Does your novel require conflict? If so, why? If not, why not?
Jonathan posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:
Why do books HAVE to be about conflict to be interesting? The human condition isn’t all about conflict, so why should fiction be?
Randy sez: Books don’t have to have conflict to be interesting. I have on my shelf a perfectly fascinating 700 page book titled: PROBABILITY THEORY: THE LOGIC OF SCIENCE, by E.T. Jaynes. This book is brilliant. One of the best I’ve ever read. And it has zero conflict.
You may object that this book is nonfiction. Well, yes. Nonfiction doesn’t require conflict. Nonfiction teaches you something you want to know.
Fiction always has conflict, for the simple reason that conflict is part of the definition of fiction. The simplest definition of fiction I ever heard was told me by Sherwood Wirt: “Fiction is characters in conflict.”
If you don’t have characters, you don’t have a novel. If you don’t have conflict between the characters, you don’t have a novel.
What do my loyal blog readers think? Is it remotely possible to write a novel without conflict? Can you think of an example? Post a comment and tell us all what you think!
If you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer them in the order they come in.
A novel must have conflict in order to give the reader some reason to care about the outcome and to continue reading to learn that outcome. Conflict doesn’t have to mean hostility, a dangerous quest, or competition for the affection of someone. Conflict permeates everything we do in life: Do I get out of bed now, or hit the snooze button; Do I want eggs or Eggos for brakfast; Do I watch the Cowboys game or the Packers. It is everything that happens between the establishing of the conflict and the resolution of it that determines if the reader will stick around to find out what happens. Here’s a “short story” everyone is familiar with: Mary had a little lamb,
little lamb, little lamb,
Mary had a little lamb,it’s fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,the lamb was sure to go.
End of story, and, so what? Boring.
But now let’s add conflict:
It followed her to school one day which was against the rules.
Mary has done something that is against (in conflict with) the rules, and the reader is compelled to read further to see what happens to Mar and/or her little lamb.
Conflict is simply two opposing forces. Without conflict there is no purpose to fiction and thus no reason to read it.
(Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)
Cheers,
Ted Tyszka
i really agree sir
i totally agree you put it in very good words
One example of a movie (not a novel, but still) that didn’t really have major conflict was “The Others” with Nicole Kidman.
The movie does have minor conflict throughout, but it’s core was mystery over conflict. The main character didn’t have her own goals and was merely reacting to external forces through-out the film.
Of course, conflict is there, it’s just secondary to mystery in this film.
– Will
Of course there was a conflict in The Others! She wants to know what the heck is happening to her kids. She’s fighting to keep them safe from something she can’t explain.
Randy, you can edit out the extra “little lambs,” and add a y to Mary before posting the previous message. I’m at work, and was in a hurry to get it posted.
: – )
Wait a minute… So much of the human condition is about conflict. Think about it, for a moment.
If you look at the definition of Conflict –
–verb (used without object)
1.
to come into collision or disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition; clash: The account of one eyewitness conflicted with that of the other. My class conflicts with my going to the concert.
2.
to fight or contend; do battle.
–noun
3.
a fight, battle, or struggle, esp. a prolonged struggle; strife.
4.
controversy; quarrel: conflicts between parties.
5.
discord of action, feeling, or effect; antagonism or opposition, as of interests or principles: a conflict of ideas.
6.
a striking together; collision.
7.
incompatibility or interference, as of one idea, desire, event, or activity with another: a conflict in the schedule.
8.
Psychiatry . a mental struggle arising from opposing demands or impulses.
– and then look at life, as we all live it. How does any of that not fit into your day to day life? If your life does not have any of that in it, then congratulations, I am very happy for you. You have mastered a feat I don’t think any other human being has ever before.
I don’t know off the top of my head of any novel that does not have some level of conflict in it. I read all the time, so I may have read one, but I really think if I had, it would have stood out to me.
Novels don’t have to be ABOUT conflict, but they need the conflict to help keep the tension flowing, to keep the attention of the reader. If everything went smoothly and there was no problems (ie no conflict) there would be a lot of short novels wouldn’t there?
