essay on conflict in a story

• Scriptwriting

What is Conflict in a Story? A Quick Reminder of the Purpose of Conflict

• Point of View
• Protagonist
• Deus ex Machina
• Foreshadowing
• Iambic Pentameter
• Juxtaposition
• Personification
• Red Herring
• Alliteration
• Connotation
• Onomatopoeia
• Write Your Script For Free

W e all know that conflict is needed to keep viewers engaged, to create an emotional response, and to ultimately, push the story forward. Without conflict in a story, the film, show, or novel, may seem a bit, well, boring. It’s also true that conflict can be defined by all of the “types” that exist — internal, external, people vs people, people vs society, etc. And while all of those things are helpful, it’s not a fully developed definition. This article takes a macro perspective, answering what is conflict in a story by highlighting why we need it in the first place. We’ll break down a video to drive this point home.

Let’s jump in and unpack some of this so you can approach writing conflict in a meaningful and purposeful way.

Conflict in Any Medium

Defining conflict in any story.

Conflict is a necessary element in any story. Before we dive deeper into the purpose of conflict, here’s the standard definition of conflict, regardless of the medium you choose to express it.

CONFLICT DEFINITION

What is conflict in a story.

Conflict in a story is a struggle between opposing forces. Characters must act to confront those forces and there is where conflict is born. If there is nothing to overcome, there is no story. Conflict in a story creates and drives the plot forward. 

External conflict refers to the obstacles a character faces in the external world. Internal conflict refers to a character's internal or emotional obstacles. Moral or philosophical conflicts are created between a character’s worldview or belief system and the world around them.

It’s critical to remember that viewing conflict only in terms of external and internal is a bit simplistic. Properly defining conflict in a story includes its relationship to philosophical or moral conflict as well.

WHY IS CONFLICT IMPORTANT IN STORIES:

• It creates and drives the plot
• It reveals opposing beliefs and truths about life
• It entertains by creating relatable contexts in emotional, dangerous, or exciting ways

Tyler Mowery's video essay lays out not just what conflict is, but why it matters. He goes into detail using examples from such iconic films as Sicario , The Lord of the Rings , and Snowpiercer . 

Tyler Mowery's,The Purpose of Conflict

The deeper conflict is layered beyond "internal" and "external," the more satisfying your storytelling can be. Conflict should be meaningful for the characters in the story if it is going to resonate with the audience. Let’s take a dive into the essay’s key point — a conflict’s purpose.

Why is Conflict Important in Stories

What is the purpose of conflict.

To fully understand conflict, we have to define the purpose of conflict in a story. And we can’t really know the purpose of conflict until we know the purpose of a story. 

What’s the purpose of a story? 

The way you personally choose to live your life comes from your belief system. We all know that. Stories explore these belief systems while conflicts help challenge them. We watch or read stories because we want to see characters encounter the same moral and philosophical obstacles that we face in our own lives. 

The purpose of conflict

Mowery discusses how stories exemplify all of the possible ways to live, often raising questions about how to live through different characters’ viewpoints. If the writer has something valuable to say about life or how to live it, conflict is a great tool to show these competing viewpoints. 

Conflict introduces opposing belief systems, wants, or goals not just to entertain the viewer, but to show the character another worldview. A character’s goals and actions are dictated by their personal beliefs and what they want. If the character received everything they wanted from the beginning, there wouldn’t be a story. 

So, when a character overcomes enough obstacles that challenge their belief system, they typically come out the other side, changed. This change (or inability to change) demonstrates the theme or resolves the philosophical conflict. Mowery drives this point home. Not every filmmaker or screenwriter labels it as a  philosophical conflict,  and you can call it whatever you want. But I like this label because it reminds us that conflict is always about opposing belief systems - the real conflict is broad and philosophical, but it is up to us to externalize it in specific and external ways if we want to use film as our medium.  So if you're struggling with the theme of the story, or what you're really trying to say, odds are you haven't determined your philosophical conflict.

Entertainment value

Yes, your stories and conflicts do have to be entertaining. There’s no denying that. People go to the movies to be entertained and that’s just a fact. But this is not the main purpose of story or conflict. 

Even the most entertaining movies say something about life, or at the very least, the characters’ opposing beliefs are what engages the audience. So, in your storytelling, think about what each character believes and how a challenge to those beliefs will create meaningful and engaging conflict. The entertainment value becomes deeper and richer when the audience is able to walk away with a new perspective on their own philosophical conflicts. 

Related Posts

• How to Write a Movie Script →
• Learn to Write Stronger Characters →
• Secrets to Writing Exposition Like a Pro →

Internal and external conflict

Now that you know the purpose of conflict, and a bit more about how moral conflict works, how might you externalize it? It's time to learn how to use internal struggles and external obstacles to create the most compelling story possible. 

Up Next: Internal and external conflict →

Write and produce your scripts all in one place..

Write and collaborate on your scripts FREE . Create script breakdowns, sides, schedules, storyboards, call sheets and more.

• Pricing & Plans
• Product Updates
• Featured On
• StudioBinder Partners
• Ultimate Guide to Call Sheets
• How to Break Down a Script (with FREE Script Breakdown Sheet)
• The Only Shot List Template You Need — with Free Download
• Managing Your Film Budget Cashflow & PO Log (Free Template)
• A Better Film Crew List Template Booking Sheet
• Best Storyboard Softwares (with free Storyboard Templates)
• Movie Magic Scheduling
• Gorilla Software
• Storyboard That

A visual medium requires visual methods. Master the art of visual storytelling with our FREE video series on directing and filmmaking techniques.

We’re in a golden age of TV writing and development. More and more people are flocking to the small screen to find daily entertainment. So how can you break put from the pack and get your idea onto the small screen? We’re here to help.

• Making It: From Pre-Production to Screen
• What is Method Acting — 3 Different Types Explained
• Ultimate Guide to Sound Recording: Audio Gear and Techniques
• How to Make a Production Call Sheet From Start to Finish
• What is Call Time in Production & Why It Matters
• How to Make a Call Sheet in StudioBinder — Step by Step
• 45 Facebook
• 11 Pinterest
• 45 LinkedIn

New Self-Paced Course: "Writing Funny" with Tonight Show writer Simon Taylor! Learn more »

There is no character arc , deeper meaning, or satisfying ending without conflict in a story. Everything we love about fiction hinges on a protagonist wanting something that he or she cannot have, and doesn’t know how to get. If you’re looking to tell moving, relatable stories yourself, you must learn how to create conflict in a story.

Everything we love about fiction hinges on a protagonist wanting something that he or she doesn’t know how to get.

Think of the most memorable protagonists in fiction, or your favorite fictional character. Is there a story if they don’t have conflict? Sometimes, there’s a big showdown with an antagonist ( Harry Potter , Lord of the Rings , The Chronicles of Narnia , etc.). Or, especially in literary fiction , the protagonist might need to overcome their own deficits to grow as a person ( Jane Eyre , Things Fall Apart , Giovanni’s Room , etc.). Whether the conflict in a story is external or internal, it drives the story forward—otherwise, the protagonist would have no story for anyone to write about.

Although the story with no conflict exists (and we’ll look at examples!), most works of fiction require conflict to succeed. So, let’s examine conflict in literature. We’ll examine the different types of conflict in a story, providing examples of each and, for writers, offering advice on how to create conflict in a story.

What is conflict in a story? First, let’s define this crucial element of storytelling . 

What is Conflict in a Story?: Contents

What is external conflict in a story?

What is internal conflict in a story, examples of conflict in a story, the story with no conflict, how to create conflict in a story, what is conflict in a story.

At its most basic, conflict is the clash of opposing forces against a character’s own pursuit of a goal. The character must overcome these opposing forces to achieve the goal. These opposing forces might take on numerous shapes, and might even exist solely within the character’s own psyche.

What is conflict in a story: the clash of opposing forces against a character’s own pursuit of a goal.

Most stories begin with a basic premise: a character wants or needs something; there are certain obstacles standing in the way of that character’s goal(s); that character does not know how to overcome those obstacles. These are the elements of conflict in a story, because that character repeatedly encounters different obstacles as they try to achieve their goals, which culminates in the story’s plot .

For example, consider the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, which has both internal and external conflict. Sethe, the protagonist, miraculously reconnects with her daughter Beloved, whom Sethe killed so that she would not endure the horrors of American slavery. Beloved soon becomes the antagonist of the story, feeding on all of Sethe’s attention and starving Sethe of her family, her health, and her livelihood.

Sethe’s external conflict is with Beloved, who drains Sethe of the life she’s built for herself. Sethe also has to contend with the horrors and aftermath of slavery. Internally, Sethe must overcome her guilt, shame, and self-hatred regarding the sacrifices she had to make for her family, and come to accept the loving embrace of the Black community that she forsakes for Beloved.

Before we move on to more examples of conflict in a story, let’s dive deeper into external and internal conflict.

External conflict refers to any conflict that a character has with another person, place, or thing. These are the conflicts Man Vs. Man, Man Vs. Society, or Man Vs. Nature, which are also common themes in literature .

External conflict in a story: Any conflict that a character has with another person, place, or thing.

If a story has external conflict, then it must also have an antagonist. Even if the antagonist is not another person, it does present some sort of obstacle to the protagonist’s goals, and its interests directly counter the interests of the protagonist. It is an actively opposing force.

Internal conflict refers to the challenges that a character presents themselves. This is the conflict Man Vs. Self.

Internal conflict in a story: The challenges that a character presents themselves.

Often, the protagonist must overcome certain flaws to achieve what they want. Those flaws might be related to their personality—egotism or narcissism, for example. They might also have to overcome certain flaws in their way of thinking, such as self-hatred, insecurity, or fear of others. These flaws usually sit in the character’s blindspot, and their continued inability to address those flaws is what allows the conflict in a story to get worse and worse until the inevitable, explosive climax.

To further understand the relationship between conflict and plot, take a look at our article on Freytag’s Pyramid . For now, let’s look at some examples of conflict in a story.

The following examples of conflict in a story come from published works of literature.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Read it here.

Main character: The narrator and protagonist is unnamed, though the ending suggests her name might be Jane.

What she wants: Her freedom and health. The narrator is taken to a colonial mansion for the summer, where she is supposed to rest and recuperate from her illness. She wants to get better, but she also wants to make her own decisions and to write, both of which her husband forbids her to do.

External conflict: The narrator’s husband, John, does not take her wishes seriously. He is often patronizing, and assumes her sickness is simply a case of “temporary nervous depression.” John’s treatment of the narrator, and her refusal to be tied down, makes this story an early example of modern feminist literature.

The yellow wallpaper is also a source of external conflict, as the narrator finds it both hideous and mesmerizing, and it has a great impact on her mental health.

Internal conflict: The narrator does not know what’s best for her, on account of the many mixed messages she receives from her husband. She also fights against herself to be drawn into the yellow wallpaper: at first she finds it hideous, but the longer she stares, the harder it is to resist some weird magnetic pull in its design. This continues on until she believes that a woman is hiding in the wallpaper, trying to get out, only furthering her internal conflict, as she doesn’t know whether to help the woman or to question her own sanity.

Analysis: These conflicts drive the story forward: the narrator rejects the help of her husband and leans into her own mystical relationship with the wallpaper. At the end of the story, she thinks of herself as the trapped woman newly freed from her imprisonment. On the surface, it seems like the narrator has succumbed to her psychosis; but, considering how neglected she was by the people around her, it’s better to say that the narrator was forced into this psychosis, and could only find freedom in insanity.

“Sticks” by George Saunders

Main character: The unnamed narrator’s unnamed father.

What he wants: This is left open to interpretation, and masterfully so. Saunders presents a complex character in alarmingly few words. What we know about the narrator’s father is that he dresses up a pole in the yard based on his reactions to events. We also know he is an austere, ascetic person, who restrains himself and others from pleasure and is relentlessly economical. Could the pole represent his need for self-expression? Perhaps what he wants, more than anything else, is to be heard and understood—but he’s never learned how to accomplish this.

External conflict: While not explicitly stated, the story suggests that the father’s austerity gets in the way of his relationships. The narrator “found the seeds of meanness” from his own childhood within himself; before the father dies, he adorns the pole with the word “FORGIVE?” It seems as though the father’s behavior pushed away everyone he loves, and came to regret it after his wife had passed.

Internal conflict: This is also not explicitly stated, but the father has two competing behaviors. The narrator describes his father as being a mean, meticulous person; clearly, he seeks to control his household. But the father also has a need for self-expression, and to be loved. While this story does not have an antagonist, the father may be the antagonist of his own life.

