I Learned About (Writing) Conflict From That…
I teach conflict. I teach a fair amount of writing subjects, having made my living from writing in one form or another for almost thirty years (in addition to writing science fiction romance for Bantam, I’m a former news reporter and a retired private investigator–some day I’ll figure out what I want to be when I grow up). My novels are known–according to reviewers–for characterization and conflict (and world building, too, but that doesn’t have the “c” alliteration so I’m leaving that out for now). So if I teach conflict and if I’m known for being a writer who writes good conflict, why am I blogging about learning about conflict?
Because with all that I knew about writing conflict, I learned more about it from a Donald Maass seminar. Almost a year ago.
I’m not a slow learner. Quite the opposite. I generally can’t wait to try whatever new technique I find via an online class, a how-to tome or an in-person seminar. I’d read Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel a good six months before attending his seminar (which was hosted by my local Florida RWA chapter, Southwest Florida Romance Writers). Having read the book, I went more to see “The Donald” in action. I’d heard he was a good speaker (he is). But I really didn’t think he could teach me anything new on conflict.
As I said, I’d read his book. I found it interesting and I’d highlighted a few points that intrigued me but overall, it didn’t knock my writerly socks off. It wasn’t anything I honestly hadn’t heard or read before. It was just presented in his style. The same was true of his seminar. I found it reassuring that such a famous agent had come to the same conclusions I had about structuring conflict. But there weren’t any Aha! moments.
So color me awfully surprised when the past month, slogging my way past yet another howling deadline, “The Donald’s” advice suddenly came home to roost.
* What does your character most want?
* What is the moment the protagonist abandons what s/he most wants? What inspires those feelings and how thoroughly can you burn those bridges?
* What is the one thing your protagonist would never say, never do? Find three places in your story where s/he says or does that thing.
* Who else could solve the central problem? Remove them.
* Can bad things happen sooner? Who gets crushed? Who is ruined? Who goes postal?
* Take the protagonist through failure and beyond.
* Who can betray the protagonist?
* Make it worse, make it worse, make it worse.
These are all culled from some twenty-plus pages of notes I took that January, amused and entertained by his presentation but not really feeling the pull of his words. Maybe the book I was working at at that time didn’t need them. Maybe I had too much fun the night before with my author buddy, Stacey Klemstein (watch for her faboo YA Paranormal debut from Hyperion/Harper Collins in 2010!) and her husband, visiting from Chicago. Maybe the words just needed time to ferment.
Whatever the reason, I pulled out that battered legal pad at the halfway point in Hope’s Folly (Bantam, February 2009) and they hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks. Me, who teaches conflict, who thinks she has a handle on how to torture characters and enthrall readers.
The moral of this blog is 1) don’t think you know it all, 2) don’t throw out those old notes from a seminar/writing class and 3) continue to attend writing seminars and take craft of writing classes. RWAOnline offers oodles. You can do them on your schedule in your pink pjs and bunny slippers, if you so desire. Your talent for writing is a growing, shifting thing. It needs to be fed often. It needs to be exercised often. It’s like a capricious (and likely not housebroken) pet that inhabits your brain. Without proper attention, it will just curl up on the couch and snore loudly. It won’t return your affection. It won’t defend you from that home/brain invasion posse known as “Writer’s Block” when it comes bursting through your door.
It took eight months for Maass’ words to prove their usefulness. But they did. I’m happier for it, my characters are happier (well, not yet but they will be) for it and when my editor gets the manuscript in a few weeks, I hope she’ll be happier for it.
Take time out of your writing to insert some learning, especially in craft areas you think you already have down pat. Shake your writerly brain up a bit with the challenge of a new technique, a new twist.
And don’t throw out those notes!
Namaste, ~Linnea
Linnea Sinclair
RITA award winning Science Fiction Romance
Bantam 2007-2008: Games of Command, The Down Home Zombie Blues, Shades of Dark
2009: Hope’s Folly
http://www.linneasinclair.com/
Great points in here, Linnea…awesome actually thank you…but here’s a question for you. It may be somewhat of a dumb question and answered elsewhere in Maass’s book or your classes (neither of which I have completed…OK, flog me now
) but…..
Is there any such thing as too much conflict? How do you, as a writer, know when enough is enough…it’s juicy enough, time to resolve it all. When it’s time to wrap it up? When the story ends? (Word count must come into play here somewhat, as aggravating as that is.)
Thanks
Donna
Totally, there can be too much conflict. Conflict overdone and overblown gets cartoonish. Stupid. Unbelievable. Drops the reader out of the story.
Notice that most of the Maass points relate to a character. One of the keys to making conflict work is to make conflict personal. Overlarge impersonal conflict borders on cartoon style–the comet hurtling toward Earth while the hurricane threatens the coast while the nuclear bomb is set to be launched… it’s like, okay, enough already.
Plus, the reader doesn’t really CARE about EVERYONE on the planet. Just the main characters so to the reader, the main character’s car getting a flat tire as he races to the crime scene is far more gripping than the comet hurtling toward Earth.
Noted SF author Jacqueline Lichtenberg (who is my primary guru on conflict) even goes further and differentiates conflict from complication. You want the former, you need have a care with the latter. Again, conflict is personal. Complication is happenstance and often impersonal and can, when over-inhabiting the pages of a novel, become cartoonish. I mean, how many banana peels can your character slip on?
From a handout I use when I teach:
Definitions of Conflict (from author Jacqueline Lichtenberg):
An urgent and undeniable I/WE MUST prevented from materializing by an equally formidable YOU CAN’T.
A likeable hero struggles against seemingly overwhelming odds toward a worthwhile goal.”
“Johnny gets his fanny caught in a bear trap and has his adventures getting it out.”
The story starts where the two elements that will conflict first come in contact with each other. The story ends when the conflict is resolved.
(Lichtenberg’s site is http://www.simegen.com and I HIGHLY recommend her writing advice found within.)
My agents also posted my thoughts on her blog:
http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2007/05/got-conflict.html
and here:
http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2007/06/status-doing-great-its-too-early-in-day.html
Those links may truncate, so FYI.
Hope this helps, ~Linnea
Awesome, Linnea! Thanks bunches…this will keep me busy for a while.
Donna
Thanks for the excellent reminders, Linnea. Sometimes you don’t realize what you’re missing until something slaps you in the face, like this.
Great points! I’ve got to get his book. I just realized those points could definitely be used in my WIP. You are so right – we can never stop learning. Thanks!
Brilliant, as usual! I’m going to link to this post later in the week and encourage every aspiring SFR writer I know to check out this wisdom.
I get such an adrenaline rush from high stakes, lots of tension, and conflict between characters I’m rooting for.
You, Mr. Maass, and Ms. Lichtenberg have all set the stakes pretty high for readers–meaning once we get a taste of stories that nail these elements we can never go back.
Great points! It’s always nice to have a refresher, and you’ve done a good job of crystallizing what we need to remember.
[...]“I Learned About (Writing) Conflict From That” is a recent post at the HEA café by Linnea Sinclair. If you’re an aspiring SFR author, she offers great tips about upping the ante in your writing.[...]
Maass’ class was amazing. I’d take it again if I could. Thanks for the reminder that I should dig out those notes.
I totally agree about saving notes and going back over them later. I am always studying and learning — and still have so far to go! And isn’t there some proverb about the student needing to be ready before she can absorb the knowledge?