Jonathan, conflict isn’t always a ticking bomb. Novels can be character-driven where the conflict is internal.
A person coming to terms with the death of a loved one goes through the stages of grief (internal) and by doing so, may cause problems with other family members, coworkers, or a complete stranger (external).
Is it necessary to have both? No, but it needs at least one to make the reader ask what’s going to happen to the character and turn the page to find out.
Isn’t that the goal? To keep the reader turning pages and at the end of the novel ask when your next book will be available?
I understand what you are saying, and I know you are right on. I just feel constrained by “having” to write about conflict- just because I feel like fiction is a representAtion of life, which has more to it than just conflict.
I think I might be thinking of the word in the wrong terms too, when I think of conflict, I think of The Wheel of Time or something like that.
Conflict can be as simple as wanting a glass of water and not being able to have it. I have a friend who questioned me on the need for conflict in this same way as I was plotting out a story (for her). When I described the subtlety and simplicity of some kinds of conflict, and started listing the conflicts present in all of her favorite movies & novels, she began to understand. I think the word conflict gets a bad rap. It doesn’t have to involve chokeholds, expletives & explosives (tho exploding machinery is always a bonus if you can find a way to slip it in…).
Our quiet, gentle Jane Austen was a master of conflict. What are the conflicts in Pride and Prejudice? There are of course the big obvious ones – Lizzy being forced into company with Darcy, a man she can’t stand; the impropriety of the mother & goofy sisters; the Right Honorable Lady Catherine, etc. There are also subtle conflicts: Lizzy’s inner battles with the need to make a good marriage regardless of love, her personal hopes thwarted by the socially acceptable behaviors and plans of others, the effects the presence of the officers in Meryton had on her stupid sisters, the audacity of creepo Mr Collins, etc. This book is chock full of conflict, yet rarely raises it’s voice.
I think if we take a closer look at our favorite mild-mannered stories, we will find conflict.
Hi Jonathan,
I think the human condition is always about conflict. Good narrative reflects that truth.
In my college acting and playwriting classes, we analyzed ourselves and situations around us for conflict and motivations. When we did this, we began to understand life in terms of conflicting goals.
A character may have a goal that conflicts with another character’s goal, even if the conflict is subtle. For example, we may look as if we are having a congenial conversation, but all the while, I may be trying to get you to compliment me, while you are trying to get me to hurry up and get ready so we can go to some event. Conflict!
Here’s one that happens to me all the time. I’m sitting at my computer engrossed in my work and excited about the chapter in progress, but my body is telling me it wants to eat. Conflict!
Another one: I’m driving around reflecting on how satisfying it would be if so-and-so, that mean person who really dumped on me, got a comeuppance. But then my conscience takes over and tells me that I should love this person and want what is best for her. Conflict!
There are very few moments in life when we are not living in a state of conflict. Those moments of total harmony make good closing scenes for novels. 🙂 But they are mountaintop moments, brief reprieves from our usual walk in which we always have to negotiate between our fallen natures and who we would rather strive to be.
Did I say something wrong? Is there a reason the comment I left this morning was deemed unpublishable?
Randy sez: As noted on my page “Rule for Posting,” all first-time commenters automatically go to moderation. This eliminates certain spammers. Also all posts with links are moderated automatically. I check the moderation list no more than once per day. So you didn’t do anything wrong, Ted. It’s apparently your first time posting. After this, you won’t be moderated at all. Nothing personal; just the cost of running a blog in a spammy world.
One of the things I hold in my head for fiction writing is, ‘figure out what your MC most wants, and don’t let him/her have it.’ That’s the underlying conflict for me.
“Will Everchase Says:
September 28th, 2010 at 10:56 am
One example of a movie (not a novel, but still) that didn’t really have major conflict was “The Others” with Nicole Kidman.”
Did we see the same movie? “The Others” had tons of conflict! The conflict was mostly on a emotional and psychological level – but it was conflict nonetheless. You had the inner conflict of Kidman’s character. You had the conflict between characters (the kids, the servants, the others, the husband). You had conflict between characters and their surroundings (the kids’ disease, the spooky events). Heck, the whole premise of the story is a big conflict in itself!
~~~
The problem here it seems is to recognize conflicts. As some others pointed out it’s pretty hard to really have a story without conflict cause even the smallest things can cause a conflict. Johnathan, you said “The human condition isn’t all about conflict” but when you think about it, what human condition really is without any conflict at all? And, is it actually the kind of stuff you would or could tell a compelling story about?
If a story has no conflict, readers either can’t relate or will be bored. When they finish reading the book (if they make it that far) they will ask “What was the point of that?”
The last book I read that contained no conflict was an ABC board book.
As a middle school teacher, I tell my story-writing students that they don’t have a story if they don’t have conflict, a problem. Even at that level, the concept helps them write better stories. Since we face problems/trouble/conflict in our daily lives on a fairly regular basis, we are encouraged when we read about others who face problems and overcome them (or not) even though they may be fictional. There is so much truth exposed through fiction; it’s a wonderful learning venue. See the City of God series by some guy named Ingermanson.
Two quick thoughts: I’m reading that most of you believe that the human condition is all about (or mostly about) conflict. I feel that it has been suggested that if I don’t see the conflict, I’m not looking hard enough.
I feel like I am. I am constanty aware of the conflict, major and minor in my life, things like, “will those darn computers EVER stop breaking for just three minutes at work so I can do something besides fix them for a change?”, or “Will the Denver Vroncos EVER win a football game again?”
I really feel like there are things in real life that don’t involve conflicting anything- some love stories, and, well, i really don’t have this all thought out, which is why I asked Randy the question.
I will leave you with this thought: is conflict really the best terminology to describe what happens in fiction? Consider the definitions of conflict as posted by Crystal- to me, almost every single one has an almost…aggressive definition. Is this really an appropriate term for all stories?
What if I an writing a story about the search for a perfect pair of pants? Is what my character going through REALLY as much “conflict” as what a character like Frodo Baggins has to go through in his journey?
I realize that this is only semantics, but I think that this issue, for me at least, is a deep one that gets to the very core of why I need to write fiction, as well as the biggest roadblock that I face right now in my writing.
If the character searches for pants and the first pair is perfect, then the story is over, the end. When did the reader begin to care? What kept him turning pages? If in the search for perfect pants, a number of obstacles got in the way, those would be conflicts. They don’t have to be aggressive obstacles. Unless it’s an overbearing saleslady and in that case, we are set up for the underlying character arc, the one in which we watch our shopping mc go through the process of developing a backbone, something common to the human condition to which we readers can relate. jm2c. 🙂
My favorite book of all time is Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. A wee bit o’ conflict but pages and pages of 1920 summertime atmosphere. My 11 year old daughter is reading it now and likes it for the same reason I did, because of the way it makes her feel.
For instance on the last ride of the Green Trolley everyone is happy going out to the lake and then tired from the long day on the last ride back in to town.
I guess one can say its conflict but that’s defining conflict so broadly as to be almost meaningless. Conflict is perhaps the easiest, most standard way to get a reader to take an emotional ride but there are other ways that maybe we don’t see much of these days.
Jonathan, just ditch the terminology and tell the story. It looks to me like you’re getting hung up on semantics.
Is this entire question and conversation a subtle means of procrastination? Being a master procrastinator myself, I tend to recognize those ploys.
Write the story. You can always analyze it and pick it to pieces later. Happy writing.
I don’t have a problem with the need for conflict. It’s always there in the PI and Spy books I love.
I have a problem with How-to-Write authors (I’ve read a bunch — thank you) who insist that every chapter, even every page, be about conflict, coupled with, You had better edit out everything that isn’t conflict.