Analysis: The narrator’s father is unable to express himself or show kindness. The reasons for this are never established, though much of these personality traits can be mapped to masculinity. Regardless, the father is conflicted between his need for control and his need for companionship. When his wife dies and he has no one around, his pleas grow desperate, but he can never express those pleas verbally, just adorn his pole in increasingly frantic attempts at human connection. The narrator’s reaction is one of indifference, because he only tells us that his father died and they sold the house, erasing any trace of the father’s mean-spirited life.

“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury

Main characters: George and Lydia Hadley, parents to Wendy and Peter. They live in a Happylife Home, a house which automatically caters to their every need and comfort. The home includes a nursery, where the children can dream up anything they wish and experience it as though they were there—for example, the African Veldt.

What they want: George and Lydia want to feel more secure in their home. They are beginning to feel uneasy with every need automatically taken care of. They also worry about what the nursery might be doing to their children. Things are the most stable they have ever been for the Hadleys, but something still feels unstable.

External conflict: The Hadley parents and kids don’t get along. The kids have been spoiled with their every need being met instantly, and they’ve become very attached to the nursery—so much so, that the veldtland they spend so much time in makes the parents nervous. Additionally, the children do not like that the parents don’t give them everything they desire, so they’ve begun to view the house more like a parent than the parents themselves. The conflict reaches a boiling point when George decides to shut everything off.

Internal conflict: The Hadleys are at odds over how to run their own household. Are their kids spoiled because everything has been handed to them? Could it be that a life involving work and discomfort is more meaningful than a life in which everything is handed to you?

Analysis: The nursery’s animated veldtland drives the conflict of this story forward. The parents fear that the veldtland represents some sort of dark, psychological shift in the children, and what’s more, the land itself terrifies them. The children, it turns out, have indeed felt mothered by the house itself, to the point where they want to reject their own parents. Each character’s reaction to the nursery builds a slow-boiling suspense that results in a painful moment of recognition ( anagnorisis ): the lions of the veldt are feasting on animations of the parents’ bodies. And the parents themselves are next.

Can a story exist without conflict? It depends on who you ask. Most writers will agree that this is impossible: a story cannot exist without conflict, because a story exists to chart how people react to conflicts. The story with no conflict seems self-contradictory.

Indeed, most novels and short stories have tension and suspense. Otherwise, what else will pull the reader forward? Conflict in a story makes the story possible.

Nonetheless, there are at least two exceptions to this rule.

The first exception is microfiction and flash fiction . Now, many pieces of flash and micro do still have conflict. But, with so few words, and in such experimental genres, there are instances in which micro stories don’t have clearly defined internal and external conflict.

For example, read this micro piece: “Between the Earth and Sun” by Kalyn RoseAnne . Technically, there is conflict, but it occurs before the story begins. The narrator clearly has an internal conflict regarding their relationship to their hometown, but the story describes what happens after this has been resolved. In this instance, conflict isn’t driving the story forward, it’s the backstory—though, of course, it still makes the story possible.

The other example is the Eastern story structure Kishōtenketsu (起承転結). Kishōtenketsu is a story structure that does not necessarily rely on conflict and resolution. It is composed of four acts, each of which are embedded in the word Kishōtenketsu:

• Ki: Introduction
• Shō: Development
• Ketsu: Conclusion

The Ki is where we learn who the characters are. The Shō deepens our relationship to the characters: where they live, where they come from, what their dreams are, how we can relate to them.

The Ten complicates the plot. Now, this complication, or twist, might involve some degree of conflict, but it often relies on external circumstances that the characters simply react and adjust to. For example, a perfectly acceptable Ten would be that a man’s village is suddenly attacked, and he has to hide with his wife in a forest. Technically, this is conflict, but the characters are not struggling with anything internally, nor are they confronting their external situation.

The Ketsu shows us how the characters react to the Ten, usually involving some kind of growth and departure from the characters we met in the Ki and Shō.

This story structure can be found in East Asian storytelling, particularly stories from Japan, China, and Korea. Some Studio Ghibli movies exemplify Kishōtenketsu, such as My Neighbor Totoro .

Neither of these examples are perfect representations of the story with no conflict. A character is always reacting to a less-than-perfect situation. But, these examples showcase what a story can be when conflict is not the engine driving the story forward.

A great story builds conflict and tension in every line. Characters should always be pursuing something they desire and can’t have, whether because of external circumstances or their own internal flaws. As you write and edit your fiction, keep these 5 tips in mind for creating conflict in a story.

• Focus on motivation. What drives each character? Why do they get out of bed each morning? What goals do they pursue? Even small, simple goals, like “wanting a vase” or “being thirsty,” can lead to surprising conflicts.
• Think about fatal flaws. Most characters have some internal problem that prevents them from achieving their goals ( hamartia ). This problem sits in the character’s blindspot: they don’t realize they have this problem until it’s (almost) too late. What flaw does your protagonist have, and why can’t they acknowledge it?
• Link flaws to contexts. Often, a character’s flaws are the result of their upbringing and sociopolitical context. The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” for example, cannot advocate for herself because of society’s sexism. Considering context adds more depth to each character.
• Let your characters make mistakes. Characters should not be perfect, and an author rarely agrees with every decision a character makes. A character’s fatal flaw should force them to make bad decisions. These bad decisions build tension and bring us towards the climax.
• Create relationships between internal and external conflict. Internal and external conflict are usually related to one another. In “Sticks,” for example, the narrator’s father is an unkind, miserly control freak (internal) who cannot communicate his feelings (internal, fatal flaw) and thus pushes away everyone he loves (external).

Tell Compelling Stories at Writers.com

The conflict in a story makes that story compelling to the audience. Write complex, well-developed conflicts at Writers.com. Our instructors have the tools to sharpen your prose, flesh out your characters, and make your story immersive—even if you try to write the story with no conflict.

Sean Glatch

I like your notes and you elaborate things very much

[…] Glatch, S. (2022, July 5). What is conflict in a story? definition and examples. Writers.com. https://writers.com/what-is-conflict-in-a-story […]

Conflict in a story is like the spicy ingredient that makes it interesting. It’s when characters face problems or challenges that they need to overcome. For example, imagine a story about a superhero trying to save the city from a villain. The conflict is the battle between good and evil, which keeps readers on the edge of their seats, wondering what will happen next. Conflict adds excitement and suspense to the story, making it more engaging and enjoyable.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Grammar Checker
• Paraphrasing Tool
• Critique Report
• Writing Reports
• Learn Blog Grammar Guide Community Events FAQ
• Grammar Guide

7 Types of Conflict in Literature: How to Use Them (with Examples)

By Gina Edwards

“Nothing moves forward in a story except through conflict.”

This is what Robert McKee, the author of Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting , calls the Law of Conflict, and storytelling is governed by it.

The finer details like story setting, character, and plot events all give the reader context and understanding, but conflict , according to McKee, is the “soul” of story. Every kind of story, every genre – novel, short story, science fiction , romance, mystery, historical , young adult , etc. – requires it.

In her book Writing Fiction , Janet Burroway says that, in literature, “only trouble is interesting.” It’s a bit ironic that in real life, we resist trouble; we shy away from conflict. Yet readers crave it in fiction.

First-time authors often find the idea of putting their characters into conflict an upsetting one. Just as they want to avoid conflict in their own lives, they don’t want to place their characters into uncomfortable, confrontational situations. They’ll focus on eloquent setting description or complex character development but then give the main character no conflict to resolve. Don’t make that mistake.

Why Conflict Is Key

7 types of conflict in fiction, how to create conflict in your novel, layered conflict makes compelling fiction.

Quite simply, conflict keeps your story interesting. Conflict is opposition – either internal or external (more on that below). Conflict is what comes from the challenges your protagonist must solve or resolve on the way to achieving his/her/their goal. It offers a teasing carrot of uncertainty about whether your protagonist will achieve that goal, keeping your readers engaged and turning pages to discover whether (or not) the conflict is resolved.

And that’s what every author wants, right? To carry the reader all the way to THE END?

Without conflict, your main character is simply experiencing a series of largely uninteresting slice-of-life moments. Without conflict, there is no story.

There are two basic kinds of conflict: external and internal, which have been further categorized and codified in many different ways over time. Here are seven different types to consider.

External Conflicts

External conflict pits the character against some exterior force or world-view and happens outside the character’s body. Five of the seven types of conflicts are of the external kind.

1. Person vs. Person

Also called man vs. man and protagonist vs. antagonist , this is the most common type of external conflict. It is clear and universally understood as a good vs. evil story in which an unambiguous challenger opposes the main character.

The heart of this type of story involves two characters with opposing outlooks, opinions, or goals. The story will become richer when both characters believe themselves to be right or when there is no clear right or wrong between their differences.

• In The Hunger Games , Katniss Everdeen must go up against other contestants in order to survive – her vs. them
• In The Wizard of Oz , Dorothy faces off against the Wicked Witch
• Murder mysteries with the investigator vs. murderer also are person vs. person stories

2. Person vs. Nature

This type of conflict counters a character against some force of nature, such as an animal or the weather.

• A classic example is Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea
• In Life of Pi , the protagonist must face a tiger trapped in the boat with him
• The drought is a formidable opposition in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath , as is the setting in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (read more about the use of setting here )

3. Person vs. Society

When a novel sets a character against a tradition, an institution, a law, or some other societal construct, it is a Person vs. Society story.

• Atticus Finch opposed his racist community in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
• Wilbur fights for his survival against a society that eats pigs in Charlotte’s Web
• In Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale , the society treats women as property of the state; Atwood makes the story even more interesting by layering in environmental disasters (Person vs. Nature) to intensify the conflict

4. Person vs. Technology

When science moves beyond human control, conflicts of Person vs. Technology develop. Stories in this conflict type include:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

5. Person vs. Supernatural

Vampires, werewolves, aliens, and ghosts – any typically unbelievable, supernatural, or inexplicable phenomena – provide Person vs. Supernatural conflicts. Examples of such stories include:

• The Shining , by Stephen King
• The Haunting of Hill House , by Shirley Jackson
• The War of the Worlds , by H.G. Wells
• The Exorcist
• Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach series
• Almost anything by Edgar Allan Poe

Internal Conflicts

The two remaining types of conflicts are internal – ones that happen inside the character’s mind or heart. When your main character has an inner turmoil that’s causing some emotional pain, it increases the tension of the story.

6. Person vs. Self

A character battling inner demons, one who has an inner moral conflict (think Hamlet ), or is simply striving to become a better person is in a Person vs. Self conflict.

• Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games (again!) must reconcile her need to survive in the battle arena with her desire not to kill another human being
• Daniel Scott Keyes's short story Flowers for Algernon has a main character struggling with losing his intelligence to a congenital mental disability, with the focus on the character’s feelings about his circumstances: the conflict between his intellect and emotion are central

7. Person vs. Destiny (Fate/Luck/God)

This is an ambiguous conflict type. Sometimes aspects of it get split up and parsed out among the other categories. For example, since accepting fate can be seen as an inner personal struggle, some define it as Person vs. Self instead. Or some might reframe Person vs. God as being person against religion and, therefore, would put it in the external conflict type of Person vs. Society. The categories don’t really matter as long as you understand the concept.

Examples of this conflict type include Star Wars , The Odyssey , and Lord of the Rings .

• Although Star Wars contains plenty of external conflicts, a major part of the storyline is Luke’s destiny to become a Jedi Master
• In The Odyssey , Odysseus encounters all sorts of mystical creatures
• Fate has made Frodo the ring-bearer in Lord of the Rings

When a character has a want or a goal and encounters some obstacle, the result is a conflict. The obstacle must be faced by a character readers care about. Additionally, the obstacle must oppose a want or a goal that’s meaningful to that character. The result? Conflict.

Conflict can vary in degree or intensity, but every conflict must have several key characteristics.

• The conflict must be clear, specific, and relevant to the character; it should not be an abstract or trivial problem – either to the character or to the reader
• It must exist within the character’s realm, not separate or remote from their world
• The conflict must not be overcome too easily
• Finally, the conflict must happen to a character(s) the reader cares about (not necessarily “likes,” but has some compassion for)

In summary, conflict results when a compassion-worthy character who wants something intensely encounters a significant obstacle. Add in relevant action and you’ll have a story.

Every novel needs a major conflict. More complex stories have multiple conflicts, as noted above for Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale , which has both Person vs. Society and Person vs. Nature conflicts. Furthermore, a story that contains external conflict can be made more complex, layered, and interesting by including characters who also have inner conflict (see The Hunger Games in the examples above).

