Tag: Conflict

Posted in Antagonists, Conflict

Antagonists: What Have They Lost?

Posted on by beckylevine

Okay, I admit, this feels like an odd post to be writing at the end of the year, with a new one and all its possibilities just around the corner. But I’m working on characters this week, and I’m spending quite a bit of time with my antagonists. All of whom, really, have their good sides. In fact, they’re all a little too nice at this point, and I’m digging for what they want so badly that it’s turning them against my MC.

And as I was thinking about one character’s particular want, I realized that this want–his deep, most real want–is impossible. He lost any chance of getting that want years ago–through no fault of his own. I know, storywise, that the path is not going to turn; it won’t be a surprise, happy ending for him. So…because without a goal, there is no plot, I needed to think of another want for him, less powerful maybe, but one that has filled in for the older need–one that still motivates his actions and choices in the story. A want that still makes problems for my MC.

It came to me pretty quickly. Okay, let’s face it, I was laying in bed not wanting to get up and character development is as good an excuse as any to stay warm and cozy.

The cool thing that I realized was that the new want hasn’t completely erased the old one. Oh, sure, the character is 99.9999% sure that he’ll get that old want. He knows it intellectually and at a gut level. But…he still wants it. If you said to him, what would you do to get X, he’d come up with a huge list of things he’d sacrifice. In a nano-second.

So what do you get with this character, then? You get a character who knows loss, and who will fight more strongly than ever to keep from losing more. I think  it’s this loss, this awareness of what they can’t have, that makes an antagonist so powerful in his battle. He can’t go back, can’t have that original want, but he will hold onto his “replacement” want with everything he’s got.

The character I was thinking about this morning, just to try and make things more clear, is my MC’s father. I don’t want to get too deeply into specifics, but his original want is the woman he fell in love with, his wife (the MC’s mother) as she was before something bad happened to her. He can’t have that woman–she is forever gone. She broke years ago, and she has changed permanently, but she has healed…some.  So his second want, the one he lives with now, is to keep safe the woman he does have, to stop anything from breaking her again.

Even if this means stopping his daughter.

What does this create? An antagonist in serious conflict with the hero. An antagonist who the reader will sympathize with (assuming I can actually write this!), and who will make big problems for the main character. An antagonist with power.

Take a look at your bad guy. What do they want, now, at this moment in the story. And then…what would they rather have? What have they, in essence, given up on, but still hold the tiniest bit of hope for? How many more sides do you see to this antagonist, when you add that extra piece?

Posted in Character, Conflict

Conflict AND Connection

Posted on by beckylevine

Here’s what I worked on this afternoon.

conflict_connection

Okay, well, I filled it in, too.

Earlier this week, Jenn Hubbard blogged here about reading actor Jeff Griggs’ book Guru. You should read Jenn’s post to see all she got out of the book, but the thing that stuck with me was her realization that our characters need to work together at times, not always be in conflict. 

I started thinking about this as supporting each other, or at least having a connection. And I started asking myself what connection and conflict each of my main characters have with each other.

Enter the chart.

The biggest struggle was, honestly, creating the chart. I am chart-o-phobic. Flow charts are totally beyond me, and even this “simple” one that you see here got me all confused as I started entering info. Had to back out, look at it again, slap myself in the forehead a few times, and restart.

I don’t know if you can read this very well, but the main characters’ names repeat across the top and down the left. Basically, the rows show conflict and the columns show connection. I think. Or maybe a better description is that all the cells UNDER the shaded stairway show connection, while the cells ABOVE the shading show conflict.

To give you a clear (?) example, Nate (formerly known as Love Interest #1) and Gideon (formerly known as Love Interest #2) have the last two rows and last two columns. If you follow Nate’s row all the way across to where he meets Gideon above the shading, you can probably guess their conflict I typed in there—they both want Caro. On the other hand, if you follow Nate’s column all the way down to meet Gideon below the shading, well…you tell me what their connection is. I’m being generous (and wimpy) at this point and saying that they actually do both want Caro to be happy.

I’m not sure where this’ll take me, and I’m pretty sure (I see you nodding) that the info in the cells will change many times during the writing of this story. But for now it’s a reminder that the dynamics of a story work at many levels and that characters, like us, have complicated motives for their actions.

