The Question
Eternal
Okay, here's something that might be of interest. (Sardy, I hope I'm not stealing any of your mentoring thunder here.)
CONFLICT.
It's the driving force behind any and every good story, all the snooty coffeehouse avant-garde poofters in the world be damned.
In fact, I'd wager serious money that each and every one of you reading this already has a good grasp of the dynamics of conflict on some level -- after all, you're here at TK, where conflict is a daily fact of board life. When somebody like Henoch or CU points out spots where the board has gotten boring, it's because of a lack of fresh and interesting conflict.
So -- here are the basics. Some of you may know this, and some may not, but there are three major kinds of conflict:
1. Man vs. Man
2. Man vs. Nature
3. Man vs. Himself
Now, what you probably don't know (because I'm pretty sure I just made this up) is that there are three major ways to depict any and all of those three types of conflict:
1. Open
2. Subtext
3. Innate
Let me take a moment to explain those. Open conflict is just what it sounds like -- Die Hard-style, bullets whizzing by, rock slide falling toward our heroes, shouting matches between characters, things going "boom."
Subtextual conflict is a little quieter, but need not be any less ferocious. It's the battle that rages behind the scenes, the bitter words that are unspoken by the characters but which the audience hears with perfect clarity.
Innate conflict is the root of either of the other two forms -- where the first is the depiction of what characters do and say openly in conflict with each other (or their world, or themselves), and the second is what they do and say in covert conflict with each other (or their world, or themselves), Innate conflict describes what it is about who they are that drives them into conflict with each other (or their world, or themselves).
The golden rule of conflict is that it should be present, wherever possible. I hope this note helps you find ways to introduce conflict into your stories in ways you may not have thought of before.
CONFLICT.
It's the driving force behind any and every good story, all the snooty coffeehouse avant-garde poofters in the world be damned.
In fact, I'd wager serious money that each and every one of you reading this already has a good grasp of the dynamics of conflict on some level -- after all, you're here at TK, where conflict is a daily fact of board life. When somebody like Henoch or CU points out spots where the board has gotten boring, it's because of a lack of fresh and interesting conflict.
So -- here are the basics. Some of you may know this, and some may not, but there are three major kinds of conflict:
1. Man vs. Man
2. Man vs. Nature
3. Man vs. Himself
Now, what you probably don't know (because I'm pretty sure I just made this up) is that there are three major ways to depict any and all of those three types of conflict:
1. Open
2. Subtext
3. Innate
Let me take a moment to explain those. Open conflict is just what it sounds like -- Die Hard-style, bullets whizzing by, rock slide falling toward our heroes, shouting matches between characters, things going "boom."
Subtextual conflict is a little quieter, but need not be any less ferocious. It's the battle that rages behind the scenes, the bitter words that are unspoken by the characters but which the audience hears with perfect clarity.
Innate conflict is the root of either of the other two forms -- where the first is the depiction of what characters do and say openly in conflict with each other (or their world, or themselves), and the second is what they do and say in covert conflict with each other (or their world, or themselves), Innate conflict describes what it is about who they are that drives them into conflict with each other (or their world, or themselves).
The golden rule of conflict is that it should be present, wherever possible. I hope this note helps you find ways to introduce conflict into your stories in ways you may not have thought of before.