James Scott Bell, in The Art of War for Writers , makes this distinction between inner conflict and inner struggle:

An inner conflict is plot-centric; it is an internal obstacle either triggered by or somehow directly connected to the story – the plot. Whereas inner struggle is something that plays against the character’s strengths; it’s something the character brings to the plot, usually from her past, either long ago or recent past (but before the first page). The plot will put the protagonist in situations where she has to deal with this inner struggle, and she’ll carry that struggle with her throughout the story. If the character is in a series, it will run throughout the book series.

To illustrate, let’s say you want your female main character to be assertive . Two qualities that might battle against assertiveness are shyness and indecision . Then consider what in the protagonist’s background could be a reason for her struggle between assertiveness and yet being shy or indecisive . Maybe someone important in her life told her she’d never amount to anything. Maybe she had a hard-scrabble, poor childhood she desperately wanted to get out of, but as a child she saw too many adults around her fail in every attempt to do so themselves. You get the idea?

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler says inner conflict is a defining mark of a literary work. A book might also possess characteristics of a particular genre, but inner conflict can give a novel a sense of being the literary kind.

Whether or not you’re striving for a literary work, if you use two or more of the seven types of conflict identified above, making sure at least one is internal, your writing will be compelling.

How do you feel about using conflict in your writing? Let us know in the comments!

Do you know how to craft memorable, compelling characters? Download this free book now:

Creating Legends: How to Craft Characters Readers Adore… or Despise!

This guide is for all the writers out there who want to create compelling, engaging, relatable characters that readers will adore… or despise., learn how to invent characters based on actions, motives, and their past..

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Gina Edwards

Gina Edwards is a writer, retreat leader, certified creativity coach, and editor. Through retreats, group coaching, and the community Women Writing for CHANGE, she provides safe spaces for women writers—aspiring and published—to claim their voices, write their stories, and leave their legacies. Gina, her clients, and her writer-friends are on a collective mission to positively impact the world through their written words.

Get started with ProWritingAid

Drop us a line or let's stay in touch via :

Helping Writers Become Authors

Write your best story. Change your life. Astound the world.

• Start Here!
• Story Structure Database
• Outlining Your Novel
• Story Structure
• Character Arcs
• Archetypal Characters
• Scene Structure
• Common Writing Mistakes
• Storytelling According to Marvel
• K.M. Weiland Site

Conflict in Fiction: What It Really Is and Why It’s Important to Plot

Years ago, I remember reading an interview with a famous author, in which he explained that one of his secrets to writing a successful story was to double check that he had included conflict on every page . I dutifully underlined the sentence, but it always confused me a little bit. What about pages that described the characters’ travels? Or what about pages where the dialogue was mostly relational? What about love scenes?

For that matter, what about whole stories in which, practically speaking, not much happens? Two high-altitude examples off the top of my head: David Guterson’s East of the Mountains and Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain . These two acclaimed novels are both literary-style stories that are mostly existential in nature. Stuff happens; there is a plot; but with a few exceptions, there really isn’t much in the way of what we generally consider to be conflict .

So how can these stories work? For that matter, how can they, by the classical definition, be stories at all?

The answer is all in how you define “conflict.”

What Is Plot Conflict?

What comes to mind when you hear the word “conflict”? You might think of physical altercations or even outright violence . At the least, whatever you’re currently picturing very likely involves confrontation .

It’s natural enough for our modern, western minds to conflate conflict and confrontation when we consider fiction. This is because in most stories and most scenes, conflict does manifest in some sort of confrontation, whether it’s subtextual, verbal, or physical. Everything from passive-aggressive staring contests on up to intergalactic wars. That’s conflict.

But to limit our understanding of plot conflict to merely confrontation is problematic on a number of levels. For starters, it is just too simplistic. As noted, many wonderful stories from many traditions will prove this thesis wrong at a glance. More than that, it’s worth considering that this overemphasis of confrontation (especially in its almost ubiquitous pairing with violence) equally reflects and generates a cultural emphasis on the same.

There’s nothing wrong or incorrect in using confrontation to create plot conflict. But to understand conflict as confrontation is much too narrow a definition.

Indeed, what I personally deem the most useful perspective is that of conflict as obstacle . Confrontations can and often do create obstacles, but even more often they result from the obstacles. Therefore, conflict as a generator of plot is much less about the possible emergent of a confrontation and much more about the occurrence of obstacles to the characters’ forward progress toward their goals .

Understanding How Goal/Conflict Function in Plot

Let’s go meta for a second and consider why it is that we even need conflict in fiction at all. Why is it such a big deal?

One of the simplest ways to examine this question is to boil plot down to one of its smaller integers—the scene. How does plot work on the scene level? And how does conflict factor in?

>>Click here to read more about scene structure.

Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain (affiliate link)

Although there are many ways to examine scene structure , one of my favorite remains Dwight V. Swain’s classical approach, which breaks scene down into causal halves: Action and Reaction. Put practically, this simply means: The Character Does Something and Something Happens.

From there, we can break the scene down further. The Action half, which is where the majority of plot movement happens, can be broken down into three parts: Goal, Conflict, Outcome.

To fully understand how conflict works on both the scene and plot level, we first need to make sure we understand how “goal” works. Just as the word “conflict” tends to evoke immediate but limited ideas of its scope, so too “goal” often creates associations with ambition, focused drive, and specific plans. When this is how “goal” is used in a scene or story, the “conflict” that follows very often will be confrontational in nature.

Structuring Your Novel (Amazon affiliate link)

However, a broader understanding of the word “goal” might be more along the lines of “intention” or even “direction.” What “goal” really indicates is simply the character’s forward motion—which will then be met by an obstacle of some sort that will require re-calibration—aka the Outcome of the scene.

The Goal/Conflict pairing in a scene might easily and successfully translate into a character’s plan to rob a bank, which then leads to a confrontation with police. But it can just as accurately be represented by a character who gets up in the morning with the intention of making breakfast, only to be blocked by the obstacle that there’s no food in the refrigerator.

At first glance, we’re talking about vastly different types of story here. But in fact even most race-‘em-chase-‘em, plot-centric stories will include well-structured and integral scenes in which the Goal and Conflict remain ordinary and even subtextual.

What Is the Purpose of Conflict in Fiction?

Conflict keeps the story moving. Just as in life, characters are always moving toward something—whether that something is specific or vague. It may just be getting through the day so they can go back to bed and start over. Regardless, there is always forward momentum. There is always an underlying need that keeps humans moving. And that need is created by either conflict or the threat of conflict—by the suggestion that there may be obstacles between us and what we need to survive .

No food in the fridge means our characters have to find another way to feed themselves. And even if they do have enough food in the fridge to keep themselves successfully fed for another few hours, a new need will immediately arise as soon as they’ve put their forks down: now they have to do the dishes, dress for work, use the bathroom, etc.

It’s true most of the time, these mundane “goals” and “conflicts” will not be enough to keep readers’ interest. After all, readers probably get their fill of solving these sort of problems in their own lives. They probably just finished their own breakfast dishes before picking up your book.

And this is why most stories raise the stakes.

As in Cold Mountain (which is, in fact, mostly about one of the main characters attempting to fill her larder with food), the stakes in fiction will usually be closer to life and death than just about whether or not the character has to walk down the street to buy more eggs.

Cold Mountain (2003), Miramax Films.

And that is where confrontation often enters the picture. The higher the stakes in a story, the more important even mundane daily intentions become. Those intentions become concrete and specific goals because of their importance to the character . The more important the character’s goals, the more dangerous any obstacle to that goal becomes. And the more dangerous the obstacle, the more likely the character will be willing to engage in confrontation to achieve that goal.

The Importance of Understanding “Conflict” in Fiction

I still think “conflict” is a good term. It’s evocative after all. Just saying it immediately brings up possible scene ideas. Plus, it’s ubiquitous in the writing world.

But it’s also important not to limit its definition too strictly. Doing so inevitably limits our understanding of story itself. Ultimately, “conflict” is just a word used to describe the things that happen to our characters to change their trajectory to whatever degree. By that definition, conflict is the welcome but surprising kiss between two characters, just as it is the toilet paper stuck to one character’s shoe before a big meeting, and just as it is one character arguing with another or even socking the other in the nose.

In short, it’s a sliding scale. By not boxing “conflict” into the idea that it must always indicate “confrontation,” we can also avoid boxing our stories into limited forms. Although the terms “goal” and “conflict” aren’t going away, you may find it helpful to at least keep it in the back of your mind that “intention” and “obstacle” are just as valid and, in fact, perhaps more accurate ways to view the abstract mechanics of plot.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! What do you think is a good definition for conflict in fiction? Tell me in the comments!

Click the “Play” button to Listen to Audio Version (or subscribe to the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast in Apple Podcast or Amazon Music ).

Love Helping Writers Become Authors? You can now become a patron. (Huge thanks to those of you who are already part of my Patreon family !)

Sign Up Today

Related Posts

K.M. Weiland is the award-winning and internationally-published author of the acclaimed writing guides Outlining Your Novel , Structuring Your Novel , and Creating Character Arcs . A native of western Nebraska, she writes historical and fantasy novels and mentors authors on her award-winning website Helping Writers Become Authors.

This is a brilliant post, thank you.

I once read the elements of a scene are:

Goal Conflict Disaster Reaction Dilemma Decision

The term ‘disaster’ always confused me as it suggests something catastrophic.

I recently read about these elements, and the term “disaster” confused me as well. I write fantasy but it’s not very heavy on the action so this made me feel like it had to be.

The term “disaster” originated with me. Dwight V. Swain, who originated the rest of that list for scene structure terms, used “outcome” instead. If I had it to do over, I’d use “outcome” more prominently as well, although I do personally like “disaster,” since it reminds that the “outcome” needs to be something that creates complications and therefore the subsequent goal.

Excellent breakdown here.

You say conflict keeps things moving. I think of it more as that characters always *are* moving (“Make a character want something on the first page, even if it’s only a glass of water.” –Kurt Vonnegut), and conflict is the part that makes us aware of that, and how it might change. A drive is just cruise control until we hit a speed bump, after all.

But anything that changes that motion, or even implies it might change, is a form of conflict — “What’s going to happen now? Has he been on the wrong track all along? She didn’t deserve that, why’d that have to happen?” Even that surprise kiss counts, as long as we care about what it means.

Yes, I like that. I’ve always defined “moving the plot” as “changing the plot.” If a bunch of stuff happens (even if it seems like “conflict”), but the character’s trajectory or inner development never changes, then the plot hasn’t moved.

I think of ‘confict’ as something that keeps tension in the reader’s mind. In fact, I prefer the word ‘tension’. This can permeate even down to the choice of words to describe something – specific words chosen by the narrator or author. For example (quick, off the top of my head) – a sickly smile. Something that is unexpected, not-quite-right, alerts (sometimes subtly) the reader.

I like “tension” as well, although I do see it as a separate thing from “conflict”–namely, that tension is the *promise* of conflict. Foreshadowing, basically.

Greetings! I like how you define tension. I wonder if you also have an article about it. Would mind if I read it?

I have a short article about conflict vs. tension, which you can find here: https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/conflict-and-tension/

This is greatly appreciated! Thank you very much!

In the Bobbsey Twins stories, the tension never gets very high. A small event happens, there is the appearance of danger, and then it is resolved. This pattern repeats over and over (“episodic”). I’m sure this is a conscious choice because small kids don’t like a lot of tension.

Sometimes, beginning writers don’t like tension and so they don’t put much of it into their stories. And in negotiations, whoever can’t stand the mounting tension will “cave” first, and get the worse end of the deal.

We also find tension in music. Chopsticks, written by a sixteen year old girl, is episodic; it never strays far from the original key. Classical music, has short-term and long-term tension that vary; it goes through numerous key changes before finally resolving all the tension in the last chord.

I agree as well! Even the promise of conflict is enough reason for a reader to keep reading to find out what happens. They can “feel” a turn for the worst through all the devices that create tension. ~TKS

I have a set of questions I answer before each scene. One is: ‘what is the conflict/obstacle preventing you from achieving your goal?’. I’m wondering now if I should change goal to intention, but I think it’s how I already often approach it. Words are so important. Once again, thank you for a thought-provoking post!

I agree that the words we use are important, but I also think it’s useful to have “umbrella” words like conflict that we can use to refer to the general basic building blocks of story. For me anyway, using these terms, helps me not get bogged down in the nuances when I’m doing the big-picture work of plotting. But it’s also important not to take these words too literally, as that cause just as many bog-downs.

I really love the word ‘intention’ vs ‘goal,’ KM — that clarifies things so much. Goals are sometimes wrought with ‘bigness.’

