I am currently slogging through my zombie book. It's been like threading a lemur through a needle. And the lemur is hopped up on cough medicine. I kept trying to up the ante, to increase stakes, but it all felt boring. What's the world coming to when zombies feel boring?
Until I had an epiphany. Zombies were boring because after the first encounter, it was more of the same. I mean, sure, the characters were worried about dying, but a constant "Oh crap we're going to die" gets stale, quick. It seems like it should be exciting, but in reality it's repetition.
I started to think about the zombie books I'd read, and the movies I'd seen. I realized that zombies were part of the initial conflict, yes, but they existed more as a setting conflict. Zombies caused conflict in the same way a character in a war zone was in conflict. The setting is actively trying to kill the characters, but that's not the only place conflict needs to come from.
In fact, it's not even the primary place.
Because the setting throws the character out in the cold, and forces them to survive. Your story might be about their survival, or some internal flaw brought to the surface, or maybe both. Because your story isn't about war, or zombies, it's about your character.
DUH.
I know, right? This sounds really obvious, but when you're in the thick of writing it seems like you should be able to throw some zombies in there, and presto, conflict. But no. That's not actually how it works. Even stories without zombies in them (yes, they do exist--I've even written some!) aren't just about the main conflict. They are about how the main conflict affects the main characters.
That's what matters. That's what raises the stakes. It's not the zombies, but the fact that zombies are forcing the character to hide in a locker room and consider eating each other like a bunch of stranded soccer players.
So the next time I get stuck, I'm going to try and remember that it's not really about the zombies: it's about the characters the zombies are trying to eat.
Showing posts with label internal conflict. Show all posts
Showing posts with label internal conflict. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Friday, January 14, 2011
Internal Conflict Part II: A Rock and A Hard Place
Okay, so a little later than I planned, but here is the second part of discussing Internal Conflict!
My attempts at blogging was briefly interrupted by a trip to the oral surgeon yesterday. I have very bad TMJD, and we're trying to figure out a way to fix it. So! After the oral surgeon was done making me open wide, I had a headache the size of Texas. Trust me, you wouldn't have wanted me blogging about internal conflict in that state.
But I have prevailed, and now we can talk about WHY internal conflict is so important. It's a very short explanation, but vitally important.
It's a little something called empathy.
The more conflicted your character is, the more they are caught between a rock and a hard place, the more your readers will empathize with them.
Every single book that has ever made me weep with joy and sorrow had an internally conflicted character. Movies work the same way. Think about your favorite movies, movies that moved you to emotion by their own merit and not because of nostalgia or you were already predisposed to like them (book adaptations and comic book movies being an example of a book you are already predisposed to have an opinion about).
There's nothing more excruciating than watching a character struggle between two equally difficult decisions. Your reader will HAVE to find out what happens, and think about how they have had to make similar decisions in their own life.
This works even for anti-heroes. Think about Fight Club, or the TV show House. Neither main character is a "nice" person, but we can still relate. We can empathize, if not condone, how they feel. Partially because of the character's driving internal conflicts.
Another excellent point about internal conflict is that it's a great way to build character. How your character responds to internal conflict says a lot about him. Some people are considered "impulsive". They jump into decisions without a lot of forethought. It could be because this character doesn't want to deal with the agony of decision, so they just make one based on impulse.
Other people are considered "procrastinators". The weight of decision bears heavily upon them. They think and plan and try their best to see the future, so they know which is the correct decision to make. They put off making a decision at all simply because they are afraid of choosing wrong.
When the decision at hand is what to have for breakfast, it's not a big deal. When it's who to save: your lover or child, suddenly people sit up. It creates instant empathy because every single human being has had to make a difficult choice in their lives.
Let's go back to my throw away example. You set up your plot believably so that the main character has to choose between their husband/wife or their child. Maybe it's life or death. Maybe they have been through a divorce, and now they must split their time between their child and their new love. Readers will hang on the edge of their seat to figure out how the character balances themselves between these two equally important people.
The choice can be more subtle too. It can be the character's morals vs. their honor. Their loyalty to their family vs. the loyalty to their lover. Their love for chocolate vs. their recent diabetes diagnosis.
Give the character a seemingly impossible choice (No more chocolate ever????) and the readers will hang with your main character, waiting to see what they finally decide.
This internal conflict doesn't have to take over your plot, but it makes your plot richer if it's directly tied into the main events, so the external pressures also increases the internal pressures the character faces.
In short, creating internal conflict for your character will make your readers empathize with them, and this my friends, is the Holy Grail of writing.
My attempts at blogging was briefly interrupted by a trip to the oral surgeon yesterday. I have very bad TMJD, and we're trying to figure out a way to fix it. So! After the oral surgeon was done making me open wide, I had a headache the size of Texas. Trust me, you wouldn't have wanted me blogging about internal conflict in that state.
But I have prevailed, and now we can talk about WHY internal conflict is so important. It's a very short explanation, but vitally important.
It's a little something called empathy.
The more conflicted your character is, the more they are caught between a rock and a hard place, the more your readers will empathize with them.
Every single book that has ever made me weep with joy and sorrow had an internally conflicted character. Movies work the same way. Think about your favorite movies, movies that moved you to emotion by their own merit and not because of nostalgia or you were already predisposed to like them (book adaptations and comic book movies being an example of a book you are already predisposed to have an opinion about).
There's nothing more excruciating than watching a character struggle between two equally difficult decisions. Your reader will HAVE to find out what happens, and think about how they have had to make similar decisions in their own life.
This works even for anti-heroes. Think about Fight Club, or the TV show House. Neither main character is a "nice" person, but we can still relate. We can empathize, if not condone, how they feel. Partially because of the character's driving internal conflicts.
Another excellent point about internal conflict is that it's a great way to build character. How your character responds to internal conflict says a lot about him. Some people are considered "impulsive". They jump into decisions without a lot of forethought. It could be because this character doesn't want to deal with the agony of decision, so they just make one based on impulse.
Other people are considered "procrastinators". The weight of decision bears heavily upon them. They think and plan and try their best to see the future, so they know which is the correct decision to make. They put off making a decision at all simply because they are afraid of choosing wrong.
When the decision at hand is what to have for breakfast, it's not a big deal. When it's who to save: your lover or child, suddenly people sit up. It creates instant empathy because every single human being has had to make a difficult choice in their lives.
Let's go back to my throw away example. You set up your plot believably so that the main character has to choose between their husband/wife or their child. Maybe it's life or death. Maybe they have been through a divorce, and now they must split their time between their child and their new love. Readers will hang on the edge of their seat to figure out how the character balances themselves between these two equally important people.
The choice can be more subtle too. It can be the character's morals vs. their honor. Their loyalty to their family vs. the loyalty to their lover. Their love for chocolate vs. their recent diabetes diagnosis.
Give the character a seemingly impossible choice (No more chocolate ever????) and the readers will hang with your main character, waiting to see what they finally decide.
This internal conflict doesn't have to take over your plot, but it makes your plot richer if it's directly tied into the main events, so the external pressures also increases the internal pressures the character faces.
In short, creating internal conflict for your character will make your readers empathize with them, and this my friends, is the Holy Grail of writing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)