Every story element should pull its weight—including the setting, which is a built-in source of conflict just waiting to be used. A simple first-date picnic in the park? Cue the dark clouds and a toddler meltdown two blankets over. A family road trip to a wedding? Toss in some car trouble, a shady van tailing them after a late-night fuel stop, or tempers boiling over when the AC dies in 100-degree heat. Friction, mishaps, and strained relationships keep tension high and readers locked in, which is exactly what we want.
Conflict tests characters mentally, physically, and emotionally, showing readers what they are made of. The friction you introduce can lead to complications, force characters to think on their feet, and raise the stakes. How they handle conflict might mean personal growth and success, or mistakes made that offer hard lessons that can help them later in the story. Win-win!
Conflict feels natural and believable when it’s generated from the character’s environment, so whenever possible we want to look for opportunities to use the setting to place obstacles in the character’s patho insert obstacles that will further the story.
Create a Gauntlet of Challenges
There are many different ways to use the setting to stress the hero or heroine, triggering a response that shows, not tells, who they really are. Here are a few to sink your teeth into.
Inherent Dangers
Any setting has the potential to cause trouble for the protagonist. Whether it is Lego strewn across the family room carpet as your character breaks into a house to steal important documents, a river that runs deeper than it appears, or a driver texting rather than watching the crosswalk your heroine is on, danger is everywhere. Look to the natural environment your character is in and ask yourself, what could go wrong here? Then, if it makes sense for the story, set your character on a crash course with danger. Not only will this cause the reader’s pulse to race, how your character responds will show readers what they are made of.
Misfortune
On the other side of the danger coin is plain old bad luck. Sometimes, unforeseen events land in our character’s lap at the worst time, and guess what makes that happen? That’s right, the setting. From bad weather that makes travel difficult to a car breakdown, to being in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnessing a murder, misfortune creates mayhem. How does your character react–fight or flight? Do they wallow, retreat, or throw in the towel? Or will they shake off disappointment and regroup with a new plan?
Remember with misfortune, a little goes a long way. If you use it, ensure your event is logical for the setting and the circumstances so it never comes off as a plot device.
Physical Roadblocks
In every scene, your character has a goal. Physical obstacles can be a great way to derail the protagonist’s progress or cause painful delays.
Whether the hero or heroine is stopped short by a locked door, missing car keys, a washed-out bridge, or a forest fire caused by a lightning strike, roadblocks force detours. This challenge can showcase their creative problem-solving and adaptability, as well as test their resolve.
People and Responsibilities
Ah, people. They’re everywhere—family, friends, strangers, enemies—and bumping into one at the wrong time can create all sorts of trouble. Maybe that nosy neighbor saw something she shouldn’t have. Or the hero’s parents show up for a surprise visit just as his swingers’ party is kicking off. What if your heroine stumbles onto a backwoods meth camp while out searching for her lost horse?
People are natural disruptors. They derail plans, complicate goals, and inject instant tension into a scene.
Sometimes, obligation or responsibility is involved, adding another layer of difficulty. Relationship-based problems add realism and emotional weight. Let’s say your protagonist’s sister drops her kids off unexpectedly so she can check into rehab. Caring for kids will be stressful enough, but if our character’s gambling debts mean he’s also dodging violent loan sharks, now there’s real danger. Suddenly, it’s not just an inconvenience. It’s a situation where someone innocent could get hurt. The stakes go up fast when responsibility and risk collide.
The Little Things
If every challenge and obstacle were a catastrophic event, we’d be in melodrama town in no time. Luckily, small obstacles can be as effective, and they add a dash of realism. After all, who hasn’t spilled coffee on their slacks right before an interview or taken the wrong bus to an important doctor’s appointment?
The little things are like midges biting at the skin, and how gracefully (or not) your protagonist bears the pain as things pile up will humanize them to readers and teach them resilience, something they’ll need for the long haul.
If you find your scene is flagging, try planting an obstacle or two in your character’s path. Besides, whatever your protagonist wants most will be something they must fight for. Winning becomes more of a rush for readers when the protagonist has worked hard for it.