When intention is thwarted–the character moves to heat up the abandoned house, only to discover there are not enough pellets to keep the stove lit–shows that the character may be attempting the simplest thing and yet faces the simplest hurdle, one which could launch a whole string of new obstacles. What happens if there are no more pellets within 20 miles? What happens if the stove has not been used for years, and even with adequate pellets it might not work right? What happens if the small amount of pellets she does have burn just fine, but leave traces of carbon monoxide because of a faulty fan she doesn’t know about? What happens if she tries to burn something else in the stove instead?

Suddenly, nothing is simple, not even lighting the stove.

No, this sort of scene does not describe a swashbuckling clash between valiant woodsmen, but it’s still conflict. And as a reader, I want to know how she overcomes these obstacles.

I liked that you referenced COLD MOUNTAIN in this episode, too, because it shows how really good books don’t have to be written with an eye for Hollywood Splashy High Action Movie qualities to be rich with conflict, tension, and drama. ~TKS

Ah, yes, the stove is another really good example!

Great post, Katie. I’ve read that sitcoms have conflicts that are mostly mundane. “Seinfeld” is a great example. While the conflicts are mostly small, the reactions to them by the characters are big. That’s what makes the story.

Really, reaction is where it’s at in stories–something that is often overlooked.

Like Paula, I often think in terms of tension rather than conflict. This makes sense for my current WIP because my main character is very conflict-averse and driven by a desire to keep everyone happy. So for her, tension is a very big deal and her internal conflict throughout will be peace keeping versus truth telling. There are a couple of big external conflict scenes in the form of arguments, but for the most part, it’s a slow simmering tension.

Yes, sometimes avoiding conflict comes at a much higher personal expense than actually engaging in it!

fwiw, Orson Scott Card wrote that a story doesn’t require conflict, it requires /struggle/, which he defined as ‘a heartfelt effort against resistance, or, heartfelt resistance to someone / something else’s effort.’ He said it doesn’t have to be an enemy, it just has to be a hard thing to do.

I like that!

Great distinction- informative, thought provoking. Thanks- always learn to reflect a bit deeper on your topics after your articles.

Thanks for stopping by, Kathy!

This excellent article has enabled me to understand the broader definition of “conflict” and I now see how conflict applies to much in my memoirs that are a large part of why I feel they are not only important stories to tell, but also entertaining; that while memoirs might by their nature have “slow parts,” it’s those little conflicts that keep the story going. A technical note: In your phrase “race-’em-chase-’em,” the apostrophes appear upside down. A technical glitch caused that to happen in one of my books and went unnoticed by me until I caught it in the galley. An expensive lesson for me for when checking for pre-print errors.

Thanks, Charles. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can format the apostrophes differently on WordPress, but I do try to avoid that in typesetting books.

Try typing a letter, then the apostrophe, then the word you want to follow the apostrophe, then deleting the first letter. I think this will also work when done in Word or other word processors, and then cut-and-pasted into WordPress.

Here’s something that I think will prove your point about overemphasizing conflict. I apologize in advance for the length. There is a narrative structure that isn’t driven by conflict / confrontation, and the Japanese call it “kishōtenketsu.” However, it’s used by other people, including Westerners. We use it in urban legends and slice-of-life stories.

This structure is told in four acts: Intro (ki), development (shō), twist (ten) and conclusion (ketsu). In an urban legend you get:

Intro (ki): A young man is driving home in the rain late one night.

Development (shō): He stops for a young, beautiful woman who is motioning for a ride, and offers to take her home.

Twist (ten): When he arrives at the woman’s house he discovers that the woman has disappeared from his car.

Conclusion (ketsu): He knocks on the door of the woman’s house and is informed by an older gentleman that the woman was his daughter … who died four years ago on this very night. She’s still trying to get home.

For a slice of life example, I’ll use the General Iroh vignette from the “Tales of Ba Sing Se” episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender :

Intro (ki): General Iroh runs some errands in Ba Sing Se.

Development (sho): Someone tries to mug him.

Twist (ten): Iroh mocks the mugger’s incompetent fighting stance, then has a heart-to-heart with his would-be attacker, and convinces him to be a better man.

Conclusion (ketsu): Iroh holds a private memorial service for his son, and wishes he could have helped his son as he helped the mugger.

I have never seen the movies you mention, but I’m wondering if the reason they don’t seem to fit into the rules about conflict is because they’re using the kishōtenketsu structure. The key is that this structure focuses on how the characters deal with the Twist. If you have Netflix, the first episode of Squid Game (South Korean horror) is also using this structure. While the characters do have interpersonal conflicts, those conflicts are not driving the plot. What drives the plot are the reactions of the characters to their plight.

The intro has the main character showing what a jerk and loser he is, then it develops with him playing a weird and humiliating game with a stranger in the subway station. The stranger gives him a business card with a number that will allow him to join the Squid Games. The main character becomes player 465.

The twist comes when he and the others play a game of Red Light, Green Light and discover what happens to the losers. The conclusion is that the characters realize they’re in a horrific situation, and have to figure out what to do about it. All of the tension is based on seeing if their strategies and tactics work in each game they play, but it is never possible for the characters to go on the offense and confront the game masters.

Because this is a structure driven by how characters react to the Twist, it perfectly suits a horror story. And interestingly, this structure is suited for a main character, as opposed to a protagonist. A protagonist has to move the plot, and has to be proactive after the midpoint, but in a kishōtenketsu horror like Squid Game there may not be an opportunity to be proactive. You just have to endure one fresh hell after the next (I gather this facet ties into Buddhist beliefs about withstanding adversity). The virtue is in endurance, not fighting back, and if I understand correctly, you’re not necessarily supposed to have goals or desires in this belief system.

I think the failure to understand how conflict is used in a story is a central problem in a lot of “story fails”: writers who write slice-of-life stories as a series of pointless random events, or writers who only have a main character in story that requires a protagonist. Gotta know your Squid Games from your Hunger Games 🙂

I hope this makes sense!

It looks like my long reply got eaten by the spam filter, probably because I used some Chinese characters, which is ironic, since the point of my long comment was that many English-speakers refuse to cite Japanese / Chinese / Korean language sources when they present their misrepresentations of narrative/rhetorical theory from those cultures.

So, I’m going to write a shorter comment, without Chinese characters to make it through the spam filter. Perhaps you also tried to cite sources in Japanese or Korean and then had to edit your comment to get through the filter, in which case, this criticism is unfair.

I don’t know Japanese, but every commentary I’ve seen of kishōtenketsu in English is based on one of two online essays which don’t cite sources. It is related to a similar concept which originated in Chinese rhetoric. I can read Chinese, and I’ve read about the Chinese version of that concept in Chinese, which is so different from those online English language essays which refuse to cite sources say that I suspect that the English-language essays are full of hot air. If they accurately represent Japanese culture, why wouldn’t they cite Japanese-language sources to prove it?

I’ve also read/listened to a ton of fiction in Chinese, and I can tell you conflict (as defined in this article) is just as integral to Chinese-language stories as English-language stories. If anything, Chinese culture has a higher tolerance for over-the-top melodrama.

What really, really gets me of these commentaries about kishōtenketsu which, as far as I can tell, have no basis in what any actual Japanese person has said about kishōtenketsu, is that they feel like… orientalism.

Ah, that’s interesting, Sara. As I said, I’ve yet to study kishōtenketsu in any depth, but it’s come up many times in discussions like this. And, yes, your other comment never came through, so it must have ended up in the spam filter (which I already emptied for the day). Sorry about that.

I have contacts in Japan who might be able to find experts on Japanese narrative theory who are also fluent enough in English for an email interview. If you’re interested, I could reach out to them. I would love it if you interviewed someone who understands kishōtenketsu from place of deep knowledge of Japanese culture.

I don’t know that I’m currently fluent enough in kishōtenketsu, in any sense, to properly interview someone about it. But if you run on to any good sources for research purposes, I’d be interested in seeing them.

@Sara, I hope this nests correctly!

I only half-expected kishōtenketsu to get through, so I’m not surprised by your posting woes!

Do you have an example of a story that IS true to what Japanese (or other Easterners) would say about that structure?

I discovered kishōtenketsu at all because I have been actively searching out different narrative structures, and how they suit assorted types of stories. My quest is ongoing…

Usually what I find is that when 1) A story works beautifully, but 2) clearly violates what I thought was an ironclad rule, that 3) the story is truly conforming to a completely different set of rules. Imagine trying to understand a Heroine’s Journey story if you only know the Hero’s Journey. Those situations prompt me to investigate, and my quest is ongoing…

One point that you brought up that I want to clarify: none of my leads claimed Easterners don’t use conflicts in their narratives. That would be a shibboleth instantly outing a source as untrustworthy, because no one who watches anime, Hong Kong cinema, South Korean telenovelas, or Bollywood dramas could seriously believe Easterners don’t use conflict.

No, where kishōtenketsu is concerned, the claim (as I remember it) is that this specific structure isn’t driven by it. That part at least holds up, from what I can tell. A few seemed to think that only Easterners used that structure, but that’s where I part company because it’s clear that the structure is used here in the West as well.

What, exactly, is the difference between a story structure ‘driven by conflict’ and one which is not driven by conflict, yet still has conflict? I don’t understand this distinction. I don’t know of ANY popular Chinese-language story which doesn’t have conflict as a core element.

I have seen people claim that kishōtenketsu means that a story doesn’t need conflict.

I understand the related Chinese concept, qi cheng zhuan he (I won’t write it in Chinese characters because of spam filters) better than Japanese kishōtenketsu. Qi cheng zhuan he originated in poetry. There’s a debate about whether famous old poets used it on purpose. I don’t entirely understand this debate, so I’ll just say that some famous Chinese poems obviously fit this structure, intentional or not.

Qi cheng zhuan he is also how schools teach children to write essays, just as English-language schools teach children to write essays with a beginning, middle, and end. I can’t post links because of the spam filter, but there’s a paper in English about qi cheng zhuan he and Taiwanese high school students which (based on my skim, I haven’t read it in full) looks decent.

There’s someone who writes screenplays in Chinese and teaches screenwriting in Chinese who has compared qi cheng zhuan he and the 3-act structure (my original comment which got lost in spam included his name in Chinese characters). Basically, he thinks they are two ways to reach the same result, a story based on one structure is indistinguishable from the other structure. You can’t tell a movie based on one structure apart from the other. To him, the second act in a 3-act structure is a combination of cheng and zhuan, and the midpoint divides them. However, he says, some screenwriters find it easier to use the 3 act structure as their model, and others find qi cheng zhuan he to be an easier model. So to answer your question about which stories an Easterner (in this case, a Chinese language screenwriter) is true to this structure, his answer is: every story which follows the 3-act structure. But he’s just one guy, albeit a screenwriter and screenwriting teacher. His views may not be representative of all educated Chinese speakers.

There are popular Chinese novels which don’t follow the strictest form of the 3-act structure. For example, The Eagle-Shooting Heroes by Jin Yong doesn’t have a midpoint. It ALSO doesn’t fit qi cheng zhuan he, because it lacks a ‘twist’ in the middle. However, Truby’s plot analysis method, as well as Dwight Swain’s scene structure (well, I’ve never read Swain’s book, I only know about his ideas through secondhand sources such as K.M. Weiland) still check out. Also, Jin Yong follows Coyne’s 5 commandments of story (from The Story Grid) at the scene level.

I agree that taking a story structure theory and applying it to stories from another culture that the theorist doesn’t know is a great test. I’ve ditched some theories because they didn’t fit really popular works in Chinese, and I have as much respect for Truby as I do because his Anatomy of Story works as well for popular Chinese works as for Hollywood movies.

Heck, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer Day” fits the qi cheng zhuan he structure even though I doubt Shakespeare ever heard of Chinese poetry theory.

@Sara, nesting here because the comment may get too “narrow” otherwise:

What, exactly, is the difference between a story structure ‘driven by conflict’ and one which is not driven by conflict, yet still has conflict?

Ah, so that’s where the confusion is coming in. Remember that most writers are defining conflict as confrontation, hence the blogpost. The assumption is that the central problem in a story involves an adversarial situation between characters, and one often must defeat another.

The kishōtenketsu discussions (that I’ve seen) are explicitly saying that stories do not require this element for the central problem. That said, I have seen posts [wrongly] claiming Eastern stories in general don’t have conflict, but they weren’t talking about this structure in particular.

