoes or contrasts the protagonist’s, you’ll be able to deepen the meaning and complexity of both the main character’s journey and the thematic arc as a whole.

For every vivid minor character with whom you surround your protagonist, you’ll be able to give readers one more reason not to put your story down.

Links to Character Development Worksheets and/or questions:

Character Development Questionnaire from nano forums.
Simplified Character Sheet
My top 8 posts on character building by Wagging Tales