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.
Being Unprepared
Category: Increased pressure and ticking clocks, failures and mistakes, duty and responsibilities, losing an advantage, loss of control, ego
Examples:
Going into an important work meeting, interview, presentation or speech, personal conversation, court case, etc. without proper preparation.
Possible Reasons:
An emergency situation that steals the character’s preparation time
Being assigned the responsibility last minute and having to “wing it”
Poor time management…
Minor Complications:
Looking unprofessional
Losing credibility
Being embarrassed in front of peers or influential people…
Potentially Disastrous Results:
Not getting the desired job, promotion, account, etc.
Being removed from the project and losing out on future opportunities
Failing to bring about change (if the character was speaking at a rally, providing a witness testimony, pleading a case in front of a committee, etc.)…
Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict):
Feeling guilty because other parties were impacted by the character’s poor planning
Struggling with feelings of inadequacy and insecurity
Toying with feelings of self-loathing…
People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: the character’s boss, other people working on the project, people benefiting from the project or presentation (conference attendees, the charity organization the character was representing, etc.)
Resulting Emotions: Agitation, anxiety, apprehension, confusion, defensiveness, doubt, dread…
Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: Abrasive, apathetic, cocky, defensive, disorganized, flaky…
Positive Outcomes:
Learning to plan ahead
Schedule more carefully
Communicate more clearly, or whatever needs to be done so the situation isn’t repeated…
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.
This is absolutely my FAVORITE conflict device–to read and to write. Thanks for posting. I can’t wait to share for Writer Wednesday.
I like this one, too, because lack of preparation can be the character’s fault or it can be caused by something completely out of their control. And the awkwardness and insecurity that results are conflict gold :).