Driven by conflict: Girl wants to go to sing, but mom wants her to do something “sensible.” This is the central problem, and the only way to deal with it involves conflict / confrontation, or goals which may be thwarted. The plot is oriented around whether the girl is true to her goals in spite of her mom, or whether she can convince the mom to let her sing, or whether the mom will thwart her dreams, etc. Confrontation is woven into this story.

Simplified, kishotenketsu is driven by causality : a thing happens, and the characters have to deal with it. Each event in this story is typically outside of the characters’ control, and importantly, the events are NOT happening as a consequence to what the characters are doing. As opposed to stealing the plans for the Death Star, which will naturally cause Darth Vader to come after the characters.

Plot not driven by confrontation (conflict): Two buddies are minding their own business, when suddenly zombies swamp their town.*** The buddies can’t do anything about “hell running out of room, so the dead will walk the Earth.” This is the central problem, and confrontation is simply not an option. How the buddies and their friends survive (react) to the central problem is the point.

Yet conflicts can still appear in this story: will the buddies and their friends choose to run, hide, or fight? Will they save other survivors, or is it every man for himself? Is one member of the group in denial about the zombie threat? Resolving these conflicts will not resolve the central problem: the zombies will continue existing regardless of what the characters do.

In Squid Game the characters couldn’t do anything to the game masters or the enforcers, but they did argue, fight with, and betray each other from time to time.

The hypothetical zombie story could potentially have the characters be in agreement about strategy and tactics, but instead deal with obstacles: getting a car, getting weapons, or securing their citadel or bunker. A sapient antagonist actively thwarting them may not be required.

I hope this clarifies what I meant. Sorry for the confusion!

What an amazing comment. Thank you for writing about kishōtenketsu. Coupled with Kate’s post, this will really help my writing.

I haven’t studied kishōtenketsu in great depth, but I did have it in mind when I was working on this post. I agree that many Western stories also qualify as more of what I would call “reaction stories.” The characters will still have goals, but those goals/intentions will be more reaction-based in reference to something that happened to them rather than something they initiated. For example, I was recently reminded of the Glenn Close movie Skylark , which is almost entirely about the characters’ reaction to the challenges and struggles of an ongoing drought.

Thanks for that example. I haven’t seen Skylark” but I can add it to my list of stories for studying the types of narratives.

Substituting Intention/Direction for Goal and Obstacle for Conflict, this makes great sense to me. Thanks! This reminded me of an Australian children’s author who came to my school once and presented some interesting assemblies on how to write a story. He said the easiest way to write a story is to put a string of “Uh-Ohs” in the way of the main character. I can’t remember his name, but I remember his Uh-Ohs.

Pat, that’s a good idea. I’ll try that!

I do hate not citing my sources. I finally thought to ask our school library the “Uh-Oh” author’s name: Richard Tulloch.

It’s an evocative term for sure!

Good article, and I’m adrift in agreement. My writing is very conflict oriented, but much of the conflict is internal to the POV character, and frequently this is what I show in the reaction segment. The character either wrestling with, or actively not wrestling with, the implications of the results of the action portion.

I really appreciate your thoughtful analysis here. FYI, I feel like I’ve beaten the “tortures geezers” lines to the put where those ponies are buried in straw, so I’m putting that away. For at least a week.

Reaction scenes (sequel scenes) are almost always some of my favorite bits, especially in action stories. If they’re neglected, the whole story will weaken. But when they’re given their due, they make everything deeper and richer.

This was such a helpful post! I’ve been so stuck lately on the terms “conflict” and “goal.” It’s so helpful to have another way to look at them. Thank you!

I also wanted to share that one of my favorite helps in constructing scenes comes from Lisa Cron in her book Story Genius. For every scene she suggests asking these four questions:

(1) What does my protagonist go into the scene believing? (2) Why does she believe it? (3) What is my protagonist’s goal in the scene? (4) What does my protagonist expect will happen in this scene?

I especially found it helpful to think about the character’s expectation, whether it’s met or not.

I like that. Subverting character expectations is one of the easiest ways to create scene “disasters” that move the plot forward. And it doesn’t require big fireworks to make it happen.

This subject of conflict is something I struggle with so much because there’s a part of me that can’t bear to see my characters in pain, to witness any sort of real evil or cruelty in my own handwriting. Yet in the novel I’m working on now, I visualize it as a movie and it has to show a decent amount of visible action, not just people glaring at each other. In reading your post today, I got an inspiration for a more visual conflict. Hurray! I guess I have to let my characters hurt a little bit, right? Thanks for another wonderful, helpful post. This subject is always a little tricky.

One thing I find it valuable to keep in mind regarding “hurting” characters is that the more they have to overcome, the more powerful their transformations usually are.

See my note above about Tension.

When wants and obligations are at odds! Thanks for your excellent instruction.

Many a great story has arisen out of that particular tension point!

Good article.

I think “conflict” begins in the mind of the character. Frequently, some of the most intense “conflict” in a story is totally within the psyche of the character whose turmoil of mind drives all of the action within the story. A writer should never ignore the roots of conflict when telling of the actions. For instance, guy sees beautiful girl, but is afraid to approach. Why? What drives his fear? What are his thoughts/turmoil in his mind?

This, of course, can be overdone, but when sprinkled in the action it also can give greater insight into the character. This creates a well-rounded character instead of just a two dimensional caricature.

Absolutely. So much conflict is ultimately the result of personal perspective.

Yes, I agree. In the back of my mind, I always think of narrative ‘conflict’ as resistance against an obstacle.

While reading this blog post, I felt thirsty, so I picked up a cup, went to a sink, filled the cup with tap water, and drank. Not an exciting story because there was so little resistance to me fulfilling my intention (relieving my thirst). But what if I discovered that the sink was broken and no water came out? Or what if I had some disease which made it difficult for me to stand up, I needed water desperately because dehydration would accelerate the progression of the disease (raising the stakes), and I had no caregiver present to fetch water for me? And there are endless scenarios for increasing the resistance and/or raising the stakes.

Spot on. This is exactly what I was trying to illustrate in the post.

I think, in the broadest sense, conflict could be described as anything that disrupts the status quo of a plot, plot point, section of a plot point, scene or scene section.

I agree. Good definition.

A great rundown, much more detail than in my attempt, which was to state:

conflict comes because there is a strong motivation that compels the character to get/do/become or the consequences of inaction will ruin their lives.

If there are no consequences to the actions undertaken to achieve the goal, why do it? Why spend so much time pursuing something that doesn’t matter? … A plot begins with a problem, an unfilled desire, an immediate or likely threat, an unanswered question. Whatever it is, it’s unresolved tension, an unfinished through-line in expectation of a resolution.

Tension, basically, is the risk underlying all the actions, reactions, scene outcomes that divert from the main story goal, that torture the journey from the beginning to the end. … Conflicts are the knots in the rope, tension is the tangles that pull it too tight to carry the weight without a shift in the grip

Thanks for sharing this, Cage. It’s well said.

What a wonderful insight to broaden objective and counter-aggression to intention and obstacle.

I’m one of those people who struggles with portraying genuine confrontation in a story. It literally makes me shudder or cringe to have to let the thoughts cross the stage of my mind.I have a friend who is a playwright. He has read my work and finds it too bland. His teachers said to “chase the protagonist up a tree and throw rocks at him”. To be fair, my friend and his wife have a tradition of watching the Die Hard movies for Christmas. That may be more telling about their perspective. 🙂

However, the intention/obstacle view makes me think of climbing a rock wall. The obstacle becomes the next foothold to keep things moving in the desired direction. That’s a good thing. Maybe this will also help me understand confrontation better, too. It is not just an anger driven burst of hurtfulness but can become a foothold for the protagonist despite the pain. The battle does not need to be a crushing defeat even though it may feel like it. Hope works. Life is deeper than pain.

Thanks for yet another great article.

I would study the kind of stories you enjoy reading/watching (not Die Hard 🙂 ) and examine how the characters in those stories get “rocks thrown at them.” The “bad” things that happen to characters in certain low-key stories really aren’t that bad at all. For example, I’m currently re-watching a BBC favorite, Lark Rise to Candleford , in which the worst things that happen to characters are honest words spoken in haste in an otherwise loving marriage or one character walking in on another teasingly imitating her. It’s real and sometimes deeply anguishing for the people involved, but it’s never brutal or violent–because that’s not the kind of story it is.

This was the podcast episode I needed to hear today.

Sometimes it seems like one of my writing groups only wants there to be terrible, high drama conflict in every single scene. That if a scene only has small obstacles, then the stakes aren’t high enough.

I think that having a string of small obstacles can create major detours for the character, though… and understatement is an art form all its own. I also think tension doesn’t need high drama to work. Tension can be found in quiet place like the weather, place details, word choices… craft level intentions I follow through on as the writer.

At any rate, I find a page-turning read for the kind of story I’m writing wholly unrealistic to the narrative; as a reader I would not like every single thing that happened to the character to lead to a cliffhanger/point of no return… that would be exhausting!

I have always said that every character’s journey has peaks and valleys, and not every story is an adventure tale, hard sci-fi war of worlds, or dramatic murder mystery. Quiet stories can also be POWERFUL (the new film, Power of the Dog, is a mind blower and super quiet).

Now I better understand why expanding the notion of conflict to include more than ginormous detours to intention is an approach that better serves the book I want to write (and read).

“Understatement is an art form all its own.”

Absolutely. I think so many of us, myself included, were “brought up” as writers to focus on high stakes and “conflict as confrontation” that it can be almost difficult to retrain ourselves to also weave in the art of character reaction as well as action.

I think you nailed it… we’re trained to amp things up, but then what happens next? THAT is where the gold is! ~TKS

It’s interesting that the “con-” in “conflict” means “together.”

Your article doesn’t distinguish Outer Conflict from Inner Conflict. Perhaps the character wants to light the stove, but also wants to save the last match to light a cigarette?

Great example!

I like to think of conflict as zero-sum dilemmas. To get something, they have to risk losing something. Or alternative, to get rid of something (a debt for instance) they have risk getting something else they don’t want, like humiliation in what they’ll do to discharge that debt.

Absolutely. When those scenarios are done well in fiction, they are electric , even when the stakes are relatively low.

Wow! I learned almost as much from the comments as from your post. I’m going to weigh in on the tension arguments.

You replied to Paula that you consider tension to be separate from conflict. I might be oversimplifying or misinterpreting what you said, but I consider tension to be more integral. For example, I’ll expand one of your points: conflict as obstacle to goal – through tension. The artful manipulation of tension, amping up or ratcheting down, changes a mechanically structured scene into a page turner you don’t want to put down. I think this holds true regardless of genre.

I interpreted Sara’s comment to show this where she changed the simple act of getting a glass of water into a health crisis brought on by a disability which prevents her from getting to the sink. The tension in the few sentences she wrote makes conflict/obstacle intriguing.

Can you have one without the other?

I think they’re causally related and definitely two sides of the same coin. But I do think you can have one without the other. Tension can presuppose a conflict that never happens (for example, dreading a confrontation with someone is resolved before it gets to that level). Tension *can* absolutely coexist with conflict, but often once the conflict is actually underway, then at least the tension that was involved in expecting the conflict will be resolved. There may be additional tension in wondering how the rest of the sequence will unfold, but the anticipation of the sequence itself will have dissipated (for example, nervous tension before a confrontation often disappears once the engagement actually begins).

As usual, K.M., you’ve taken abstract terms like ‘goal’ and ‘conflict’ and defined them in concrete ways and included a playbook so writers can immediately apply these concepts to their own WIP. Conflict as obstacle: now, this is something writers can use!

Honestly, I was beginning to worry that I didn’t get conflict at all but the Scene/ Sequel structure really deepened my understanding.

What I’m learning from you is how to break down an abstract writing term with different meanings that turn it into something more tangible.

Thanks for another illuminating article!

So glad it was useful, Linda!

Thank you for your insightful articles. Yes, conflict may be important to the plot-driven novel. Thirty years ago my first editor taught me the limitations of the plot-driven novel. It is entertaining, but lacks the life-changing quality of literary fiction. Since then I have sought to emulate classic, literary fiction. Pride and Prejudice is an example of character-driven literature. . . pretty much no plot. Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities is an example of thematic literature. As a writer of historical fiction, theme plays a strong role, as I am trying to teach the patterns of history so we can learn from history. Those patterns are best described as choices and consequences, or action and reaction. The plot automatically evolves from there. Thankfully, I must be getting something right, because the first two books of my historical Birthright trilogy are being prepared to be made into feature films.

