Talkin' Conflict

Drama comes from conflict. No big revelation there. That's high school English level stuff. But here is the tricky part -- quality drama comes from seemingly insurmountable conflict. It comes from seeing our protagonist face a problem with no obvious solution. Because, after all, if there is an obvious solution and our hero doesn't see it, then our hero is an idiot.

In my second novel -- speaking of missing the obvious, I never established my credentials before starting this project. I am, in fact, a published novelist. You can look me up on Amazon and everything. So, where was I?

In my second novel, my hero is a rock star and she's on a special intimate venue tour where she's playing accoustic versions of her hit songs. She loves the tour. She believes she needs the tour. So, as a typical sadistic author, I want to create conflict by taking the tour away from her. I need her to leave the tour in order to grow and learn what she really wants and needs.

So I wrote this scene where her management shuts the tour down because it is not promoting new songs and they want a new album. Nice conflict, right? But the thing is, there was this trend awhile ago (and the book was written awhile ago) where rock stars were successfully selling albums recorded off of live accoustic tours. The tour could be the new album. And if I could think of it, the reader could think of it.

You can't be smarter than all your readers. But you still want to try. So I went back and re-wrote the scene. Management threatens to shut the tour down, the band says "Hey, let's make a live concert album!" and suddenly our hero looks smarter because she's found a solution to a conflict instead of missing a solution to a conflict.

And everyone is happy. Except the author, because the plot isn't going the way he intended and he doesn't want the characters happy at this stage of the book. But that's a conflict that's invisible to the reader and that's how it should be. When you buy a chair, you don't care how difficult it may have been for the carpenter to make. You care whether it's a quality chair.

Quick note: Next Thursday is Christmas Eve. If I don't get the regular Thursday post out, I will pick up again the next Tuesday.