I offer you two detectives, Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, and Charles Willeford’s Hoke Moseley. Both spend a fair time decribing their habits (quirks) with dress and food. Of course this is the character-driven part that makes us want to read more about them. But it’s also used for pacing, for spacing out the larger conflicts. If you edited out Spenser’s tassled loafers and Hoke’s false teeth and Dinty Moore stew, what would you have? Some of Spenser’s cases are not great mysteries. We read them to be in Spencer’s world. (It’s also how I learned interesting things about Boston and Miami.) I’m a geezer — not an MTV junky. I don’t need screams and explosions every chapter. Give me good characters in an interesting setting and I’ll read to see what happens.
I think the edit-out-everything-that’s-not-conflict argument is more appropriate for thrillers, hyper-page-turners designed to keep you from breathing. Has the conflict-on-every-page thing been over-emphasized?
Judith, I believe that you may be right :). I need to remember sometimes that if I want to write, I should do it, and take what comes out for what it is.
I just feel like when I read books from other periods (Like, maybe Charles Dickens or Henry James) that conflict is simply a tool the author uses to tell the story, instead of the very backbone of the story.
I have also heard that eastern literature doesn’t utilize conflict in the same ways that it’s western counterpart does (though I have to admit I haven’t read eastern literature).
The biggest thing I want to avoid in my writing is “Kate Hudson fiction”- you know what I mean, Boy+Girl=Happiness, until relationship hits a snag, Boy and Girl Breakup, only to realize that they needed to be together to be truly happy.
Taking Judith’s advice, I am going to just write now and see what happens.
I still am interested in the following questions though if anyone wants to take a stab at them:
Is there really no way we can further refine and develop fiction in a way that hasn’t been done before, but is still interesting?
Also, is Conflict REALLY the proper terminology for what we are talking about?
Do you really honestly think about the word “conflict” when you think of someone deciding whether or not to wear a red or green shirt? A little hyperbole there, but I wanted to come up with the most benign of choices to try to illustrate my point- that maybe not everything we do is conflict, but maybe something else.
I had a wonderful creative writing teacher that described a story as a loop-de-loop. If a story was a line, the start of the line is the character(s) ‘normal’. The line loops up, that is something unusual happening (could be anything – external or internal, events or thoughts). The character(s) figure out what to do about the unusual happening and the line loops down (looking a bit like a cursive e) and continues it’s straight path, but a little higher than the beginning line. This is the character(s) ‘new normal’ based on how they figured out a problem, or grew as a person, or didn’t grow. Imagine a story as a line with no ‘loop-de-loops’. It would be a line. A very boring line. Journey, adventure, internal realization, inter-connectedness to other characters or place as a character, as well as direct conflict or disagreement would qualify as ‘conflict’ in a story. Maybe the word ‘variable’ would be of help, as in what is the variable or change agent that causes the character(s) to act or react in a story? Thanks for helping me think about it to clarify in my own mind why stories need conflict. And I don’t think conflict has to have a negative connotation. I think a human being breathing is conflict, sooner or later something will happen, boring, exciting, not breathing, breathing some more, something.
Sounds like Ted is in conflict with Randy.
No, you didn’t do anything wrong Ted. Randy means that he has to manually check everyone who joins the site to ensure that they are actually human and not a spambot. As you can see, he checked you, and now you allowed to comment.
When he said “nothing personal,” he meant that he wasn’t holding your comment back on purpose; it’s part of the standard (automatic) procedure for sifting through comments. Your comments won’t be moderatated from this point on.
Other than that, “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is a nursery rhyme, not a short story. While conflict exists in the rhyme as you have noted, I don’t believe conflict is always necessary for rhymes or poetry. Poetry can be used as a bit of an intellectual game, using things like metaphors, analogies, rhyming and wordplay to arrange ideas in a way both familiar and unique. Because poetry is short, it’s not necessary to keep the reader’s attention with conflict (of course conflict can exist).
Take, for example, this song I’m listening to now (Sloan – Autobiography):
I’m writing “young and gifted,”
In my autobiography,
I figured, who would know,
Better than me?
I’m certainly the former,
But I’m *not* so much the latter,
But no one’s gonna read it,
So I’m sure it doesn’t matter.
When you find that you’re the former,
Take pride in how you form.
When you find that you’re the ladder,
Don’t let those people walk under you-ooh.
