The Matters of Conflict

In an effort to start bring my blog into line with what I actually do for a living I'm going to try and start using it to write more about my work than about what is in the news that gets my goat.  So to begin with I'm going to start with the word conflict.

Of course conflict is at the heart of any book written. Without conflict there is no story and no point to the book.  Whether it is the clash of mighty empires (national), a suppressed people fighting for their rights (social) or a daughter who discovers that her beloved parents stole her as a child (personal), there is conflict at the heart of a story.

I'd say that a good author tries to include one example of all three, national, social or personal, in their books.

National conflict does not necessarily mean war, although recent history kind of puts lie to that.  National conflict can be fought with back room deals, public manoeuvring and trade agreements that are bias in one direction or other.  Recent history is the best example of this as the hand of big business is having more and more trouble trying to hide, although if you read the book 'Empress Orchid' you can see the hand of the East India Trading Company in the orchestration of the Opium Wars.

Social conflict can be formed in many ways, from pressure groups fighting to prevent building projects that are going to result in mass pollution to terrorism.  Yes, that last one is a massive issue in the modern world, although examples of it can be found throughout history, but terrorism is a symptom of poverty, which is social injustice.

When people are left with their water being exported by a foreign company, their natural resources being claimed by a foreign power and their cries for mercy being ignored by foreign people then it only takes on fanatic to say 'it is their fault that our children are starving, it is their fault that we cannot provide for our families, it is their fault that we live in poverty, let's go kick them for everything they have done for us' for terrorism to be born.  You only have to look at the history of central Europe between 1918 and 1945 to see the truth of that.

Personal conflict can be anything from an adolescent trying to find her place in the world, to the issues of family crisis to the bickering between allied soldiers.  The personal history of the author is going to have a baring on how their characters deal with inner crisis and family crisis.  It is very true that how we saw our parents handling crises often shapes how we deal with our own and often that models our characters behaviour, even if it by the thought of 'what if my parents had done the opposite?'

I have to admit I really do love stories in which allies do not get on one hundred percent.  I find the tension between the characters to be a superb resource for revealing talks and it adds a depth of realism when there is a healthy competition between characters struggling to prove themselves.  Humans are a competitive species, we like to see the struggle between characters, it is why we root for the underdog.

If you want a situation that is absolutely spitting with tension and sparks then the old thing of 'an enemy of an enemy is my... ally' is an definite winner, especially if you have spent two or three stories building up the rivalry or even out right hatred between two characters, races or nationalities and then throw an absolutely huge enemy their way so they have no choice but to unite or face utter destruction.

It can be extremely fun to have the good guy and the bad guy fighting on the same side for a turn or two, the tension can be invigorating for a writer and if played well can drag the most reluctant of reader hook, line and sinker into your story.  There can be all sorts of arguments over methods, with the good guy doing their best to reign in the excesses of the bad guy and the bad guy grumbling about how weak the good guy's ideals make them.

If nothing else having a common enemy can lead to the two sides finding out that they have more in common and less to fight about than they thought they did.  Depending on how bad your bad guy is it could even lead to a truce, of sorts.