Into the Fire

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Passionate: right or wrong. Writes love stories with a passion. Raw Romantic Redemptive

Conflict, conflict, conflict . . .

 

(Thanks to BK Jackson for her thoughts on this topic. I needed a post for today.)

 

When is it too much? If I’m reading a Robert Liparulo novel, there’s always a huge amount of conflict. The master of pacing in his early thrillers and in his Young Adult Dreamhouse Kings Series, conflict rules and reigns on page after page. The pages can’t turn fast enough. Even with proper chapter breaks, it’s difficult to stop turning those pages. So. Robert knows all about conflict and how to keep it sharp and fresh.

 

Reading a Lisa Samson novel presents a different kind of address to conflict. It can be subtle, sometimes slow-moving, other times overt, and in its own way a quiet life-and-death literary treatise of pain, struggle, and growth. Not atypical of literary novels but never less than real and honest in the department of the human psyche and its varied emotional and spiritual makeup.

 

The “must have conflict on every page” instruction grinds on me. Another “rule” that exceeds sensibility and needs translation. When you use this premise for a romance what you get are doofus characters pretending they don’t like each other when it’s blatantly obvious they want to rip each other’s clothes off. Exaggeration, okay? But, hey, that kind of conflict results in shallow characters playing junior high school games with each other and makes me, as both a writer and a reader, want to shred pages of said books. Frankly, it’s insulting. Apparently there are several readers who enjoy being insulted with this kind of behavior. It’s exceedingly difficult to pull off this stuff in the content of romantic fiction because it’s so disingenuous—especially after the back cover copy reveals the storyline with the hint-hint, wink-wink suggestion or question.

 

Your approach to conflict in story might prove quite revealing in your genre and author tastes. Your thoughts on this are welcome . . .

 

 

Father, you know the conflicts of the ages. It all began with sin. Help us to honor you with the way we write, the way we depict the struggle. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

 

 

Would appreciate your continued prayers for those mentioned yesterday. My brother is facing possible heart surgery. He’s stable but needs prayer. Thank you all. May the Lord richly bless you for lifting up the needs of others.  

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8 responses to “Conflict, conflict, conflict . . .”

  1. Brenda Anderson Avatar
    Brenda Anderson

    I agree with you, Nicole. I call it “piling on.” When one conflict is loaded on top of another, it doesn’t give the characters or the reader room to breathe and detracts from the story.
    Consider the movie Jurassic Park. (I loved the 1st one.) It has very intense moments with dinosaurs and then backs off, shows some light moments so the viewer almost forgets that danger lurks. Then dinosaurs attack again. The story gave the viewers room to breathe in between conflict & made it more entertaining … at least to me. 🙂

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  2. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Good example, Brenda.
    And with so many, some of them often result in open-ended or non-resolution situations.

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  3. dayle Avatar
    dayle

    I think a better approach is to replace the word conflict with tension. There should always be tension. Tension even in relaxed-give the reader a breath- scenes can lurk in the background and make the reader want to get to the next manifestation of the tension.
    Conflict implies a negative connotation. Whereas tension can be positive as well.

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  4. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    I understand your premise, Dayle. For me, UST (unresolved sexual tension) can be prevalent in romance/love stories, but even that can be “negative” because with it characters often play games with the obvious. However, when it’s done well as in the personal hang-ups of emotions and growth in characters, UST is a must to a degree.
    Tension in other genres is a given, but I still think it can be overdone unless, as you suggest, it’s in the background as the objective to be “solved” or eliminated.
    Good point, Dayle.

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  5. dayle Avatar
    dayle

    One technique Koontz uses quite often is to have a scene with no conflict and no tension. These scenes often explore the relationship between two good friends or a couple. Often a demonstration of the depth of the relationship.
    The tension comes from the previous chapter where it is revealed that the evil guy is slowly making his way to or is already in the house(or local) where the new scene is taking place.

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  6. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    I would say from the one novel you gave me to read of Koontz’s that he’s very good at “prolonging the agony” which of course increases the tension/conflict. Good example. Koontz could never get away with what he does in CBA: he breaks all the rules so well. 😉

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  7. Brenda Jackson Avatar
    Brenda Jackson

    I’m just catching up this evening on yesterday’s post. Yeah, I think I’m better off thinking of it as tension rather than conflict. The other interesting aspect of this is that if we are drawing our characters well in our story, there is bound to be some level of tension instinctively, though I suppose a lot of it undercurrent.
    I mean if we consider the many things we scroll through rapidly in our minds as we make decisions every day (do I make time to get gas now and risk being late to work or try to eek out another 10 miles out of the tank and risk running out of gas?) and a million other decisions, they all involve tension to some degree.
    Or maybe I’m just always uptight. LOL!!!! But tension seems to be inherent in living. Conflict I look at differently somehow.

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  8. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Good points and examples, Brenda.

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