Writing prompt #25: ON CONFLICT

Hi Everyone,

How was your weekend?

Today I’m going to address a question submitted by Catherine Yu on our crafts thread last week:

“I realized one of the stories I'm working on doesn't have enough conflict. It's structured in such a way that each encounter has to have a greater emotional magnitude than the last. What are some ways to crack open or increase conflict in the mid-section of a story? Can an emotional pivot be enough?”

Unlike theater, which thrives on conflict—you could argue that conflict is a play’s oxygen—fiction is often more forgiving. The 19th century Russian novel OBLOMOV by Ivan Goncharov comes to mind: five hundred-plus pages about a minor nobleman who barely leaves his bed. Inaction supplants conflict throughout and yet the story is engaging, highly comedic, self-skewering and defies the standard Fichtean curve of ascending action/crises followed by a climax and denouement.

Why? Because voice and sensibility carry the day. In fact, both can sustain a story even when the plot doesn’t follow a conflict-rich format. That said, if your story fits this template—terrific! It’s certainly a time-tested way to relay a tale. But if your story resists this, if your characters want to tell it their way, if what they don’t say is more eloquent than what they do, trust that too.

YOUR PROMPT: Try plotting your story as proscribed by the Fichtean curve model. Does it fit? Is conflict naturally arising from your set-up of characters and incidents? If not, don’t force the conflict. Instead consider creating another model—be it musical, architectonic, or otherwise—to undergird your piece.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to comment with additional ideas and suggestions on the subject!

Abrazos,

Cristina

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