Some of which they’ll actually share with their authors.

Posted in Character, Plot

Who is your Hero…Now and Then?

Posted on by beckylevine

Recently, on Twitter, Susan Taylor Brown tweeted about character traits she was considering for her hero. She tweeted about pairs of traits, because she was contemplating which of each set of two traits was true for this hero. I wish I could remember them now, but what struck me was the very subtle difference between the two qualities. I don’t think this was one of hers, but think about a pairing like “shy/reserved.” Close, similar, but with a difference–an important difference.

Susan’s tweets and staying away from my story for a couple of weeks got me thinking about my hero and who she really is. (Along with who goes why, but that’s the next step.) So this afternoon, I cleaned off the whiteboard, set Pandora to Pat Metheny, and got out the marker. Here’s what I came up with.

whoisshe

I didn’t work in pairs, like Susan did. (I also found nouns, verbs, AND adjectives popping out of the marker & just went wit that.) I broke the story up into who Caro is at/after four big plot points:

  • At the beginning/pre-beginning
  • After the early crisis
  • After the secret reveal/revelation
  • After the ending crisis (for Caro, “the march”)

Still, even without consciously thinking about pairs of character traits, I did end up with words that “go together.” I started out by thinking she was determined at the beginning, then realized she might not get there until after the first crisis. Even then I realized there was a difference between determined in the 2nd column and focused in the 3rd. I added narrowly to remind myself that she’s heading into a bit of tunnel-vision here. Which goes with furious. Originally, I had anger in that 3rd column, but realized she has plenty to be angry about already in the 2nd column, and she’d better be amping up in response to that revelation.

  • anger/fury
  • determined/focused

Yep. Trait pairings. Contrast, change, growth. What’s on your list?

Thanks, Susan!

You can follow Susan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/susanwrites.

Posted in Character, Conflict, Scenes, Tension

Amping Up Character Tension

Posted on by beckylevine

This summer I will turn forty-mumble-mumble years old. At this time in my life (says the old, wise one), I have built up a community (or a tribe, as my friend Terri Thayer calls it) of friends with whom I am comfortable and happy, and who help me keep my life interesting and my brain active. When we get together, there’s lots of talking back and forth, sharing of family stories, and laughter. I feel connected and supported.

And if you wrote us into a scene of your book, your readers would be yawning and heading off for a nap. (Well, okay, not right away–we are pretty funny.)

There just isn’t a lot of conflict.

Yes, we’re realistic. Unfortunately, that’s not enough when you’re writing a scene in a story. You need emotion, tension, and some serious problems to deal with. And the characters can’t just be talking about problems; they need to be experiencing some. At that moment.

How do you add conflict to character interaction?

  • Give your characters conflicting goals. I’m not just talking about their big, story goals, but their goals for the scene. What does each of them want right there and then, and where do the goals clash?
  • Add a third character to a scene. Remember how, when your child was small, you were wary of setting up a “triangle” playdate? Guess why. The goals/needs of two people have equal weight. A third person can pick a side, making the scale off-balance. They can give supremacy to one person and put the other on the defensive. Nice!
  • Give one character authority over the other. Bosses, parents, teachers, venture capitalist—they hold the power and can “make” another person do something they don’t want. Anger and resentment, much? Go for it.
  • Weave in a secret. If you want complicated dialog, with some tension, let one character know something the other doesn’t. Are they using it to bribe the second character? Are they desperate to keep that character from finding out? Does the second character suspect the secret? Push/pull…conflict.
  • Add a deadline. People with all the time in the world to talk, accomplish something, or make a plan can, well…take all that time. They can be relaxed, chit-chatty, patient. If they’ve got five minutes to make a decision, though, and they don’t even have all the facts they need—they get rushed, impatient, frustrated, and argumentative. Can you hear the dialog?

We all know the “rule”–no scenes with characters sitting around a table at the coffeehouse, talking. Frankly, I’m okay with a scene (or maybe two) like this, if it doesn’t send the story, or me, into a slump of slow-pacing, frivolous dialog, and happy friendship. As much as I want that in my own life these days, I do not want it in the books I’m reading. Or writing.

Neither do you. 🙂

What do you do to make your characters less happy with each other, more at odds? Leave a comment and share the tip!