Thread: It Has No Conflict...or Does It?

So I am at the beginning stages of writing a short novel (my first), and have been talking a lot about it to my Husband. He is saying that it needs some sort of outside force preventing the characters from reaching their goals, or making it difficult for them to. There is currently nothing of the sort.

The story is mainly told from the POV of a teen who has died, as she watches how the event is negatively affecting her family and best friend. She isn't really able to affect the course of events much, but does discover a couple of novel ways of communicating and learning more about secrets that her family had kept hidden. The reader is shown how bad things are turning out, but resolution is achieved for all. At the end of the story, you know that everyone will be OK...if not right away, then eventually. I'm trying not to make a statement about religion, reincarnation, any other theology, or lack thereof, so the story basically ends there, with the dead teen feeling as if she's done being a part of the physical world, and just at peace.

It feel pretentious to even go here, but is this what is meant by a "character study piece"? Just kind of watching characters as they face the normal struggles of life, whether or not they are fighting against something for a dramatic goal. Or does this sound like a crap plot that is going to read as flat and boring?

You're both right, in a sense. In a typical story with a three-act structure, you see the kind of conflict your husband describes -- an antagonistic force that constantly opposes the main character(s). Thrillers and crime and sci-fi/fantasy stories often use this plot structure. However, there are also stories which do not have this kind of structure -- they are basically character studies. You see it in literary fiction often.

Your story idea sounds similar to Alison Sebold's book The Lovely Bones. Anyway, there does seem to be opportunity for conflict. The emotions that follow the death of a family member must certainly be strong, and people do all kinds of strange and irrational things when they are emotional. Also, you mention secrets that the family has kept hidden. Isn't this a potential source of conflict? Seems to me there wouldn't be secrets floating around if they weren't damaging in some way.

You know, I have not read The Lovely Bones or seen the movie, but I was thinking that it was told from the POV of a dead girl. Wasn't she killed by a kidnapper/molester type, though? My MC's death is much more pedestrian.

I guess you might consider the secrets a source of conflict. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the concept, though. One secret is that the best friend was in love with the MC. One is that the MC's Father had been a long time drug addict. And I'm considering introducing the idea of the younger (remaining) sister having a crush on the MC's best friend, with the possibility of an intense scene where she throws herself at him. This would be a bit disturbing because he would be about 17, while she would only be 13. These are the issues that will be resolved in the end part of the story.

So would that all be considered conflict? My Husband claims that it needs something more. He jokingly said "more death!" I guess he means more jaw-dropping excitement, but I feel like adding anything else would just be sensational for the sake of being sensational, KWIM?

And I just went and read the Wiki on The Lovely Bones. It's making me feel really inadequate, as my story just seems like a much less complicated and much more boring version :/

Sounds like you have plenty of sources for conflict. Conflict doesn't have to be physical -- in fact, my feeling is that the more matured kind of conflict is mental and emotional. But then I'm a literary fiction snob, so beware.

These issues you mention will be fine if you treat them with full consideration. The father being a long time drug addict has consequences -- he still might not be over the drugs, or maybe he is, but has merely switched addictions and doesn't realize it or want to believe it. Point is, these are big issues and they can have a lot of power, but only if you write them in a way that makes them seem big.

hmmm...thanks for giving me some things to think about. I actually was feeling pretty defeated and close to scrapping the whole thing after what my Husband was telling me. I feel quite a bit better now, and think I can make it work

Originally Posted by justbishop

Just kind of watching characters as they face the normal struggles of life

This is, in my opinion, the source of truly great fiction. There's nothing boring about life, nor the struggles of people moving through it. Your job as the writer is to show this, to highlight the significance of the seemingly mundane. To capture a gesture, a thought, a feeling, a sound, and make the reader understand just how interesting it really is.

Your story sounds great. Don't let yourself be discouraged.

Best of luck!

Perhaps add some conflicts within the family that affect the MC before their death. Then these conflicts can be the focus of the MCs actions after their death?

Originally Posted by KyleColorado

Your job as the writer is to show this, to highlight the significance of the seemingly mundane. To capture a gesture, a thought, a feeling, a sound, and make the reader understand just how interesting it really is.

Such a great point. Many people just move through life without paying attention to the little details, and they go to Aruba or Disneyland because they want to see beautiful things, and maybe they do see beautiful things there, but for the truly observant anything, even trash, can be made interesting.

Originally Posted by KyleColorado

This is, in my opinion, the source of truly great fiction. There's nothing boring about life, nor the struggles of people moving through it. Your job as the writer is to show this, to highlight the significance of the seemingly mundane. To capture a gesture, a thought, a feeling, a sound, and make the reader understand just how interesting it really is.

Your story sounds great. Don't let yourself be discouraged.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the encouragement! I really feel like this is more of a slice of life type story about a very dysfunctional group of people, and the MC dying is just kinda the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm still holding onto the hope that I can make people care about the characters, but I think that if I can accomplish that, the plot will be plenty entertaining.

I have actually done some reorganization of my outline in the past day or so, and some parts have moved into a much darker direction, which has me excited about the weight of the story again. The new events added will be fairly uncomfortable for me to write, but when I sat and thought the characters through more, it's where they led me.

Originally Posted by Robdemanc

Perhaps add some conflicts within the family that affect the MC before their death. Then these conflicts can be the focus of the MCs actions after their death?

This actually does exist already

I have considered adding something else, seemingly bigger, but feel like it might compromise the reality of it. Besides, I kinda wanted the reader to feel like the family's life was fairly livable before the event of the MC's death, but the things that seemed not to be too big a deal before are so magnified afterward that they come to a breaking point that changes them all forever.

Originally Posted by johnM

Such a great point. Many people just move through life without paying attention to the little details, and they go to Aruba or Disneyland because they want to see beautiful things, and maybe they do see beautiful things there, but for the truly observant anything, even trash, can be made interesting.

I agree, and thanks for this post! I find that the type of writing that this story involves, heavy on first person recounting of memories, kind of automatically lends itself to the characters having appreciation for the little things, but I think it will really help for me to keep that in mind as I write

Sounds like Kyle and john have hit the nail on the head. Therefore I'll just pile on. The truly good writers can find conflict in any facet of daily life.

A fisherman goes out in a boat. He catches a really big fish after a long fight. Now he's got to get it back to shore. Other fish come and eat his prize.

Actually sounds kind of dull until you let Hemmingway tell the story. Then it becomes a classic.

To take Kyle's point a step further, we all think, ponder, and react to daily stimuli. There's a raging storm going on between our ears on a simple trip to the grocery store. Our job as writers is to communicate the feeling of that storm to our readers. We just have to figure out how to do it in the most effective way.

Stick with your story and see how far you can take it. Best of luck!

Agreeing with everyone - stick with developing your story; plenty of conflict potential judging by your summary.

It's possible that your husband has different tastes in fiction, preferring action, gore, or suspense, and brushing off slice-of-life or character studies as "chick-flick" material. The sad news for hubby - those are the stories than win most awards.

The challenge is to find your balance between drama and humour.

Conflict in a fictional sense is simply the division between where your characters are, and where they want to be; be it emotionally, physically, financially, whatever.

You premise is full of conflict, dig in.

You guys are so encouraging, thank you! As of today, I'm 9441 words and 4 chapters in. I know I'm going to need to go in and expand on what I have already, but I'm feeling a lot better just for the fact that I've had that much to say so far