Join me on November 5th for a fun workshop on Write Short to Succeed.
Here’s a possible
exercise we might be doing in my workshop at ICAN’s upcoming
Second AnnualTreasure Valley Writers' Fest at the Cloverdale Reception Center, Boise, Idaho,
Saturday, November 5, 2016, from 1:00 pm to 7:30 pm.
This exercise is
inspired by the newest title in my Hows
and Whys series, Writing Conflict,
to be released soon.
Conflict is the
key to unlock great writing. Finding the conflict is also the easiest way to
write anything. Every good piece of
writing comes from the conflict in the story, article, whatever.
Examples: an
article about fixing your toilet yourself, what’s the conflict? The conflict is
in you need your toilet fixed! Can you fix it yourself? Even a recipe has
inherent conflict. Will you be able to replicate the dish? In a romance story,
girl lost boy, will she get him back?
In fiction,
people often confuse conflict with other elements in the story. Conflict is not
a fight between two people. Conflict is what led to the fight.
To find the
conflict ask these questions:
What’s the
problem? (Sewage all over the floor, need something new for dinner—not the
sewage, broken heart that might never be fixed)
What’s the goal?
(Fix the toilet, make dinner, get the guy back)
What’s the
need/desire? (To have a working toilet, to eat, to be with the man you love)
What’s the
emotion? (Frustration at the broken toilet, hunger, grief/anger at losing the
boyfriend)
What gets in the
way of obtaining this goal? (Can you fix the toilet yourself? Do you have the ingredients
to make the dish? How does the woman get the guy back?)
An argument in a
romance story between the girl and her boyfriend is the end result of
conflicting emotions: she’s mad at him, but loves him, but hates him, but wants
him to be/do/act like....you get the idea. During the argument, there needs to
be conflict. Does she really want to get him back? Is it impossible to get him
back? In fixing the toilet, do you have the proper tools? In a recipe, do you
have the right ingredients, or can ingredients be substituted? Conflict raises
more questions.
Here are some
scenarios for you to find the conflict in:
A weight loss
article
Two women in a
bar, co-workers after work on a Friday night
An article about
travel
A person visiting
his/her grandmother in a nursing home
A memoir about a
relative born during a time of war
Have fun with
this and remember there are lots of ways to add conflict to your writing.
Questions? Please
comment and I’ll do my best to answer (and hope I can answer, hmmm...more
conflict?).
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