How to write Conflict

I've seen and heard many debates about conflict. Some authors break it in to internal and external conflict. But what does that mean? This is my take on it, other people may view it differently. External conflict is caused by a source outside of the hero or heroine e.g He has to get married by Tuesday or he loses a million pound fortune.

Internal conflict is caused by the emotions of the hero or heroine e.g He doesn't mind getting married by Tuesday as he's madly in love with the bride to be, but knows she's in love with someone else. In the later case it's his fears which provide the conflict, he loves her but she doesn't love him, or so he thinks.

For most writers they have a conflict to start the story but then they hit chapter three and they feel they've used up all the conflict issues. This usually isn't true , what's really happened is they have exhausted the external issues but haven't even scratched the surface on the deeper internal ones. An editor at Mills and Boon told me once that if one good heart-to-heart conversation could solve the problem the conflict wasn't deep enough.

To make a reader emphasise with your character you have to dig deep into their psyche, explore those deeper layers of conflict which lurk under the surface.

Take our hero with the enforced wedding -

He loves his bride - he thinks she loves someone else, now a heart-to-heart would solve this, right? Wrong! If we dig a little deeper - why does he not believe his bride when she says she loves him? - This is where the digging comes in - surface conflict - he saw her kiss someone else. Deeper conflict - his ex-wife cheated on him, his mother cheated on his father, he believes that given the opportunity all women will cheat, so to protect his heart he won't let his bride-to-be get emotionally close to him.

Can you see where this is going? How is he going to change? How is the heroine going to teach him to change? Can it be done? The latter part would give you the conflict and character growth for a novel. The other surface conflict might give you a short story.

How deep are your conflicts?

(C) Nell Dixon 2005