How do you challenge your characters? What are some of the obstacles you’ve thrown in their path? Let us know in the comments!
For more ideas on how to find conflict in individual settings, try the Rural and Urban Thesaurus books. Each location profile lists the inherent dangers, people, and possible challenges tied to it, making it easy for you to find something fitting for your story.
Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.
My main character wants to prove herself; not to men or anything like that but to herself. She knows she inexperienced and lacks field experience but she still applies herself, pushes herself and makes herself strive. The odds are is that despite the system she’s bound to, due to her rank and brief resume in the battlefield, the system doesn’t allow her to compete here or go their. What’s worse is she causes the death of a fellow commerade on her final exam. Brutal.
The challenge I’ve given her is trusting the system and learning discernment with those who sincerely support her goals and those who only support them for the sake of their own gain; their pleasure at the expense of her pain.
Sounds like you are making good use of the world around the character to provide lots of challenges to overcome. Good stuff! 🙂
Great post! In my current WIP, a thirteen-year-old girl drops and breaks her lantern when she finds a skeleton in a cave she is exploring alone, and nobody knows she is there. I had been somewhat stuck at that point, but you have given me some ideas for moving forward in the race to find her. She will not be the only one having troubles.
I had a setting as an obstacle in an unusual way. Pa wanted to make a surprise for his two daughters when they went to the lake to skate. He cut holes in the ice. Both daughters thought the surprise was to ice fish which both disliked but didn’t want to hurt his feelings so they didn’t mention this. But, the holes were not for ice fishing and Pa used them to really create a great surprise in the end.
This is incredibly creepy…I love it!
C. S Lewis described our bodies as “vast and perilous estates.” That is the overall setting I use for my characters. For example, Rhino tells his brothers, “I never make a mistake.” With that going on in his inner world, I can place him just about anywhere with an expectation that something will happen.
I have found everyone’s comments very helpful.
Boo. Hiss. On your week-long Amazon giveaways for the Positive Trait/The Negative Trait Thesaurus! I love these books and your Emotion Thesaurus, and have all three on my Kindle. But when I tried to win copies of the printed version, I was locked out because I already bought them on Kindle. Had I known how often I’d refer to your super-useful reference books, I would have bought them in print to begin with. I hate you both. (And can’t wait for settings.) 🙂
Thanks for the feedback Bill–We didn’t know it worked that way. And thanks for your excitement!
Another thought provoking post, Angela. Thanks! I have a goat in my book who brings trouble to my characters. Hmmm….maybe I should make her even more troublesome?
I seriously love that you have a troublesome goat in your book–way to think outside the box!
This is a fabulous post. It reminds me to look at every detail in settings. It also shows me I did a couple of things right in my WIP. A serene setting my hero loves is marred now due to new physical challenges, and a hysterical little girl. So yay, me!
I always learn so much from y’all!
Thanks Allison! I hope your character learns to love the setting again, but in a new light/way. 🙂
Here’s one of my short stories, genre: Tragedy… brief story synopsis: “Catastrophic events strike at a moment’s notice, wherein states, counties, towns, and individuals develop in advance protective measures to reduce the impact of potential disasters. A young family planned and prepared for such an event. However, when the family is caught in the path of a menacing tornado, were their defensive measures as good as they thought they were?” Nature can be a HUGE intense obstacle!
Exactly! And we always want to believe we will be prepared for a catastrophe, but often we are not. The shock of it impairs our logic and critical thinking skills. I leaned this firsthand once!
An obstacle I put into a recent sci-fi short is an unfamiliar environment: A human from the future is transported into a 2016 vehicle without the audio controls he uses in his time. He has no idea how to stop the forward momentum and plows into a police car. The police officer he hits is the wife of the car’s owner.
I was going to say a similar thing: in my novel, one of the obstacles my characters face is that they’ve moved to a foreign land. They don’t all speak the language, they’re not sure how things work, and they keep messing up the customs (and annoying the locals).