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MOTHER AND FATHER

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Easiest ways to add conflict to your novel

If you’re unsure whether your story is utilising all its sources of potential conflict, have a read through this post! It’s so easy to lose ourselves in our stories, and miss opportunities to create more interesting and tense situations that help our characters grow.

When we get too deep into our story, it’s difficult to see whether it’s falling flat in conflict. Here are 4 ways you can make sure you’re keeping it interesting!

Start from the character

Internal struggle is always the best place to start introducing conflict into your story! What is that misbelief that holds your character back achieving what they’re meant to? Can they have a flaw or struggle that directly interferes with them achieving their goal?

The side-characters

They shouldn’t always be helpful. Or if they’re meant to be, maybe they shouldn’t start out that way. Scenes where there is no conflict of interest or at least some source of tension often fall flat and feel boring.

So if there’s ever a chance to add a layer of tension into a scene with a side-character, take it.

Make them work for it

Your protagonist should rarely ever succeed at what it is they want, at least until the end of the story. Whatever big break-through of success they do have should feel like a reward that they’ve actually failed at achieving before, or have had to take lots of steps to grasp onto it.

And sometimes, when they do get it, it’s immediately taken away or undermined.

Raise the stakes

Whatever your character is chasing, give them a strong reason as to why they HAVE to get it. What happens if they don’t? Whatever it is, to them it should feel like the end of the world. And then your readers will also feel that there is no other way for this character, and are likely to be more invested in their goal.

Find it through the [link here] or below!

The Writer's ToolBoox is a pack of 3 extensive E-books that cover the areas of: character craft, world building, and plotting. It comes with

erensattacktitandick-deactivate

Little tips and tricks for improving descriptions

Full disclaimer that my advice is never gospel. These are just things that have helped me improve my descriptions and so I thought I'd share if other people want to as well. I also think these can be employed regardless of writing style.

Be intentional with your word choice. Know when you want to use red or scarlet or carmine and don't be afraid to use unconventional words if you think they fit. Sometimes saying "the blood is red" is all that's needed and perfectly acceptable. But carmine might provoke a clearer image. You can also use word choice to show off character and setting. One character might pay particular attention to the family crest on someone's cufflinks while another might gloss over such details.

Expand on your premise. If we're meant to be in an opulent manor then referencing the intricate iron balustrade on the grand staircase gives the house much more character than simply saying "the manor was opulent." You can do the latter but the former gives us something a little extra to chew on and, in my opinion, brings us much more into the scene.

If you don't know how to describe something, look it up. I do this often with clothes, objects, and architecture. For example, I search up "vases" on websites like 1stdibs and study the descriptions and word choices used and employ them in my own words to make sure I'm using the correct terminology. Also searching "anatomy of the...." is another good way to bridge the terminology gap. Obviously not everyone is going to know what ribbed vs embossed vs chased means but they can always look it up themselves and they might learn something new!

Study art and images for inspiration. If you're someone who has a lot of trouble visualising things yourself then using aids is perfectly fine. Try a trick of finding an image you like and placing it by your word doc or simply pasting it inside while you're typing so you have something to refer to. I like to call this "word tracing". If I want to conjure the image of a pretty garden then studying the image of a garden and seeing what makes it pretty helps. Perhaps there's an elegant copse of willow trees or tumbling garlands of wisteria, etc.

To avoid static descriptions, be dynamic. General rule of thumb is don't just write paragraphs and paragraphs of descriptions as it'll cause the eyes to gloss over. But try to make descriptions come alive as much as possible to bring people into a scene. If someone is taking a seat on the chair then how does the chair feel? Is it upholstered in silk or velvet or leather? Does it creak from age? Does it smell of varnish? Is there a notable pattern of the fabric or engraving on the wood?

Employ the five senses. I touch on this a little in the previous point but try not to just focus on what the characters are seeing but also what they're tasting, smelling, hearing and touching. If there's fire crackling in a hearth then they'll be able to feel the heat, they might be able to smell fragrant smoke. Do they like the smell or is it too pungent? Can they hear the embers spitting? These are things you can also weave through conversations between characters to keep these scenes from being too bare bones.

faelanvance

there's this trend I see a lot in more "modern" writing styles, that I see often in fanfiction, where writers will have a character [do/think something] and then the following paragraph will go on to explain not only the character's process behind the action/thought, but the reason for said action/thought as well

and all you need is the first part. Seriously.

if you're writing the story well enough, you shouldn't need to state why a character is doing what they're doing, thinking what they're thinking.

You don't need to write: [name] said "this," feeling [this way] about [certain thing].

You can literally write: [name] said "this."

You don't have to write characters intentions explicitly, or their thought processes and opinions quite this literally. I find a lot of newer novels tend to really bloat stories this way, and we end up with doorstoppers that don't actually have much to them in the long run, most of it is an author really explicitly trying to show you [x] is my good character, [y] is my bad one, or [x] was representing this and [y] representing that.

Nothing is left to interpretation (which if you're developing the characters well, the reader will come to the same conclusions as you intended anyway, just in a far more effective way.) It lacks nuance.

The story you're telling, the way you frame the scenes, the moments you choose to show - or not to show, the choice of point of view, the ways the characters respond and react and change with the plot, should enable the reader to piece together who or what the character represents, who they are, how they were feeling, for themselves, without the author needing to state it outright throughout the whole novel.

Leaving these "gaps" allows the reader room to visualize and interpret it for themselves. Don't treat your audience like they don't understand and give them stories to think about. Your characters and stories will leave much more of a distinct impression.

queen-carol

Some of the best writing i’ve ever seen, lmao:

- Daryl to Carol:

“I know where I’m supposed to be” ; ‘Look, I need you to stay. Just think about it. Otherwise, I’m gonna have to punch holes in all them boats”; “We have a future”; “You wanna run? Run!”

- Daryl to Judith:

“You’re stuck with me”

- Judith to Daryl:

“I was scared you’d leave too”