I'm going to be writing more about different types of conflict over the next few weeks, so I thought this post would be a good one to kick things off. Here's the start of it:

All stories, however short, need conflict: a clash between two (or more) people, ideas, or even motivations. Conflict is the engine that powers your story, driving it forward.

Without conflict, there’s not much of a story. Your main character knows what they want, they pursue it wholeheartedly, and nothing stands in their way. That’s not a story – it’s an anecdote.

So if your story doesn’t seem to be working, if the pacing feels slow or the plot seems thin, then that might be due to a lack of conflict.

And if your story feels rather one-dimensional, then that could be because you only have one type of conflict.

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