Does your story have a central conflict?
Not a main conflict, a central conflict.
The central conflict probably mirrors or echoes the theme: good v evil, ignorance v knowledge, old v young, fear v love, fear v reason. The main conflict is how you demonstrate the central conflict in your story.
Here’s the kicker; your story probably has a central conflict whether you know it or not. The problem with not knowing it is you may not write to it, it may get submerged regardless of its centricity, it may never get resolved even if the main conflict is, and if that happens you end up with unsatisfied readers who know they’re not satisfied but don’t know why and don’t like your work.
The central conflict has to be between polar opposites. It’s got to be major. Perhaps it’s savage v modern, and the story asks what makes a savage a savage, what makes a modern a modern, and that becomes the story itself.
The main conflict demonstrates the central conflict, as was done in The Naked Prey. The movie deals with honor and respect, the demonstration is Cornell Wilde being pursued through the African Veldt.
Determine the central conflict and you can recognize and write to the main crisis and resolution. The resolution is the destruction of the crisis or the defeat of the protagonist/narrator.
Both crises comes when the protagonist or narrator understands what the central conflict is. Cornel Wilde’s character understands the central conflict early on, the rest of the movie is the main crisis (his pursuit). The resolution is his saluting his pursuers at the end of the movie, honor and respect once again in balance on both sides.
Like I said, I’m learning this stuff, and it is glorious.
Enjoy
Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me, schedule a critique of your work, or buy me a coffee.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.
Get copies of my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, you can follow along, and I need the money. My latest is my trauma recovery fantasy Chrysalis.
FWIW, I hold a Creators RoundTable the last Thursday of every month from 7:30-8:30pmET. Watch past RoundTables. Register to participate.
Wilderness House Literary Review EIC Steve Glines and I (Senior Fiction Editor) hold monthly open chats with authors interested in a) writing for us, b) improving their craft in general, and/or c) increasing their chances of being accepted by other markets.
Meetings are held via Zoom on the last Friday of each month from 9-10amET.
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