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.
Running Out of Critical Supplies
Category: Increased pressure and ticking clocks, failures and mistakes, duty and responsibilities, moral dilemmas and temptation, losing an advantage, miscellaneous challenges
Examples:
Running out of food in a remote location
Having no access to water
Running out of gas in the middle of nowhere…
Minor Complications:
Discomfort (hunger, weakness, thirst)
Wounds going unattended
Pain resulting from a lack of treatment…
Potentially Disastrous Results:
Infections or a worsening of a condition
Becoming physically compromised
Disorientation or weakness leading to a serious injury or mistake…
Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict):
Feeling like a failure (if the character is responsible for others)
Guilt for worrying about one’s own needs when everyone is suffering
Trying to think of ways to secure the necessities for loved ones even if it means others go without…
People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: Family and loved ones, people the character feels responsible for, others caught in this situation who are known to the character
Resulting Emotions: anger, anguish, anxiety, betrayed, connectedness, defeat, denial, despair…
Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: addictive, confrontational, controlling, cynical, disloyal, extravagant…
Positive Outcomes:
Experiencing a shortage will lead to gaining a better appreciation of resources that will change the character in the future
A collective loss or trying situation can lead to community as people come together to navigate the difficult experience
Shortages often lead to creative thinking and innovation in order to circumvent the problem…
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.
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.