It’s true there is a sliding scale of sorts, in that what we often term “plot-driven” fiction focuses more on the external story, while “character-driven” fiction focuses more the internal. But I think the idea that stories are one or the other–plot or character–is a false paradigm. Plot and character are part of a tandem (or, really, a triad with theme). One doesn’t truly exist in story without the other. Stories that we stereotypically think of as plot-driven—genre stories—can be deeply moving and even potentially life-changing for readers when they properly pair the external action with strong character arcs and deeply realized themes.

A definition of conflict… The hardening and softening of perspectives through life events. Maybe not the most practical definitioj for writing a novel, but a general one.

[…] Conflict in Fiction: What It Really Is and Why It’s Important to Plot […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• Novel Outlining
• Storytelling Lessons From Marvel

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Write Your Best Book

Check out my latest novel!

( affiliate link )

Free E-Book

Subscribe to Blog Updates

Subscribe to blog posts rss, sign up for k.m. weiland’s e-letter and get a free e-book, love helping writers become authors.

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2016 · Helping Writers Become Authors · Built by Varick Design

Conflict Definition

Internal conflict, external conflict, core conflict, character conflict, conflict and plot.

Conflict is one of the most important elements of the plot . As the plot is the larger world, conflict is its critical part. If there is no conflict, it means the plot has lost a critical component and may not have a good storyline. Missing conflict means missing the resolution. So, the readers would not be able to hold any interest in the plot or storyline having no conflict.

Elements of Conflict

Function of external conflict in literature.

The external conflict is mostly written as an outside narrative and has nothing to do with the internal conflict. It is relations of the characters that seriously impact the entire situation in the narrative. It acts as the foreign agent that impacts the protagonists, their thinking, their relations, and ultimately the results of their efforts. In case it comes into collusion with the antagonists, it hinders the efforts of the protagonists to come out of the existing conflicts or adverse situations.

Difference Between Conflict and Tension in Literature

What does conflict mean in a story, what is the central conflict or core conflict.

A story or a narrative could have several conflicts in case there are several characters or events. However, there is the main conflict that runs throughout the story until the end. This is called the central conflict or the core conflict upon which the success of the story hinges. Besides this conflict, there could be several small or minor conflicts going on between secondary characters, foils , or minor characters.

Examples of Conflict in Literature

Example #1: hamlet by william shakespeare.

“To be, or not to be – that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep…”

Hamlet ’s indecisiveness almost got everyone killed at the end of the play. The resolution came when he killed Claudius by assuming fake madness so that he would not be asked for any justification. In the same play, we find Hamlet engaged in an external conflict with his uncle Claudius.

Example #2: Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

Example #3: the lord of the flies by william golding.

The most straightforward type of external conflict is when a character in a story struggles against another character physically. In William Golding ’s novel The Lord of the Flies , for example, Ralph (the leader of the “good guys”) steadily comes into conflict with Jack – a bully who later forms a “tribe” of hunters. Jack and his tribe give in to their savage instinct and make attempts to hunt or kill the civilized batch of boys led by Ralph.

Example #4: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Function of conflict, synonyms of conflict, related posts:, post navigation.

• Link to facebook
• Link to linkedin
• Link to twitter
• Link to youtube
• Writing Tips

6 Types of Conflict in Literature

6-minute read

• 23rd August 2021

All good stories involve conflict. This drives the plot forward by giving characters challenges to overcome and goals to strive for. And resolving the conflict in a story is key to writing a satisfying ending. But how can an author add conflict to a story? And what forms can conflict take?

In this post, we’ll outline six common types of conflict in literature:

• Character vs. character, in which two (or more) characters are in conflict.
• Character vs. self, in which a character faces an internal struggle.
• Character vs. nature, in which the conflict is rooted in a natural phenomenon.
• Character vs. society, in which conflict comes from an unjust social climate.
• Character vs. technology, in which the conflict is rooted in science.
• Character vs. supernatural, in which a character faces supernatural forces.

To find out more about each of these types of conflict, read on.

1. Character vs. Character

Possibly the most common of all types of conflict found in literature is to have two (or more) characters opposed to one another. This typically occurs between a story’s protagonist and antagonist , though this is not always the case.

A writer can express conflict between characters with opposing goals in many ways, from a basic physical fight to complex emotional and political scheming. The key factor in all cases, though, is that the characters should be working toward opposing or conflicting goals, giving the protagonist a challenge to overcome.

For a nice clear example of this, we can look to Star Wars . The conflict that drives the story is between Luke Skywalker (the protagonist) and the rebels on one side, and Darth Vader (the antagonist) and the empire on the other.

2. Character vs. Self

Another common type of literary conflict involves a character’s internal struggle, usually regarding their emotions, personal shortcomings, or a moral dilemma.

This kind of conflict is great for developing a complex protagonist because they will need to develop and change over the course of the story to overcome their struggles. Returning to Luke Skywalker, for instance, we see how his character arc involves a struggle to gain control over his Jedi powers.

Internal conflict can be more complicated than this, though. A famous example of this is Shakespeare’s Hamlet , where the title character faces many internal struggles . Prince Hamlet vows to avenge his father by killing his uncle Claudius, for instance, but his sense of duty to his father conflicts with his moral sense of right and wrong, so he struggles with self-doubt and decision making.

3. Character vs. Nature

A slightly different type of conflict involves placing a character in opposition to the natural world. This often involves a struggle for survival against hostile wildlife, natural disasters, dangerous weather, or a post-apocalyptic landscape.

In Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea , for instance, the conflict that drives the plot and character development is largely one of man against nature. The protagonist, Santiago, must struggle against both the sea and the giant marlin he is trying to catch, and he barely survives the process.

4. Character vs. Society

Another way of adding conflict to a story is to have characters struggle against society. This might be a society that is notably unjust, prejudiced, or oppressive. Or it could simply be a struggle to break away from social norms.

Characters in this type of story are typically motivated to challenge their society based on their morals or their desire for happiness, freedom, justice, or love.

Find this useful?

Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox.

Possibly the most famous example of a story rooted in this kind of conflict is Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird . In this novel, Atticus Finch, a lawyer, takes on the case of a Black man who is wrongly accused of a crime, sticking true to his principles regardless of how those around him judge or criticize his actions.

5. Character vs. Technology

Some stories focus on characters coming into conflict with technology that has become too powerful or that is being used irresponsibly. This is often speculative (e.g., a science fiction story that focuses on the challenges of space travel), but it can also be about a conflict based on current technology.

Stories based on a technological conflict often use this to explore what it means to be human and what sets humans apart from technology and machines. In Frankenstein , for example, Mary Shelley drew on real-life scientific theories to tell a story about the potential risks and costs of technological progress.

6. Character vs. Supernatural

In this type of conflict, a character faces a force that science or logic can’t explain. This might be a supernatural entity of some kind, such as a ghost, monster, alien, etc. Or it may be something more abstract, such as fighting against fate itself.

Supernatural sources of conflict can create an uneven playing field, setting ordinary characters against a force they cannot understand to build tension or threat. But you can also have supernatural powers on both sides of a conflict.

Horror novels are a very good example of how supernatural conflict can work. In Stephen King’s It , for example, the protagonists are haunted by a supernatural being that preys on their fears. The story, therefore, hinges on the characters first trying to survive this threat, then eventually learning how to overcome it.

How to Use Conflict in a Story

All stories need at least one source of conflict, but most will include several.

To take Star Wars as an example again, we have character conflict (Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader), internal conflict (Luke’s struggle to learn Jedi powers), and social conflict (the rebellion against an evil empire).

These all contribute to the story and characterization in different ways. Likewise, even if you have a single source of conflict driving the main plot in a story, you can include other types of conflict via subplots (or secondary characters).

When writing a story, then, make sure to think about the plot, subplots, and characterization in terms of conflict, including:

• What types of conflict are most fitting for the themes of the story.
• How the conflict will drive the story forward by giving characters challenges to overcome (or by otherwise frustrating their progress).
• How different forms of conflict might be used in subplots.
• Whether character arcs are also rooted in conflict (internal or external).
• Whether and how the conflicts at the heart of your story are overcome.

And if you would like any more help with the writing or editing process, we have experts on hand 24/7. Upload a free writing sample today to find out more!

Share this article:

Post A New Comment

Got content that needs a quick turnaround? Let us polish your work. Explore our editorial business services.

5-minute read

Free Email Newsletter Template (2024)

Promoting a brand means sharing valuable insights to connect more deeply with your audience, and...

How to Write a Nonprofit Grant Proposal

If you’re seeking funding to support your charitable endeavors as a nonprofit organization, you’ll need...

9-minute read

How to Use Infographics to Boost Your Presentation

Is your content getting noticed? Capturing and maintaining an audience’s attention is a challenge when...

8-minute read

Why Interactive PDFs Are Better for Engagement

Are you looking to enhance engagement and captivate your audience through your professional documents? Interactive...

7-minute read

Seven Key Strategies for Voice Search Optimization

Voice search optimization is rapidly shaping the digital landscape, requiring content professionals to adapt their...

4-minute read

Five Creative Ways to Showcase Your Digital Portfolio

Are you a creative freelancer looking to make a lasting impression on potential clients or...

Make sure your writing is the best it can be with our expert English proofreading and editing.

• Translators
• Graphic Designers

Please enter the email address you used for your account. Your sign in information will be sent to your email address after it has been verified.

120 Story Conflict Ideas and Examples

Creating conflict in your story is essential for capturing your readers' interest and driving your narrative forward. In order to reveal character motivations and examine deeper meanings within your story, the protagonist must be presented with a challenge derived from conflict. Here are 120 story conflict ideas and examples based on the most common types of conflicts in fiction . From character versus the self to character versus the supernatural, we cover all the major literature conflicts and offer ideas that can get you writing right away.

Need more help? Try out HubSpot's AI Content Writer , the AI Story Generator , or our own Writing Prompt Generator for additional conflict ideas and examples.

Character vs. self

• A soldier copes with post-traumatic stress.
• A surgeon's hands fail him, becoming unsteady and threatening his career and his patients' lives.
• A young man, determined to become a musketeer, is consistently pulled into duels due to his pride.
• A criminal seeks to make amends for his past crimes as his life draws to a close.
• A person is overwhelmed by grief when his lover dies.
• A parent finds herself repeating a cycle of abuse and strives to break the cycle.
• A conqueror realizes that he has become a tyrant but struggles to change course.
• A serial killer struggles to justify his crimes.
• A rapper stutters each time he gets up in front of a crowd.
• An evil wizard finds it difficult to make friends.
• A drug dealer becomes a drug user.
• A devout Catholic doesn't want to admit to herself that she is gay.
• A student who is an exceptional singer wants to try out for the school musical but has stage fright.
• A man's girlfriend gets pregnant, but he isn't ready to be a father.
• A child blames himself for his parents' divorce.
• An old woman wishes to reconnect with her family but is slowly losing her memory.
• A woman wishes to travel the world but is too scared to leave her home.
• A man is rich beyond his wildest dreams but has become increasing lonely in the process.
• A man wishes to reconnect with his high school sweetheart but is ashamed to talk about what he has done with his life after graduation.
• A woman is about to walk down the aisle at her wedding when she realizes that she isn't ready to be married.

Character vs. character

• An arsonist evades a detective determined to capture him.
• A wedding planner is at odds with a bridezilla.
• Road rage pits two drivers against each other.
• An author is kept from publishing his book by a publisher who wants to ruin his career.
• An unhappy customer demands to speak to the manager.
• An android confronts its creator, demanding to be freed from indentured service.
• A bully steals a kid's lunch money every day.
• A referee at a football game wants a quarterback to get hurt during the game.
• A knight swears to seek vengeance against his tyrannical king.
• A sailor organizes a mutiny against his captain.
• A marriage ends in a bitter divorce.
• Two political candidates campaign against each other.
• Two college students have a crush on the same person.
• An entrepreneur discovers that her most trusted employee is building a competing business.
• A new mother and her mother-in-law battle over the "right way" to care for a new baby.
• A man confronts the person who assaulted him.
• A man seeks to find the murderer who killed his father.
• A mother is unable to connect with her rebellious daughter.
• A teacher is being harassed by a particularly unruly student.
• Representatives from two warring nations meet to start peace talks.

