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WorldCrafters Guild

Workshop:Conflict=Story & Writer's Block

by

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

 

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The following is from an email message answering a question by a new student in the WorldCrafters Guild.  In case you've been wondering -- all the teachers are students and all the students are teachers.  The method we use here is the "see one/do one/teach one" method -- where you don't know it until you've taught it.   Everything you learn, you are obligated to pass on to someone else.  You haven't mastered it until you've successfully transmitted it. JL

 

Welcome to the WorldCrafters Guild. 
Thank you for the timely reminder on "The essence of story is
conflict."

Yes, more than likely you need to read the post Cheryl Wolverton and
Jean Lorrah have prepared on CONFLICT.   We'll have that up in a
couple of weeks probably on the Workshop page.

Meanwhile, study the posts on conflict in the workshop already.
http://www.simegen.com/school/workshop/

CONFLICT is the essence of story.  That's why storytelling gets
blocked when there's something amiss with the conflict-structure of
the story -- you can't TELL a story that has no essence because it
isn't a story and thus nothing happens next.

DEFN of CONFLICT -- an urgent and undeniable MUST prevented from
materializing by an equally formidable CAN'T.  (that's my own
paraphrasing of a famous defn).

Notice how that applies to the Action/Adventure story AND to the
Romance equally well.

Conflict is the essence of STORY -- without conflict, there is no
story.  Many beginners confuse a technical flaw in their conflict-structure with
"Writer's Block" because they find they cannot write any more words. 
Here's a way out of that problem. 

Many beginning writers use too many conflicts and end up with a
tangle that is several stories (like a plate of spaghetti).  Usually
an attempt like that fails in the middle where the spaghetti tangle
is just too thick to hack through and you don't know what happens
next, so you can't write.

Others start off with the conflict already resolved, and discover
they don't know what happens next on page two or chapter two.

If you failed at the BEGINNING of your piece -- back up your starting
point in time to the place where the two elements that will conflict
AND RESOLVE first come in contact (i.e. where the to-be-lovers first
meet and it's hate at first sight).

If you failed in the middle -- strip away all the conflicts that do
not lead DIRECTLY to the final scene, the resolution.  Choose one
conflict, initiate it at the beginning, let it hit utter despair at
the middle, and resolve and win that conflict at the end.

If you failed RIGHT AT THE ENDING, the error is probably on page one.
Novels, like symphonies, should be symmetric.  The ending is dictated
by the beginning.  If the conflict WON'T resolve for the ending --
then either you resolved the conflict somewhere in the middle and
just didn't stop writing -- (in which case the solution is to move
the middle to the end and fold all the stuff that you wrote after the
middle into the first half of the novel -- then it'll work )  -- or
you didn't begin the story at the point in time where the conflict
that must resolve on the last page first starts  (in which case, you
move the opening forward or back in time to the correct point where
the story starts.)

The story starts where the two elements that will conflict first come
in contact with each other (it can be symbolic, but that's a
sophisticated technique I don't recommend to beginners).

The story ends when the conflict is resolved.

To frame a story to write:
Find someone who NEEDS to accomplish something.  Figure out what's
preventing them from accomplishing that something.  The story begins
when the person who needs to accomplish something first notices WHY
they CAN'T DO IT.  The body of the story is about what they do in
response to that knowledge that something (for beginning writers it
should always be SOMEONE not something abstract) is blocking them
from their purpose.  And the END is where they accomplish the
purpose.

The story-structure where the purpose changes in the middle is also a
very sophisticated structure not recommended until you've mastered
the simple story-structure.

The story structure described above is usually summarized in writing
books as:  "A likeable hero struggles against seemingly overwhelming
odds toward a worthwhile goal."

There is one other plot-structure noted in most writing textbooks --
"Johnny gets his fanny caught in a beartrap and has his adventures
getting it out."

Both structures work for Romance, though the second is more effective
in the comedic vein -- the Romantic Comedy.

ONE EXCEPTION -- the action/romance -- such as STAR WARS and its
sequels.  Hans & Princess Leah.  Though I have to admit, it had its
comedic moments!  Hans definitely has his fanny caught in one whale
of a beartrap.  He is caught up in the affairs of wizards.  Leah is
the one with the purpose, so she's the hero and he's the heroine who
enables the hero to succeed.  That role reversal is "cognitive
dissonance" which is an artist's most potent tool.  And because it's
a futuristic romance, you hardly notice what's really happening --
until you're laughing out loud.

Those two classic statements of what a plot is  -- DEFINE conflict
implicitly -- because story=conflict  -- because story and conflict
are the same thing.  And it works both ways.  Where there is CONFLICT
there is also story.  Where there's a story -- you betcha there's one
hot conflict seething beneath the surface.

Live Long and Prosper,
Jacqueline Lichtenberg


Watch http://www.bb.com for House of Zeor, the first Sime~Gen novel
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available to read free online, with more to follow.

I reserve the right to repost any comment that comes to me that is
NOT MARKED DNQ or in some way obviously personal.
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This Page Was Last Updated   09/18/00 11:10 AM EST (USA)