Obstacles AKA Conflict
Hi everyone,
Today, I wrote to my first obstacle (obstacles are conflict-something getting between the MC and their goal). I find it’s important to have something to write towards. It makes the writing tighter and gives the story direction.
In my plan, I listed my obstacles and highlighted them in the text of my first draft. I reread the draft from the inciting incident to the first obstacle, then I tried to write it better and shorter. Being too wordy is a big problem for me. I’ve made it about 50% shorter. So I’m happy with that.
When I write my first draft, I let my MC (main character) say everything on her mind. She explains things (which I needed to know as the author but the reader doesn’t), and has extra thoughts (interesting ones but on a tangent to what happens next—tangent because while I wrote my first draft, I didn’t know what was going to happen next).
Re-writing the scene, I didn’t include these irrelevant thoughts, and kept her focus on exactly what was happening in the moment. I left in only what the reader absolutely needed to know. I also left out extra actions that made the path to the first obstacle meandering and slow. For example, a secondary character in my first draft falls. It is interesting and realistic, but it breaks the flow and slows the pace, so I didn’t include it in my revised version. In draft two he has perfect balance :-)
Also my MC has thoughts about what this secondary character is doing and why. I also didn’t include them because in earlier revisions to the first half of my novel, I’ve explained it enough that I don’t need to say it here anymore. Also, my MC’s commentary on his actions didn’t add emotion or character growth. There’s nothing new or surprising in her thoughts. They’re boring. And redundant. So it had to go.
I included reflection and emotion in the introduction/set up of the scene yesterday, so here I just wanted to show action and her gunning for her goal until she hit her first road block. Too much thoughts at this point will slow the pace. I wanted this portion to be go, go, go until she’s stopped in her tracks.
Tomorrow, I’ll move on to obstacle two which is conflict with the secondary character, and a third, scarier character. She won’t be able to achieve her goal unless she does something. Overcoming this obstacle is a moment for her to shine, to show her resourcefulness, resilience and most of all, her agency.
Comments on conflict:
For me, if a scene is lacklustre, if there’s something wrong with it, if it simply doesn’t work, I find that it’s a lack of obstacles or a lack of escalating obstacles that’s the problem.
It’s important to make it hard for the MC to reach her goal, and just as important, each obstacle in her path must be different to the last and harder to overcome. If the obstacles are all the same, the reader will get bored and start counting pages until the end of the chapter, and they won’t know why. It’s the sameness of the conflict that makes them count pages.
When craft books talk about escalating stakes, this is what they mean. Each road block for the character must be harder to overcome than the last. It’s very easy to accidentally make each obstacle the same intensity. I’ve done it and not noticed.
In my previous novel, Destructive Magic, I had a scene that eluded me. It just wasn’t working and I didn’t know why. I changed the setting and it still didn’t work. Then I tightened it up, making the path to the obstacles more exciting and better paced. And it still didn’t work. It was only on this third draft did it strike me that all the obstacles were the same, even though they had different names.
I changed the setting again (I still wasn’t happy with that), and I made sure that each obstacle was different and worse than the last and the scene popped. It stopped being boring. It was exciting and fun, and it’s all because the obstacles changed each time and presented greater challenges to my MC, forcing her to be more active, giving her more agency.
So if your scene isn’t working, I recommend checking out the conflict. Analyse it. Is it all the same, just with a different name? Is it all the same intensity? Does the MC not have to work harder each time?
Enough from me tonight. See you tomorrow.
Happy writing,
Joanne.
Side Note:
I also watched a lecture given by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson in his new lecture series. I really enjoyed it. If you haven’t watched it, I’d highly recommend it. Here’s the link:
