Into the Fire

There are so many types of conflict – too numerous to name. Writing conflict varies from the intense and grotesque to the simple and minimal.

If you're in a high-stress job, chances are conflict is the major contributor to that stress. Whether it be from the competition or from within via employees, time crunches for deadlines, or the overall difficulty of particular demands, conflict is rarely pleasant.

If you're living your life within a family, conflict can come from disagreements with spouses, children, siblings, added to external issues which directly affect the functioning of the family.

If you're writing thrillers, the conflict is accelerated and almost constant, braking at just the right moment for the reader to exhale and re-enter "normal" life within the story. If you're writing a simple romance, the conflict is usually structured and often based on misunderstandings, distance, miscommunications, or specific issues interfering with the coupling of hero and heroine. If you're writing suspense, the story is usually less intense than thrillers but protagonists experience major conflicts along the pages. Literary novels usually portray inner struggles among many intersecting characters with a plot line that can be blurred or less defined, and the way the story is told is almost more important than the story itself.

I'm not good at conflict in real life or in my writing. I don't like conflict. In my love stories the conflicts are personal with individuals attempting to understand themselves and the objects of their affections, seeking mutual resolution, clarity, love. For some readers it works. Others not so much.

Conflict is the key element in keeping readers engaged according to many readers and professional writers, agents, and publishers. I would agree concerning thrillers, but with love stories – barring those of "the ages" over distant lands and times – normal people discovering a relationship shouldn't elicit great conflicts unless there are other specific issues featured in the conflict(s) changing the story agenda.

So . . . those are my current thoughts on conflict. 

Lord, people are in conflict constantly. Ever since original sin. May your peace permeate those who seek you, Jesus. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.