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.
Misaligned Goals
Category: Power struggles, relationship friction, duty and responsibilities
Examples:
- One character wants to have a baby while her partner doesn’t
- One character wants to get married while the partner doesn’t
- One character wants to right a wrong while the other seeks to maintain the status quo…
Minor Complications:
Tension in the relationship
Making assumptions about the other person based on their goals (they don’t want kids so they must be selfish, their assertive business tactics mean they’re aggressive and domineering, etc.)
Misunderstandings delaying the decisions that would lead to improvements (forward-thinking business decisions, pursuing self-actualization, etc.)…
Potentially Disastrous Results:
Avoiding the issue (to keep the peace), allowing it to fester and grow
The character pushing their agenda to the point of driving away the other person or damaging their own reputation
Being blocked by the other person from doing what’s right or best…
People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: the party opposing the character’s goal, people who are close to the situation (co-workers, the boss, clients or customers, family members, friends, etc.)
Resulting Emotions: Anger, annoyance, betrayed, bitterness, conflicted, confusion, contempt, defensiveness…
Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: Confrontational, controlling, greedy, gullible, indecisive, know-it-all…
Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict):
Growing frustration
Feeling personally slighted or invalidated
Resenting the other party…
Positive Outcomes:
Opening up to new or challenging ideas
Becoming teachable
Learning how to compromise in a healthy way…
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.
A good one! Misaligned goals can do heavy damage to a relationship. Score: conflict!
I like this one because it can happen in so many different situations: family relationships, romantic relationships, work settings, etc.
Excellent source of conflict for our stories!! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for reading, Jan!
When will the Conflict Thesaurus be published for sale?
Kind regards
Patricia Hansen
Hi Patricia,
Thanks for your interest in this thesaurus. 🙂 Becca and I always test out a thesaurus idea here before choosing what we will turn into a book. If enough people ask for it, then that usually means we will work on it next. And regardless if we do or not, we also expand each thesaurus and add it to a permanent home at One Stop for Writers: https://onestopforwriters.com/