7 Types of Conflict

Gabrielle here!

Conflict is one of those things along with car chases and choreographed group dances that I hate in real life, but love in fiction. As much as I fret over it in the moment, there are few things in a story more satisfying than a well-crafted conflict for characters to solve. It’s so easy for a conflict to feel contrived or like all the characters have taken their morning helping of stupid pills, so when a writer can craft a conflict that has weight, it makes the whole story feel richer. It’s like the difference between cheap milk chocolate and a piece of homemade fudge. But what are the ingredients needed for a conflict to feel engaging? While there are many different ways to tackle this question, today I’m going to talk about the basic building blocks as well as the seven different kinds of conflict to help you understand how to craft your own wonderful (fictional) conflict.

The Basics

What is, in a storytelling sense, conflict? In basic terms, it’s when your character has a goal and something prohibits them from achieving it. This is a simple mechanic required of all stories. Character A wants X, but Y stops them from getting it. X and Y can have a wide range from simple to complex, concrete to abstract, and internal to external, but you can’t have a story without conflict. Something needs to push the character into action, and there need to be stakes that keep the audience engaged along the way. So your first step to figuring out your story’s conflict is figuring out what your main character wants. What are their goals, desires, or fears they’re trying to keep from coming true? Then the next step is figuring out the different things that stand in your character’s way. It can be anything from a flat tire on the way to the big bad kidnapping their family, the character just needs to be challenged. Because the enjoyable thing about conflict is watching the characters come up with a solution. If the problem is half-baked, the character won’t be able to show off all the cool characterization you gave them. Even if you don’t like stressing out your story babies, remember that a quality conflict is going to be your best tool for making your characters shine.

External vs. Internal

There are two types of conflict that should be present in your story: external and internal. External refers to the outside forces that get in the character’s way. It’s the oppressive government, devastating earthquake, or annoying rival that pops up in the story. Internal references to the character’s internal struggles. It’s the doubts, fears, or insecurities that prevent the character from acting. While your story may have more of one or the other, both should be present to some extent. If your main character doesn’t internally struggle with anything at all, the conclusion may feel a little hollow. And if your main character spends the whole time stuck in their own head, your audience may get frustrated.

The key to balancing the two is setting them up alongside each other where they contribute to each other and one needs to be resolved before the other can be concluded. For example, in The Incredibles, Bob’s internal struggle centers around his feelings of uselessness now that supers are banned from being heroes. This creates tension in his family, an external conflict, and eventually leads him to getting involved with Syndrome’s scheme, another external conflict. As the external conflict grows, so does Bob’s internal struggle. This culminates when the Parr family arrives in the city as Syndrome is attacking. Bob gets into a fight with his wife Helen about his need to prove himself. This conflict resolves when she tells him that they can do this together. Only once his internal conflict is resolved is he able to resolve the external conflict as the family works together to defeat Syndrome. By developing the two conflicts alongside each other, both feel relevant and both add to the stakes of the story.

The Seven Types of Conflict

So now that we’ve gone over the basics of conflict, we’re going to briefly talk about the seven main different kinds of conflict and their uses.

Character vs. Self

Unlike the other conflicts, this is an internal conflict. The character is battling with themselves and their own desires, fears, questions, etc. The main question the character is typically asking is what the right thing to do is in a variety of contexts. This is the internal conflict that should be present in all stories in one way or another.

In Macbeth, the titular character spends a large chunk of the play fighting with himself. He debates whether or not he should kill King Duncan. He spends a lot of time weighing the pros and cons of regicide, and then once he kills the king, he battles with his guilt and growing madness.

Character vs. Character

This is perhaps the most obvious kind of conflict. The character is battling with another character. This could be an evil overlord, or a competitor in a sport, or a romantic rival. Regardless of the scale, this involves one or a group of characters specifically battling with another character or group of characters. Because of how intuitive it is, we’ve all had conflicts with people before, this is the easiest kind of conflict to set up.

In The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne/Batman is locked in combat with the Joker. The Joker is desperate for Batman to reveal his identity to the world and he goes to violent and extreme means to accomplish this goal. Bruce is forced to try to find and stop him before he causes more damage.