Character vs. society

• A Marxist revolutionary attempts to take down a mega-corporation.
• A real estate developer faces town opposition to his proposed subdivision.
• A person with evidence that ghosts exist must convince the world of his findings.
• A person attempts to stop a fledgling fascist political party from taking over the country.
• A Franciscan missionary attempts to Christianize the indigenous peoples of the New World.
• A teacher struggles to convince a town to provide more school funding.
• A man chains himself to a tree in order to prevent it from being cut down by a new building development.
• A doomsday prophet attempts to convince others that the end is near.
• A private investigator must convince the media that a popular elected official is corrupt.
• A Mormon woman decides she wants to become part of the priesthood.
• A town shuts down your restaurant due to a health code violation.
• A woman in 1918 fights for her right to vote.
• A regime declares that a kindergarten teacher is an enemy of the people.
• A man is ridiculed online after a video of him is turned into an embarrassing meme.
• A painter creates controversial art that galleries refuse to show.
• A grocery store owner fights gentrification in his neighborhood.
• A famous actress is harassed by the paparazzi.
• A man faces discrimination.
• A person is permanently banned from playing a MMORPG.
• An undercover spy is exposed and hunted down by several governments.

Character vs. nature

• After a plane crash, a person must survive on a desert island.
• An orphan must scrounge and survive in a far-future urban wasteland.
• A man tries to escape a cattle stampede.
• A hiker is bitten by a poisonous snake.
• A man wakes up to find himself buried to his neck in sand.
• A kayaker becomes lost at sea.
• An android struggles to find sources of power during a nuclear winter.
• A camper becomes lost in the woods.
• A dream-walker finds himself trapped inside his nightmare.
• A hiker encounters a grizzly bear protecting her two young cubs.
• A vampire seeks shelter as dawn breaks.
• A school crossing guard works during a monsoon.
• A person flees his town during a forest fire.
• A person is buried alive inside a coffin.
• A man accidentally turns down a flooded road during a rainstorm, and his car starts filling with water.
• A person races to escape an erupting volcano.
• A person slips through ice while crossing a frozen pond.
• A person seeks shelter during a hurricane.
• A farmer's land is plagued by locusts.
• A person climbs Mount Everest.

Character vs. technology

• A skydiver jumps out of a plane, but his parachute does not open.
• A person is stuck inside a virtual reality game.
• A man is unknowingly brainwashed by his cell phone.
• An interpreter is replaced by translation technology.
• A lifeguard at a wave pool finds that the equipment is malfunctioning.
• A criminal is being hunted down by a police drone.
• A space pirate finds himself marooned on a derelict craft and must repair the ship.
• A person must disarm a bomb before it explodes.
• A person must fight robots in gladiator combat.
• A person is chased by an artificially intelligent car.
• A man must initiate an EMP surge before toasters take over the world.
• A video rental store owner competes with the rise of streaming services.
• A computer programmer has to destroy the AI she created because it is too powerful.
• A man is stuck on a broken roller-coaster.
• A person must stop a worldwide computer virus.
• A woman travels across the country with a faulty GPS.
• A woman discovers that her boyfriend is an evil cyborg.
• An old man must figure out how to use his newly gifted cellphone to call his grandson.
• A repairman is unable to fix a refrigerator.
• A broken time machine sends a person to the wrong time period.

Character vs. supernatural

• A person is possessed by a demon.
• A clown finds that children are being turned into circus attractions.
• A person is being hunted by a werewolf during a camping trip.
• A knight must slay a dragon.
• A photographer captures monsters by trapping them in photographs.
• A person is haunted by a ghost.
• A man gives his girlfriend a vintage engagement ring, but she soon discovers that it carries a terrible curse.
• A sailor discovers that his wife is a siren.
• A person is tricked into swapping places with their reflection.
• A vampire seduces a woman.
• A mom must find her child, who has been kidnapped by goblins.
• A man flees a group of zombies.
• A warrior must fight a dark wizard.
• A woman must trap the fairies that infest her home.
• A witch turns a person into a goat.
• An archeologist awakens a mummy.
• A boy confronts the monster under his bed.
• A farmer must deal with cursed vegetables the size of his tractor.
• A man is lost in an ever-changing maze.
• An old man must evade the grim reaper for as long as he can.

How to Write an Essay on Conflict

How to Write a Motif Paper

In both real life and in fiction, conflict describes an enduring struggle between two opposing forces. Whether you're watching a cartoon or reading a serious literary tome, conflict is a key component of plot. Writing an essay on conflict requires a focus, clarity, and an understanding of the different types of conflict presented in a story.

Identify the Type of Conflict

While most people think of conflict as a fight between two characters, it can be categorized as internal or external or both. Conflict can present itself in four primary ways: externally, as man versus man, man versus society, or man versus nature and internally, as man versus self, as exemplified by the tragic struggle of Shakespeare’s Hamlet trying to avenge his father’s murder.

Find Supporting Evidence

Whether you’re analyzing a piece of literature or a clash between two nations, you’ll first need to identity the two opposing forces that comprise your central argument, and then find evidence to support your claim. For example, if your central conflict is man versus nature – think Sebastian Junger’s “The Perfect Storm” – you’ll want to find specific examples of where the sea rises up against the sailors. As with any analytical essay, analyzing conflicts requires you to look for specific quotes, phrases or parts of dialogue that reinforce your position.

Draft Your Thesis

Once you've figured out your protagonist and antagonist and the type of conflict to address in your essay, narrow your focus and write a concise thesis statement that states the central conflict you plan to address. For example, If you’re analyzing “man versus society” in your essay, such as when Atticus Finch fights against a racist society in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” you could state, "In 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' Harper Lee uses Atticus Finch’s defense of Tom Robinson to both illustrate and combat the rampant racism that has infected his Southern town." Your thesis statement will provide you with a road map for the rest of your paper and will help you decide upon the main points of your paper. Your thesis should be the very last sentence in your introduction.

Start Writing

Once you’ve found your examples and written your thesis, write your first draft. Remember to start your essay with a “hook” – a question, a quote, or a statistic, for example that will introduce the conflict you’ll be analyzing. Start each body paragraph with a topic sentence that states a main point, and then support that point with three or four of your examples from your initial research. Repeat this process for each remaining body paragraph. Within the body of the paper, address whether the conflict was resolved, and how. In your conclusion, summarize your main points and restate -- but don’t repeat verbatim -- your thesis.

Related Articles

How to Write a Thesis Statement for a Critical Lens Essay

How to Write a Narrative Essay

How to Write a Thesis Statement for "Robinson Crusoe"

How to write a rebuttal speech.

How to Write an Analysis Essay Regarding a Story

How to Do an In-Depth Analysis Essay

Tips on Writing an Explication Paper on a Short Story

How to Write a Controlling Idea Essay

• Purdue Owl: Literary Terms
• Shmoop: Literature Glossary

Jennifer Brozak earned her state teaching certificate in Secondary English and Communications from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., and her bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Pittsburgh. A former high school English teacher, Jennifer enjoys writing articles about parenting and education and has contributed to Reader's Digest, Mamapedia, Shmoop and more.

Types of Conflict In A Story: 25 Examples & Definitions

Last Updated on July 20, 2022 by Dr Sharon Baisil MD

Conflict is at the heart of any story, and without it, there is no tension, no suspense, and no drama. But what are the different types of conflict that can drive a plot? And what do they mean? This article defines and examples 15 different types of conflict, from man against nature to love triangle. Whether you’re a writer looking to spice up your plots or just someone who loves reading about drama, this article is for you!

What is conflict, and why does it matter in a story?

Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces within a story. It drives a plot and creates tension, and it makes readers want to read on so that they can figure out what happens next. There’s no drama or suspense without conflict, and stories feel dull and pointless.

Examples of Conflict in literature

#1. person vs. person.

The most common type of conflict is person vs. person or man against man; it’s the classic struggle between good and evil, right and wrong, light and dark. Some examples include:

• Aladdin (person vs. person) must defeat the evil Jafar to win the princess, Jasmine.

• Hamlet (person vs. person) – Hamlet must avenge his father’s murder by killing his uncle, Claudius.

• Romeo and Juliet (person vs. person) – Romeo and Juliet fight against their families to be together.

#2. Person vs. Self

The internal conflict between a person’s desires and external actions is known as a person vs. self. Some examples include:

• Hunger Games (person vs. self) – Katniss must learn to survive the Hunger Games while staying true to her morals and values.

• The Scarlet Letter (person vs. self) – Hester must choose between her desire for freedom and her responsibility to raise her daughter in this Puritan society.

• Frankenstein (person vs. self) – Dr. Frankenstein must cope with the consequences of his actions when he creates a monster that threatens the lives of everyone around him.

#3. Person vs. Supernatural

A person struggling to prevail against the supernatural is a person vs. supernatural conflict. Some examples include:

• Dracula (person vs. supernatural) – Jonathan Harker must find and kill Dracula before Mina or Lucy are attacked by this vampire.

• Carrie (person vs. supernatural) – Carrie has to fight against her telekinetic powers to survive high school.

• Pet Sematary (person vs. supernatural) – Louis Creed must learn to accept his daughter’s death, even though he knows there is a way for her to come back.

#4. Person vs. Society

When a society interferes with the main character’s personal goals or moral beliefs, you have person vs. society. Some examples include:

• The Great Gatsby (person vs. society) – Nick must decide if he wants to turn his back on the American dream or be sucked into this world of money and greed.

• To Kill a Mockingbird (person vs. society) – Atticus Finch has to defend Tom Robinson, an African-American man accused of raping a white woman, against public opinion and social norms.

#5. Person vs. Nature

The struggle between human beings and nature is person vs. nature, which usually involves surviving in the wilderness or coming across dangerous animals during their journey throughout life’s many challenges. Some examples include:

• King Kong (person vs. nature) – Ann Darrow is captured by King Kong and taken to his island, where she must find a way to escape.

• Castaway (person vs. nature) – Chuck Noland must survive on the deserted island alone with only Wilson for company.

• The Revenant (person vs. nature) – Hugh Glass goes up against nature to return home safely to his family.

#6. Person vs. Technology

When a character faces technology obstacles, you have a person vs. technology conflict. Some examples include:

• Jurassic Park (person vs. technology) – Ian Malcolm must survive against dinosaurs brought back to life by science and technology gone wrong.

• Metropolis (person vs. technology) – Freder must escape the city before its evil ruler, Joh Fredersen, uses an army of machines to destroy it.

• Wall-E (person vs. technology) – WALL-E must fight against a robot who wants to keep humans away from Earth for their protection.

#7. Person vs. Machines

When one character struggles against machines or computers, you have a person vs. machines conflict. Some examples include:

• The Terminator (person vs. machines ) – Kyle Reese has to survive against the cyborg sent back in time to kill his mother and prevent him from ever existing in the future.

• The Matrix (person vs. machines) – Neo has to discover what the matrix is and why he is living inside it if he wants to break free.

#8. Woman vs. woman

A woman struggling against another woman is a common theme in fiction , particularly in romance and psychological thrillers. Some examples include:

• Gone Girl (woman vs. woman) – Amy must learn the truth about her disappearance if she wants to escape from her psychotic twin sister.

• The Girl on the Train (woman vs. woman) – Rachel must figure out why Anna killed herself or watch as her husband falls for his killer’s twin sister.

#9. Person vs. God/Gods/Religion

When one character struggles against a religious deity, you have a person vs. god/gods conflict. Some examples include:

• Noah (person vs. god(s)) – Noah has been charged god to build an ark before a great flood destroys the Earth.

• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (person vs. god(s)) – Kylo Ren has to fight against his dark side and become a better person to take down Snoke and save Rey.

#10. Love triangle

A classic in every fiction genre, a love triangle is when three characters are romantically linked and fight against each other. Some examples include:

• The Great Gatsby (love triangle) – Daisy has to decide between her cheating husband Tom and her ex-lover, Gatsby.

• The Hunger Games (love triangle) – Katniss has to choose between Peeta and Gale if she wants her life back.

#11. Love square

A love square is when four characters are romantically involved and fight for each other’s affections. Some examples include:

• Twilight (love square) – Bella has to choose between Edward, her vampire lover; Jacob, her werewolf friend; and Renesmee, the child she gave birth to after having sex with both men in Breaking Dawn.

When two groups of people are at war because of political tension, greed, or another cause, you have a war conflict. Some examples include:

• War for the Planet of the Apes (war) – The apes must fight against an army that wants to destroy their civilization because they see them as a threat.

A criminal running from the law or police after committing a crime is part of this type of conflict. Some examples include:

• The Godfather (crime) – Michael Corleone has to escape the mob life and go into hiding if he ever wants to regain his family’s legacy by taking down Don Barzini with his son Fredo’s help.

#14. Rivalry

When the protagonist and antagonist compete against one another, whether for a position, a job, or even the love of a third character, you have a rivalry conflict. Some examples include:

• Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone (rivalry) – Harry is forced to face off against Draco Malfoy in Quidditch matches as part of his first year at Hogwarts.

• The Hunger Games (rivalry) – The tributes are forced to compete against each other in the arena until only one victor remains.