I’m writing “sharp and adult”,
With my finger on the steam,
On the mirror in my bathroom,
And I’m applying shaving cream.
Which would suggest that I’m the foamer
But how *can* I be the lather,
And something tells me,
It’s the opposite I’d rather.
When you find that you’re the foamer,
Be careful what you foam.
When you find that you’re the lather,
Don’t shave too high,
You’ll regret it later,
La…La La La…La La La La
La…La La La…La La La La
I’ve stayed in school this long
But still no one will tell me why,
They figured who would know,
Better than I?
I know I’m a conformer,
But I’m *sure* it doesn’t matter,
My new friends are all adults,
And my old friends all have scattered.
When you find you’re a conformer,
Take pride and swallow whole.
If you’re trying to climb the ladder,
Don’t let people walk over you.
Because that’s just what they’ll do.
Don’t let people walk over you.
Because that’s just what they’ll do.
While there is hardly any serious conflict in the song, there is quite a lot of wordplay. The whole song develops from two words “former” and “latter,” themselves having dual meanings and referring to other words. The narrator goes on to apply his metaphorical use of these words to words that sound the same: “foamer and lather,” only to draw a new and original line of thought based on a metaphor.
Ultimately, it depends on what you expect from literature. If you read it for intellectual stimulation, it may not be necessary to have conflict per se, or at least not a lot of it. If you read it for action and adventure, then conflict is obviously important to you. It’s probably a good exercise to try writing without conflict.
I wholeheartedly agree. Conflict makes the reader want to read on. Conflict causes us to turn the page. When characters lives enter high stakes moments, we sit up and pay more attention.That doesn’t mean that the whole novel must be riddled with tension and problems and anger and fighting. Conflicts can be internal but also external.
Conflict in fiction doesn’t have to be tension or angst, it’s just really about the character figuring out what to do next and then dealing with those consequences — dealing with the effect from the cause the character has created.
The conflict occurs when someone “deals” with something that happens even if it’s a tiny occurrence. If the character turns left then this happens — deal with it, if he/she turns right ….
I really can’t think of an example of someone in real life not having conflict, which is why we relate to fiction, why we find something funny or sad.
Even when you’re meditating — clearing those pesky thoughts from your head creates conflict. Even when you’re asleep, your body is twisting and turning — then the sheets fall off the bed, then the cold sets in….. Eating — is the food going to be too hot or too cold or too bitter….
Did I spell everything right? — conflict there….
Let me sit absolutely still and think about nothing … oh now I’m obsessing about how that jerk cut me off when I was driving … conflict … what’s that weird noise outside — conflict….
… that stupid ticking clock …. conflict — I just realized how I hate sitting absolutely still — conflict…. my left shoe just squeaked across the ground like a nails on a chalkboard — conflict ….
…. and not even ten seconds has gone by and look how much conflict was created even when I was physically doing absolutely nothing but sitting still.
The thing is — we deal with these things so much, we don’t pay attention to the conflicts they create in our life — a constant annoyance becomes the norm since we either adapt to it or it kills us. This is the reason why “the human condition isn’t all about conflict” because we’re so use to the conflict that it’s no longer causing most of us to be conflicted — our brains end up filtering it out.
But your character may not deal with something as well as most of us can and bingo — you have a story about something that you wouldn’t usually think is problematic, but that character would do anything to stop the annoyance….
So the things that don’t cause you conflict, another may feel differently and be really irritated, obsessed or depressed by those things.
The difference between real life conflict and fictional conflict is that once something is written down then it’s no longer completely subjective to your reality — others now get to experience your reality, but now it’s not really your reality — it’s your character’s reality and the character might not be able to deal with the mundane as well as you can and it just might be killing that person.
The only time you don’t have conflict is when you have something that is completely objective such as a book dealing with all the varieties of wood. There is no subjectivity, hence no variance — you have oak, pine and spruce.
