Conflict is very often the magic sauce for generating tension and turning a ho-hum story into one that rivets readers. As such, every scene should contain a struggle of some kind. Maybe it’s an internal tug-of-war having to do with difficult decisions, morals, or temptations. Or it possibly could come from an external source—other characters, unfortunate circumstances, or the force of nature itself.
It’s our hope that this thesaurus will help you come up with meaningful and fitting conflict options for your stories. Think about what your character wants and how best to block them, then choose a source of conflict that will ramp up the tension in each scene. For the full entry of this and 200+ additional conflict scenarios, check into our best-selling resources: The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles, Volumes 1 and 2.
A Car Accident
Category: Increased Pressure and Ticking Clocks, Failures and Mistakes, Losing an Advantage, Loss of Control, No-Win Situations
Examples: A minor fender bender
A major accident with another vehicle that results in physical harm
Hitting an animal or pedestrian…
Minor Complications:
Being made late due to having to wait for a police officer or tow truck
Boredom while waiting on paperwork to be finished
Having to deal with rambunctious children during the wait…
Potentially Disastrous Results:
Sustaining life-threatening injuries, such as internal bleeding, a collapsed lung, or damage to vital organs
Injuries that result in chronic pain or disability (paralysis, traumatic head injury, back pain, etc.)
Death…
Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict):
Being tempted to evade responsibility (by leaving the scene, lying to shift the blame to the other driver, etc.)
The character second-guessing themselves and wondering what they could have done to avoid the accident
Struggling with wanting to get revenge (if a loved one was killed due to someone else’s irresponsibility)…
People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: Those involved in the accident, their loved ones, first responders (police officers and EMTs), anyone else inconvenienced by the accident (employees who have to cover a shift when their co-worker doesn’t show up, a sports team having to compete without their best player, a date being stood up at a restaurant, etc.)
Resulting Emotions: Anger, anguish, annoyance, anxiety, apprehension, bitterness, concern, defensiveness…
Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: Abrasive, addictive, callous, confrontational, defensive, evasive…
Positive Outcomes:
Gratitude that things didn’t turn out as badly as they could have
Being reminded of what’s important in life
Becoming a more cautious and patient driver (if the character was to blame for a minor accident)…
If you’re interested in other conflict options, you can find them here.
Use Conflict to Transform Your Story
Readers have a lot of choices when it comes to selecting books, so make it easy for them to choose yours. Conflict will help you deliver a fresh story premise every time, drawing readers in through meaningful challenges that reveal a character’s innermost needs, fears, weaknesses, and strengths.
To assist you, we’ve created a two-volume resource with 225 possible conflict scenarios. Each volume contains expert advice on how to use conflict to improve your story along with a plethora of scenarios to challenge your characters.
Find out more about the GOLD and SILVER editions.
Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.
This is another great entry! You listed some emotions and reactions I wouldn’t have otherwise thought of! Thanks!
I’m so glad you liked it, Jan!
When are you going to publish the conflict theasarus.
Hi J E, Becca and I always test out a thesaurus on our blog before turning it into a book, and we’ve only just stared exploring it, so it would be some time yet (at least a year). The next book we are publishing is the Occupation Thesaurus, and if you like, you can put yourself on our mailing list so you’ll get an email every time a new book is released: https://twitter.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=cc1cb11597b48d3f26dd7e1c3&id=f6515a7617
Happy writing and thanks for your interest in what we do. 🙂
Angela