CONFLICT Q&A1 Definition

Things aren't getting any less busy - and the computer is dying on its feet - or whatever computers stand on. So I'm going to get into the Conflict Q&A in the hope it will give you something interesting to read while I'm preparing for Caerleon and travelling there.

So let's start with a dictionary definition:

CONFLICT


· A state of open, often prolonged fighting; a battle or war.

· A state of disharmony between incompatible or antithetical persons, ideas, or interests; a clash.

· Psychology. A psychic struggle, often unconscious, resulting from the opposition or simultaneous functioning of mutually exclusive impulses, desires, or tendencies.

· Opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or fiction, especially opposition that motivates or shapes the action of the plot

Obviously for the purpose of the writer, thenh last definition is the most important. And the importan thing to note about that definition is the last few words - "motivates or shapes the action of the plot"

Because Conflict has to move things, change things. It is that 'problem' or belief or whatever thathas to come between the hero and the heroine and to stop them - or a seem to prevent them - from reaching their happy ending. But it is also something that creates changes in both the characters and their lives, altering them and devloping them so that they are ready and worthy of that happy ending.

So it isn't just something static, a block, a barrier. It's a force for change and by living through it the hero and heroine will become different people from the ones who appeared on the fist page of the book.

As a result they will reach the happy ending ready to really love and be in love and to go into a future that the reader believes be not just a happy ending but a 'happy ever after' ending.

(c) Kate Walker 2010