Mindful Content: Central Conflict Generator

Blog No. 25

By Marcus Coates, @homeinriyadh, 4th February 2022

Image from Unsplash: Charl Fulscher

Central Conflict

Central conflict occurs when a protagonist’s defining desire meets an internal or external obstacle that cannot be ignored. For example, in a Bond thriller, the super-villain has to be dealt with for the British spy to save the world. A love rival can’t be ignored in a romance if the hero or heroine wants to meet their beau. And in a horror flick, the rampaging psycho leaving a trail of corpses in its wake needs to be dealt with if that weekend away in the deserted cabin in the woods with a bunch of friends is going to turn out to be a success. Regardless of your genre, the central conflict is the lifeblood of the story and needs to be present in abundance.

American playwright, screenwriter and film director, Aaron Sorkin, states that a story requires intentions and obstacles, or it is journalism and not a story. He calls intentions and obstacles the ‘drive shaft’ that sets a script in motion. A novel or film without an abundance of central conflict will not engage an audience, and the story will be flat and uninteresting.

The staff writer’s at Masterclass identify six types of central conflict to draw inspiration from:

1. Internal versus external

2. Character versus society

3. Character versus character

4. Character versus nature

5. Character versus technology

6. Character versus destiny

1. Internal conflict versus external conflict:

Sometimes, a protagonist must do things they wouldn’t normally dream of to overcome the obstacle at hand. For example, in Casablanca, Rick — who has stated he’ll stick his neck out for no one —helps resistance fighter Victor Laslo escape with Ilsa, the love of Rick’s life. Rick sacrifices his ideals of non-involvement for the greater good, as well as his shot at true love. In Shakespeare’s famous drama Hamlet, the protagonist of the same name is conflicted throughout by doubt as to whether his father was murdered and how best to seek an act of noble revenge. Hamlet’s internal versus external emotional conflict is the lifeblood of the play.

2. Character versus society:

When the harsh rule of an organisation or community prevents the freedoms of the central character, conflict must follow. For example, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, set in Puritan New England in 1850, the heroine of the piece, Hester Prynne, has a child out of wedlock and is forced by the community to wear a scarlet ‘A’ sewn to her clothing as a badge of shame for her adultery. Hester is never genuinely repentant, and conflict continues within a community that tries its best to, but can’t break her spirit.

3. Character versus character:

In film after film and novels in every genre, when two personalities clash, sparks fly, and audience and reader interest intensify. Character conflict can be a clash between a hero and villain, as in any superhero or Bond movie. It can be families, such as the terrible feuding in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamozov or Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Neighbours are great for conflict — as in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window: a recuperating newspaper photographer believes he has witnessed a murder and looks to solve the crime for himself. And complex friendships — such as that between Gene and Finny in John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, which explores themes of rivalry, envy and guilt and lead to many conflicts.

4. Character versus nature:

Nature or a force of nature can be the ultimate foe for the character. A classic example is Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, where the interest and conflict centres around how Crusoe will survive on his own for twenty-eight years after being shipwrecked. In Frank Herbert’s sci-fi novel, Dune, set in a distant future feudal interstellar society, much of the conflict is created by seeing how the central character, Paul Atreides, learns to navigate the barren desert planet, control the spice trade, and unify the people who call the desert planet home.

5. Character versus technology:

A protagonist facing a technological foe can make for lots of opportunities for conflict and gripping reading or viewing. In The Terminator, the central conflict is about a Cyborg sent from 2029 to 1984 to kill a woman whose son will one day save humankind from extinction by a hostile artificial intelligence. The conflict is about the cyborg relentlessly trying to kill the woman as she continually tries to escape. In Blade Runner, the premise is reversed, as ex-police officer Deckhard hunts down and eliminates replicants who want to live beyond their designated artificial lifespan.

6. Character versus destiny:

Often, a hero tries to escape their fate or is reluctant to accept it. In the Greek tragedy, Oedipus, the central character of the same name, has been told by prophesy that he will kill his father and sleep with his mother. Oedipus believes he has defeated the riddling Sphinx, saved the seven-gated city of Thebes and married a beautiful queen, and yet …. In Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Michael Corleone is conflicted between wanting to stay out of the family crime business and a desire to protect his father from the other crime families out to assassinate his father, Vito.

Below is a summary of the main conflicts:

Can you think of any more examples?

When creating your central conflict, the Masterclass staff writers state that ‘The trick isn’t to shy away from it [conflict] — it’s to welcome it with open arms so you can get down to solving your way out again’ (08, 2021):

1. Go big — makes the stakes high,

2. Deny the antagonist’s needs — make it hard for them to get what they want,

3. Shift from bad to worse,

4. Raise the stakes,

5. Make your solutions complex but logical,

Central Conflict Generator

Can you think up some scenarios for your story and then find ways to make the situation go from bad to worse? Can you raise the stakes? Intensify the pressure? Deny your hero or heroine an easy ride?

To help you organise your thoughts, a downloadable and editable ‘central conflict generator template’ is available on my website: visit www.mc-mindful-content.com and download the Word doc ‘Template: Story Archetypes’ (Why not subscribe why you’re on the site?)

To keep in contact, subscribe here :)

If you are interested in the steps used to generate initial story ideas, create character profiles, choose a setting, or find a genre generator — and you haven’t already done so — check out my previous blogs. Blog 19: ‘Generating Story Ideas’, Blog 20: ‘Creating Novel Characters with Individuality and Depth – Profiling’, blog 22: ‘Creating memorable settings’, blog 23: ‘Genre generator’, and blog 24: ‘Story archetypes and themes’.