I guess you can write a fictional novel about all the varieties of vegetation all over the world and go into full descriptions of each variety — and yes it’s fiction because these varieties don’t actually exist — they’re made up varieties — a whole fantasy fictional novel with no conflict– hah! Call it, “The Fictional Guidebook to the Planet Mars” and it might just sell as a novelty item.
Bottom line Jonathan (on hitting refresh before submitting I saw that Judith wrote something similar but I’ll keep this in for emphasis), this is causing you to have a road block when it comes to your writing which means you’re over analyzing this and it’s killing your writing. Just write without thinking about conflict or trying to figure out how to or how not to cause your characters grief and let the story come out as it does. Once that first draft is done then go back and over analyze. Just write and see what happens.
And to answer your last question:
Conflict just happens when the person is figuring whether to wear the red or green shirt; you don’t need to think about the word, “conflict” or focus on terminology. To most it’s an easy decision, but to your character it could be a life altering decision that takes two hours or even fills up an entire novel. Why life altering and why would this menial task take 2 hours or fill up an entire novel? …. and that’s where the story is — that’s the hook.
Maybe instead of thinking about the word “conflict” in terms of a fight or struggle, you can think about it as “conflicting” – as in there is just a difference between what is and what the main character would like there to be: his or her desires or ideals conflict with his or her reality.
And, no offense, I am pretty sure I would not be interested in reading a story about someone shopping for pants. I’m not sure many other people would either, unless it included a lot of humor or clever observations… so I hope for your sake this was just a silly hypothetical. 😉
I’ve heard we should put our main character up a tree and throw rocks at him/her. Not literally, of course, but if our hero doesn’t have a problem to solve, what’s the point of the story? We all like to see the hero win, and we love it when the odds are almost unsurmountable and yet, the good guys save the day. But there needs to be consequences (take The Lord of the Rings – Frodo goes home, but with one less finger.) Without consequences, we’d put the book down feeling cheated.
I agree with Judith. Just write the story. You can always add what’s missing. If you don’t have something down on the page, you won’t have anything to work with.
Mary Had A Little Lamb does have conflict. You just have to read the whole thing. He followed her to school one day and the teacher kicked him out.
Conflict in sheep’s clothing. 😉
I’m writing because Pam Halter made me laugh so hard I accidentally hit the keys.
Seriously, I like to think of conflict as tension, something that cultivates tensile strength in character/story. It engages my reader-mind when a contrast is revealed, or when a decision (L. cutting, separation) hovers momentarily against the inevitable pull of gravity. Very sensual and excitatory. Even if being whisked along by story leaves me unaware of it, my adrenals still spit a few hormones into the bloodstream in reaction. Which (speaking of consequences) make their way to my grey matter.
The image of a signal rippling up the axon of a nerve (created by voltage, potential energy across a gap– tension) thrills and inspires me. Microscopic bits of magic. Just a little (constantly repeating) tension that keeps my brain alert.
Well, that was a nice diversion. I guess I have to get some real writing done now.
My “buying the perfect pants” and “choosing a shirt” were totally hypothetical, I know they sound like the most boring thing ever, I was just using them because the were so menial that they allow me to try to think about conflict in a differen way, which is one of the things I want to do as an author.
Thanks to everyone for your commets, you really helped me think about something that has causes me major difficulty inu writing lately, and it was awesome 🙂
I must agree with Sabrina re the conflict in The Others. OMG, the movie was so tense and compelling because of the enormous waves of conflict roiling the characters — and (spoiler here if you haven’t seen it) let’s not forget the mother killed both of her children, and they are really angry with her about it! True that most of what we see is her emotional turmoil, but it’s brought on by conflict: It’s wartime, her husband has “abandoned” her (been killed), she’s gone crazy and killed her children, and there are ghosts haunting her, and she wants to leave but discovers she cannot. Yikes.
I think the main problem here is not understanding what conflict in fiction is. Conflict is also said as “Man versus”: Man vs. Man. Man vs. environment. Man vs. self. Man vs. technology. Man vs. society. Man vs. the supernatural. It is impossible to have a fiction (or creative non-fiction, for that matter) work without conflict.