Character vs. Society

Rather than battling an individual character, characters in this story are up against larger institutions. They are challenged by the government, culture, or other force, and have to fight for a change. These stories are less about defeating an individual and more about invoking change for a better life. So if you want to write about a rebellious character or want to comment on parts of your culture, government, society, etc. that you don’t like through your writing, this is the best option.

In Honeycomb’s favorite example, The Hunger Games, Katniss isn’t fighting against an individual person, she’s fighting against the institution of the Capitol. While she may have conflict with individual characters in that government, her goal ultimately becomes to enact larger change.

Character vs. Nature

With this kind of conflict, rather than battling against people, the characters are battling the elements. This could take the form of a lack of a valuable resource, like water, or a natural disaster striking and putting the characters in danger. These stories are usually centered around surviving.

In the Hatchet, Brian is forced to survive in the wilderness. He’s the only human for a majority of the book, but that doesn’t mean the book is free of conflict. He struggles to find food, water, shelter, and otherwise survive in the midst of the elements.

Character vs. Machine

In direct contrast to the last example, in this conflict the characters are battling against technology. This could be the change technological advancements represent or literally be evil machine science fiction examples.

In WALL-E, the film presents an Earth that’s been destroyed by pollution and the remnants of humanity live on a ship controlled by robots. Not only do WALL-E and the other characters need to fight to protect future life from the suffocating threat of out of control technology, but there’s also an evil robot actively trying to stop them.

Character vs. Supernatural

Here, the gods, ghosts, monsters, or other supernatural forces are actively interfering with the character’s goals. These are often seen as a greater threat than the others because supernatural forces are beyond the other realms. In stories with this conflict, the stakes are often greater than ones with the earlier conflicts.

In The Odyssey, Odysseus is trying to return home to his wife and son. However, because he angered the sea god, Poseidon, he’s unable to. His trials and misadventures with the Greek pantheon both aid him in and prevent his goal.

Character vs. Destiny

With this kind of conflict, characters wrestle with the idea of fate. This could involve a prophecy, like in fantasy stories, or it could involve characters worrying if they’re doomed to fall to the same mistakes of those who came before them. The stakes are high, because destiny can be seen as something that’s unmovable. On the other hand, changing fate is seen as a very powerful action.

In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus redirects his life in order to avoid a prophecy that he will kill this father and marry his mother. However, in his quest to avoid that goal, he ends up putting the pieces in place to fulfill it. His battle with destiny is proven to be futile, and he pays an awful price for it.

Putting It All Together

Now that we’ve gone through the basics, internal and external conflict, and the different kinds of conflict, we’re going to build the conflict of The Threadborne Throne.

First, what’s the conflict? What does Honey want and what’s keeping her from getting there? Honey wants her family to live peacefully in Ilverseed, but her brother’s disappearance disrupts that. So what does she do? She goes into the forest to find him. By going to find her brother, she’ll have to grow and adapt to the challenges.

Next, what are the internal and external conflicts in the story? Internally, Honey is struggling with her desire to live a simple life like Emily talked about in our want vs. need episode. Externally, she’s traveling through the forest and going to unknown environments. As the external conflict progresses, she will be forced to question what she’s always wanted.

Finally, what kind of conflict, or conflicts, are we dealing with? Obviously, there’s Character vs. Self, but her goals are being blocked by her brother. Emily talked about in the last post about how her brother doesn’t want to live in the sanctuary of Ilverseed forever. So it’s also Character vs. Character. Whether she realizes it or not, she’s battling with her brother. There’s also an element of Character vs. Destiny. Honey is bound for greater things. Greater things that she does not want in her current state. Her destiny also stands in the way of her current goals.

The story will begin small; it will start with the Character vs. Character. The scope will seem just like a conflict between siblings. But eventually, as Honey grows, so will the scope. Honey will realize that it’s not just her brother that demands her to change, but the world around her. The first external conflict will telegraph the second and larger external conflict. All three conflicts have the binding thread of Honey not wanting to change, but everything demands that she ultimately must.

Conclusion

Creating a meaningful conflict can feel like stirring together the ingredients of a complicated recipe. You don’t want to add too much salt or sugar to make it too bitter or sweet. It’s about balance and craftsmanship. Fortunately, no matter how complex the end result is, the starting ingredients are very simple. Hopefully this post has given you some guidance of where to begin. And hopefully you’ll come back next week where we’ll talk about stakes.

Until then, bee brilliant!