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 Competitor Showing Up
Note: If you have a Romantic Competitor entering the scene, see this entry
Category: Power struggles, increased pressure and ticking clocks, relationship friction, losing an advantage, ego
Examples:
A superstar co-worker who joins the team
A business that opens nearby with the potential to compete with one’s own
Someone new who begins hanging out with the character’s group of friends…
Minor Complications:
Being ignored or forgotten temporarily while the focus is on the new person
Having to go through new hoops to accommodate the competition
Dealing with jealousy…
Potentially Disastrous Results:
Being outmatched by the competition
Discovering the competition is flouting the law or doing a great amount of damage but being unable to prove it
A competitor who plays dirty…
Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict):
The desire to play dirty because the competition is
Believing in capitalism yet resenting a newcomer who forces competitiveness
Feeling entitled to win due to loyalty, dedication, and having a history with the company or organization yet knowing the competition is more skilled or better at leading…
People Who Could Be Negatively Affected:
Family and friends caught in the crossfire, supporters who back the character and lose, loyal friends who cross the line (because the character asked them to) and get caught
Resulting Emotions: admiration, agitation, anger, anxiety, betrayed, bitterness, concern, conflicted…
Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: abrasive, catty, childish, cocky, confrontational, devious…
Positive Outcomes:
When a competitor shows up, it may force the character to reflect on why winning or being chosen is important: are they doing it for themselves or to make others happy? This could help the character to double down and fight harder, or have an epiphany that they are chasing a goal for the wrong reasons, leading to them bowing out so they can pivot toward a better goal…
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.
Dear Angela,
I am big fan of all your thesaurus books. Wondering do have any plan for writing a book on Conflict Thesaurus?
Thank you!
Hi Santanu. I’m so glad you’re enjoying our thesaurus collection. To answer your question: we’re not sure :). Our process is to start with a thesaurus at our blog so we can gauge interest. We also have to look at the content and see if it would work in book format. Because we’re still exploring this one at the blog, we haven’t talked yet about whether or not to publish it. We’re getting good feedback on it, so that’s definitely a possibility. But because we just released a new book last month, it will be a while before we make a decision on the next one.
We know that many people like to know when we’ve got a new book coming out; if that’s you, you can sign up for this newsletter, which only goes out when we’re getting ready to publish a book. That will keep you in the know.
Have a great day!