“The Others” was mainly a conflict of woman vs. the supernatural. Plenty of twists and turns and mystery, but it was still versus the supernatural.
Is “conflict” the right term? Yes. Randy didn’t invent the term. Go to any dictionary of literary terms and theory, and it will be explained in roughly the same way.
I think the main solution to this is to do more reading. Randy says every writer should read about 100 novels. I think there should also be a fair amount of studying literature in the process. Many great writers also wrote literary criticism, and you can learn a lot from them (such as Poe, Emerson, Wordsworth, Maugham, Asimov, Lovecraft, Tolstoy, Eliot, Sartre, Eco, and far too many others to name). You don’t have to believe everything they write, but you should at least be versed in the same vocabulary as everyone else in the literary world.
“unless you print your books on sheets of acid, you should stick to putting as many interesting conflicts in your stories as your readers can comprehend.”
there exists descriptive writing and prescriptive writing.
you can either explain the way things should be, or explain what something is like.
if you try to avoid conflict, you are left with only a description of something. a description without conflict can still be beautiful and filled with emotions, but those emotions are still due to conflict on a meta level.
i could describe a beautiful garden, which could trigger positive emotions through wish fulfillment, but this is still a meta conflict between what the reader wants and what they have.
i could describe something that is difficult to comprehend, then the meta conflict is in the reader overcoming the difficulty of solving the puzzle.
i could describe the good feelings you get from being on a drug/love/religion, and people who have used that drug might enjoy reading it, since it reminds them of experiences that have felt good. the conflict here would be between what the reader wants and what they have, or between what they have and what they dont want to loose.
everyone is in a particular state, and some people want to change their state, while others want to remain in their current state, but if you describe a state that could potentially change, it will either be a description of a better or worse state than the current state.
if you describe a state that can never change, it is purely a definition and not a story. for example:
“your age is the difference between your date of birth and todays date.”
this is not a story, this is just informing you of the definition of the word “Age” and doesn’t imply that you should take any actions. this would only be interesting if you didn’t know what the word “age” meant, which would be a literacy obstacle that you just overcame, which was a conflict between the literacy you had and the literacy you wanted to have.
“the democrats are in office”
this describes a state that can change, so it is a story, and if you’re a republican, its a sad story. it evokes emotions. it implies the need for some kind of action, either “defensive action” to keep this state, or “offensive action” to change the state. if the state of this problem can change, its a manageable problem, and if it cannot, there is not a lot of reason to spend time thinking about it.
This entire response I’m writing is describing why you cant avoid conflict entirely, and the more you try to avoid conflict, the less interesting your writing becomes. why is a lack of conflict not interesting? because the one and only thing that brains do, is solve problems. emotions exist just to reinforce the idea that you should be solving problems at all times.
you can sometimes skip the problems and go straight to the good feelings you get from completing problems, but its not productive to spend all of your time doing drugs, just to have a false sense of accomplishment.
The true goal is not “to have good feelings”, those are just reward mechanisms. the true goal is “to improve yourself and the world around you”, and overcoming problems is the only thing that minds like to do, besides drugs… but unless you print your books on sheets of acid, you should stick to putting as many interesting conflicts in your stories as your readers can comprehend.
-Scott Spadea July 3, 2013
I would argue that no, fiction does not require conflict. For example, there as entire genre of anime called ‘slice of life’, and it is just that- people living their daily lives with maybe a weird twist in there. Yes, sometimes the individual episodes can have conflicts, but it isn’t necessary. The characters can grow, but they don’t necesarily have to face conflict to do so. And they are obviously works of fiction (a lot of the times, they have fantasy or supernatural elements).
I actually reckon that while conflict is an integral part of many films, it isn’t for many others. For instance, is conflict a major part of romances (the ones with no clear villain) – e.g. The Bridges of Madison County ? Or, take any film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors? In action films, in dramas, in crime genre, yes of course it is a major part. But in romances & comedies, I reckon, not really.
I think the main problem here is a semantic one. I also became hung up on the word ‘conflict’. For me, it’s more helpful to think in terms of ‘problem’ or ‘obstacle.’