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.
Discovering a Spouse’s Secret
Category: Power struggles, failures and mistakes, relationship friction, moral dilemmas and temptation, losing an advantage, loss of control, ego
Examples:
The spouse is having an affair
The spouse has been hiding an unhealthy addiction
The spouse lost their job and kept it from the character…
Minor Complications:
Lost sleep due to worry
Minor stress-related health problems (headaches, an ulcer, high blood pressure, etc.)
Relationship friction with the spouse…
Potentially Disastrous Results:
The character’s reputation being ruined
The marriage ending in divorce
Fallout for the character’s children…
Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict):
Struggling to trust the spouse again
Inner conflict about whether the character should try to work things out or give up on the relationship
Difficulty taking others at their word…
People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: the spouse, children, parents, the spouse’s accomplices or victims, families of those people
Resulting Emotions: Anger, anguish, anxiety, appalled, apprehension, betrayed, bitterness, confusion…
Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: Apathetic, controlling, cynical, gullible, macho, martyr, melodramatic…
Positive Outcomes:
Being determined not to be blindsided in this way again
The character taking control of their life instead of letting others be in charge
Becoming an advocate for the people the spouse mistreated…
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 events. Each volume contains expert advice on how to use conflict to improve your story along with a plethora of scenarios to challenge your characters.
For more information, read up on these GOLD and SILVER editions. You can also view the books at Goodreads to see what other authors are saying about them.
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.
So glad it’s coming in handy, Jan!
More fantastic info!!