This question has come up a few times, so let me say it here: The prompts in Writing Magic<\/i> and on this blog are yours to use. If the resulting fiction is published I want to hear about it so I can cheer along with you, and a print acknowledgement, if you can, is always appreciated. <\/p>\n
On August 31, 2011, Lexa wrote, How much conflict is too much\/not enough?<\/p>\n
My story has one main conflict\u2014 Lana’s parents are killed and she finds out she has powers. The problem is nothing else ever happens.<\/p>\n
This happens in all my novels\u2014 there is a huge, tragic conflict that I really enjoy writing, and then it’s all perfectly easy to fix it by using a spell, fighting the king, etc., after ___ pages. I find myself keeping on saying ‘Have Lana’s flashlight blink out. Make Brielle’s wings unusable. Make Demi too tired to fight’ and as a result, my story is a lot more interesting, but my reviewers say it’s “Laying it on a bit thick” and that it “Seems forced”. Please help!<\/i>
\nI\u2019m divining two questions here: how much conflict, and how to avoid making problems seem forced.<\/p>\n
We find major and minor conflict in most stories . Let\u2019s use my quest novel The Two Princesses of Bamarre<\/i> as an example because it\u2019s simple and there\u2019s only one major conflict, finding a cure for the Gray Death.<\/p>\n
Not that there can\u2019t be more than one major conflict. In Little Women<\/i>, for instance, there\u2019s Jo\u2019s relationship with Laurie, Beth\u2019s health, the family\u2019s poverty, the challenges that each sister presents to herself. That\u2019s four, and I may have missed some; the result is that the book is somewhat episodic. Jo is the main main character but each of the others takes center stage sometimes. Maybe the single major conflict is a family\u2019s struggle to bump along in the absence of the father, although that seems pretty loose.<\/p>\n
In Beloved Elodie<\/i> (I\u2019m liking the name again), the major conflict shifts when the biggest problem gets resolved and another urgent one pops up.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re writing humor, always the wild card, the sky may be the limit for major conflicts. You can toss in the downfall of civilization, lost love, dead siblings, drowned cats, a curse on green-eyed men, and the spontaneous combustion of cookbooks!<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know how many major conflicts are too many in a non-humor novel, but I certainly wouldn\u2019t want to need more than the fingers of one hand to count them. In fact, I\u2019d worry if I went beyond three, Louisa May Alcott notwithstanding.<\/p>\n
Returning to Two Princesses<\/i>, I included many sub-conflicts: monsters, Addie\u2019s timidity, the king\u2019s uselessness, the developing romance with Rhys, even the equipment Addie takes along to help her. Each of these sub-conflicts themselves subdivide in various ways. There are four kinds of monsters – dragons, specters, ogres, and gryphons – and each presents a different threat. Addie\u2019s timidity and the king\u2019s coldness and cowardice take different forms in different situations. Addie\u2019s magical gear presents diverse problems too. The seven-league boots bring her perilously close to an ogre, and her magic spyglass eventually irritates the dragon Vollys.<\/p>\n
Can you have disaster overload? Sure. Anything can go on too long. This may be sacrilege, but, in my opinion, The Lord of the Rings<\/i> trilogy could do without a battle or two. Which leads to another potential pitfall: sameness. We want to vary the troubles. Lexa, I like the flashlight failure and the wings malfunction and the exhaustion, because each is different from the others. If I were reading I\u2019d be off balance, not sure what to worry about next.<\/p>\n
However, for your inventiveness to work you don\u2019t want the crises to erupt out of the blue. The out-of-the-blue-ness may be why your readers say your stories seem forced. Set-up is crucial. Maybe not in the case of the flashlight, because flashlights are prone to give out, but for the wings and the tiredness, the reader should have been given a hint that the wings could stop working (I\u2019m guessing these aren\u2019t organic wings) and that Demi’s energy sometimes flags.<\/p>\n
I love tucking in hints like this because I love fooling the reader. You want to suggest possible trouble while making the reader not pay attention at the same time. So, for example, fifty pages earlier when Brielle receives her wings from master wing-maker Yuri and he says, \u201cThey will not fail you,\u201d Lana mutters, \u201cYuri’s pride goes before Brielle’s fall.\u201d Then the two skip off to look at Yuri\u2019s other amazing creations. The reader is lulled, but when the wings give out, he remembers. Along with alarm for Brielle he feels a zzzt!<\/i> of pleasure when he makes the connection.<\/p>\n
In Two Princesses<\/i> I didn\u2019t think about major and minor conflict. I never do. And Two Princesses<\/i> was one of my books that was the most miserable to write. As I\u2019ve said here and on my website, I was trying to write a novelized version of \u201cThe Twelve Dancing Princesses,\u201d which has an entirely different conflict. I came to the Gray Death very gradually. Initially it was just the reason the princesses\u2019 mother was dead. And I no longer remember how I arrived at the monsters.<\/p>\n
The point is, you don\u2019t need to think it all out ahead of time or plan out your conflict levels unless your mind works that way. Maybe just decide what you want your main character\u2019s problem to be. Lexa, it\u2019s great that that part comes so easily to you. Start writing or outlining, whichever you prefer; consider what obstacles you can throw at your main, imagine a few secondary characters with troubles of their own, and keep going. As for the hints ahead of time, you can go back and write them in, as I often do.<\/p>\n
In the case of Lana, the death of her parents is probably permanent, and she\u2019ll have to keep dealing with it. Your summary suggests some interesting questions: How did they die? Does Lana want revenge? Or does she want to save others or herself from suffering the same fate? Who else has powers? How are these other powerful characters using theirs? What powers?<\/p>\n
Here are three prompts:<\/p>\n
\u2219 Let\u2019s set up a situation not so different from Lana\u2019s. Josie\u2019s best friend dies of suffocation, but whatever smothered her is gone. A week later another girl dies the same way. Meanwhile Josie finds that blushing enables her to teleport but only when she\u2019s really embarrassed. She can’t fake it or squeeze her cheeks to make them red. Write Josie\u2019s quest to discover what happened to the two victims. You can change either the cause of death or Josie\u2019s strange power to suit your story needs. Build in at least three obstacles to Josie\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Take the funny road with the disaster deluge above. Write a story that involves the downfall of civilization, lost love, dead siblings, drowned cats, a curse on green-eyed men, and the spontaneous combustion of cookbooks! Handicap your main character with double vision, an inability to pronounce the letter t, and a fear of metal.<\/p>\n
\u2219 The fairy tale \u201cSleeping Beauty\u201d is simple. After the last fairy ameliorates the awful gift of her predecessor, the conflict is over. The finger pricking is expected and the hedge is no obstacle for the prince. Dream up more conflict. Make the prince and princess earn that wake-up kiss.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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