#15. Conflict of wills

This type of conflict occurs when the protagonist and antagonist disagree and fight over an idea or concept rather than a person. Some examples include:

• Lord of the Flies (conflict of wills) – Ralph and Jack must separate their differences and cooperate to save themselves from the approaching threat.

• Wuthering Heights (conflict of wills) – Heathcliff and Catherine have to navigate through a web of deceit, anger, and social class if they ever want to be with each other again.

#15. Conflict of duty and desires

Similar to conflict of wills, this type of conflict occurs when a character is torn between doing what they are supposed to do and doing what they want to do. Some examples include:

• Les Misérables (conflict of duty and desires) – Jean Valjean must find a way to escape his past as he tries to give his daughter Cosette a happy life.

• Gone with the Wind (conflict of duty and desires) – Scarlett O’Hara must decide between staying loyal to her home or trying to survive by joining the Confederate army.

Conflict of duty and desires is distinct from conflict of will because, even if one does what they are supposed to do, they still have to struggle internally.

#16. Conflict of races/ species

This type of external conflict occurs when a character is forced to fight against – or joins forces with – a person from another race, species, or group. Some examples include:

• The Hobbit (conflict of races/species) – Bilbo helps the dwarves reclaim their home from Smaug while simultaneously fulfilling his own quest to help them get their gold back.

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (conflict of races/species) – Jen Yu fights against the forces that killed her mother while trying to protect the life of a man she’s fallen in love with.

#17. Conflict of gender and sex

When one character must fight against societal expectations and deal with gender and sex norms, you have a conflict of gender and sex. Some examples include:

• Mulan (conflict of gender and sex) – Mulan disguises herself as a man to fight in the Chinese army while trying to protect her father’s life.

• The Handmaid’s Tale (conflict of gender and sex) – Offred is one of many handmaids indentured to the commander and his wife, struggling against her submissive nature every day.

#18. Conflict of generations

When one generation must fight to protect another or show how they are different, you have a conflict of generations. Some examples include:

• The Land Before Time (conflict of generations) – Littlefoot and his friends must escape the Great Valley to save their families from the Sharptooth.

• Teen Wolf (conflict of generations) – Scott has to learn how to control his werewolf abilities to protect himself and his best friend, Stiles.

#19. Personal conflict

This type of self conflict occurs when characters face a problem within themselves rather than with another person or thing. Some examples include:

• The Awakening (personal conflict) – Edna spends the entire story trying to reconcile her duty towards others and her need for self-fulfillment.

• My Sister’s Keeper (personal conflict) – Anna must decide between allowing her family to use her body parts to save her elder sister, Kate, from leukemia or letting go and accepting the consequences.

#20. Social conflict

This type of conflict occurs when a character is forced to fight against – or join forces with – the society they live in. Some examples include:

• 1984 (social conflict) – Winston must fight for personal freedom while also fighting the power of Big Brother and the Party.

• A Raisin in the Sun (social conflict) – Mama must decide between settling for the life of poverty she’s known all her life or fighting against societal norms to give her children a brighter future.

#21. Cultural conflict

This type of conflict is when a character must fight against the cultural norms they are brought up in. Some examples include:

• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (cultural conflict) – Eliza flees with her son across the ice to escape their owner, while Uncle Tom refuses to leave his good master.

• The Joy Luck Club (cultural conflict) – Jing-mei tries to figure out how she fits in with the traditional Chinese family, even though she’s resentful of their “old world” values.

#22. Physical conflict

When a character is forced to fight another person or thing that poses a physical threat, you have a story of physical conflict. Some examples include:

• The Shining (physical conflict) – Jack Torrance seeks revenge on the family that took away his job, even as he tries to protect them from being possessed by a ghost.

• War of the Worlds (physical conflict) – Ray and his family fight for their lives against vicious aliens who want nothing more than to destroy humanity.

#23. Psychological conflicts

This type of conflict occurs when a character must fight against the mind games and illusions employed by another person or thing. Some examples include:

• Fight Club (psychological conflict) – The Narrator fights not only his own mind but also Tyler Durden’s to regain control over his life.

• A Clockwork Orange (psychological conflict) – Alex is forced by the state to take drugs that make him ill at ease and obsessed with sex and violence.

#24. Conflict of words

When characters are fighting through their words instead of physical force – either through dialogue or an argument – you have a conflict of words. Some examples include:

• Romeo and Juliet (conflict of words) – Juliet is forced to make a choice between her family’s wishes and her love for Romeo.

• Hamlet (conflict of words) – Hamlet must choose whether or not he will kill his uncle to get revenge for his father’s death, the king.

#25. Intellectual conflicts

This type of conflict occurs when two characters fight through logic rather than force. Some examples include:

• Frankenstein (intellectual conflict) – Dr. Frankenstein must fight against his monster to defend humanity from the evil creature.

• The Stranger (intellectual conflict) – Meursault is forced to choose between protecting himself or caring for the man he killed.

Conflict is one of the most important elements in a story. Without it, there is no tension, suspense, or drama – and readers won’t be able to connect with your characters on an emotional level. But without knowing how to write about different types of conflict and what they mean, you might end up doing more harm than good for your stories . These twenty-five examples of different types of conflict will help you transform your plot into something readers can deeply connect with.

So what do you think? What other types of conflict are there? Do you agree with these definitions, or is there another way to look at them? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Most Read Articles in 2023:

Hi, I am a doctor by profession, but I love writing and publishing ebooks. I have self-published 3 ebooks which have sold over 100,000 copies. I am featured in Healthline, Entrepreneur, and in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology blog.

Whether you’re a busy professional or an aspiring author with a day job, there’s no time like now to start publishing your ebook! If you are new to this world or if you are seeking help because your book isn’t selling as well as it should be – don’t worry! You can find here resources, tips, and tricks on what works best and what doesn’t work at all.

In this blog, I will help you to pick up the right tools and resources to make your ebook a best seller.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

September C. Fawkes - Editor, Writer, Instructor

Write better with an editor.

• The Triarchy Method of Story
• Editing Services
• Writing Tip Index
• Recommended Books
• Testimonials
• Glossary of Writing Terms
• Lifestyle Tools
• Conferences & Conventions

Writing Tips

My philosophy, monday, july 12, 2021, the 8 types of conflict (with examples, possible resolutions, and stakes).

Every story needs a character in a setting engaged in conflict. But sometimes writers get hyper-focused on one or two types of conflict, and never explore or include the other types. This can make a story feel flat or repetitive (similar to what I touched on in my plotlines post ). Sometimes the writer senses that there is something wrong, so tries to add more to the story, but they end up either adding more to the same conflict, or simply adding the same type  of conflict. Like always, I'm never going to say you can't ever  do this, but just that it's almost always more satisfying if you put in a variety. Variety gives a story more depth and breadth--and also keeps things interesting.

Conflict is key in moving plot, character arc, and theme forward--in other words, the whole story forward. No conflict = no story. If there is no struggle, the character never grows. If there is no opposing argument, the theme never carries its weight. If there is no antagonistic force, no climax is earned. 

Early on in my writing journey, I was only introduced to five types of conflict. And indeed you can find arguments about what does and does not count as a conflict type (and some types can overlap). But today I've put together a comprehensive list of the most prevalent categories--and I think just about any conflict will fit within one of them . I'll also share a few things about each along the way. 

1. Person vs. Self

At the most intimate level, we have person vs. self conflicts. In regards to plotlines, you may have heard this called the "inner journey." 

There is usually a flaw, weakness, or misbelief the protagonist and/or another key character has and is struggling to overcome, which helps make up the character's arc. Often at some point, the character struggles with conflicting belief systems. For example, in A Quiet Place, Part II , Emmett struggles between believing people aren't worth saving vs. believing people are worth saving. As he comes to believe the latter, he completes his character arc.

Any key character may struggle with doubt, assertiveness, confidence, costs, conflicting wants, or something else. They may be in conflict with themselves about what to do or who to believe. Even characters who don't arc drastically can have internal conflicts. 

And of course, you can have an internal conflict that isn't fleshed out into a full plotline, but may be an incident. A character may have a brief internal struggle about whether on not to trust someone they've just met, and that may only last a scene. 

Person vs. self conflicts are great at making a story feel personal and deep.   They are often the most empathetic conflicts.

Frodo caught between wanting to destroy The Ring, and being tempted to keep The Ring.

Simba struggling between believing he is meant to be king vs. turning his back on being king. 

Jean Valjean trying to decide whether he should reveal his identity and save a man from going into prison in his place.

Possible Methods of Resolution:

Having a personal revelation (an epiphany) Making a personal choice Taking a personal action Giving into a personal weakness Overcoming a personal weakness Learning new information

Common Stakes (Negative vs. Positive):

Psychological death  vs. life, or a better, healthier psychological life Loss of identity or sense of self vs. clearer sense of identity or a better sense of self Becoming something undesirable vs. becoming who they want to be Becoming unfit to do what is necessary vs. gaining the power and wherewithal to complete the task Coming to terms with a painful reality about one's self vs. fully accepting one's self How one's changing nature affects others (or the environment) around the character negatively or positively Having to live with painful regrets vs. having the peace of overcoming Loss of power (over self, or the internal conflict affecting an outside power) vs. gaining power (self-mastery, or the internal conflicting providing an external power)

2. Person vs. Person

In person vs. person conflicts, the character is (you guessed it) in conflict with another person. This is often what people think of, when they think of "conflict."

If your antagonist is a person, then your protagonist will be in conflict with him or her. Usually person vs. person conflicts mean that the characters have different goals or at least different methods for obtaining a goal. In Harry Potter , Harry and Voldemort are in conflict because they want opposing outcomes and have different views of the Wizarding World. But sometimes Harry also gets in conflict with Hermione about what methods they should use to reach their goals.

Most often the protagonist and antagonist will be embodying opposing belief systems, so their person vs. person conflict is an example of these two belief systems clashing and trying to claim dominance ( which plays into theme ). 

And usually, the protagonist and their ally (or allies) will clash about what is the best way  to move forward in the plot.

These are just rules of thumb, of course, and the person vs. person conflict can also be as brief as a character getting into a heated debate with a stranger on the street. It can come across as obvious as a fistfight or as subtle as a smirk. Many times, the conflict will be expressed through subtext . 

In most stories, the protagonist will have many person vs. person conflicts, with different people.

Batman fighting The Joker.

Jim and Pam arguing about how to deal with Michael in The Office.

Belle turning down Gaston's continual pursuits in Beauty and the Beast.

Defeating the other person physically, intellectually, or emotionally Agreeing to disagree Being defeated by the other person physically, intellectually, or emotionally Coming to a compromise One character comes to embrace the other character's perspective, so they are on the same side Going separate ways

Death (psychological, professional, or physical) vs. life Physically or emotional pain and injury vs. Physical or emotional health and safety How the outcome will affect the character's future lifestyle negatively or positively Opportunities (gained or lost) Plot goal lost or achieved  How the outcome will affect loved ones or the world negatively or positively

3. Person vs. Nature

Here, a person is in conflict with nature. This is a struggle that usually comes from the setting. It could be surviving in the wilderness after a plane crash, dealing with disease, an earthquake, starvation, or a bear. Person vs. nature conflicts show characters at the mercy of Mother Nature; this often emphasizes a lack of control.  Despite his best efforts, a person may be blindsided by illness or an earthquake. Some disasters can't be prevented, only coped with. We can try to prepare, or deal with the outcome, but we often can't simply stop nature.

Unlike most other types of conflict, there (arguably) isn't really anyone or anything to blame . Nature is indifferent. We can't really blame the clouds for not raining, or the ocean for the tsunami that wiped out our homes. Even if someone puts us in that situation, ultimately, it's Mother Nature that deals the blow.  Without a clear entity to blame, this sometimes leads people to find someone or something else to blame, to take their hurt out on. 

Person vs. nature conflicts can be a great way to illustrate unfairness in the human experience. They also tend to reveal human tendencies, as characters typically find themselves in desperate situations.

In Hidalgo , Hopkins and his horse must weather a sandstorm. 

In  Hatchett  by Gary Paulsen, Brian must survive in the wilderness after a plane crash. 

In The Martian , Mark Watney must survive on Mars.

Armed with proper preparation (ex. having no clean water but having brought iodine) Gaining knowledge (ex. discovering how to cure a disease) Gaining experience and skill (ex. figuring out how to spear fish for food) Finding ways to properly cope with the situation (ex. going under a desk during an earthquake) Help from others, being rescued Suffering or death

Death vs. life Physical pain and suffering vs. comfort and safety How death or suffering of the character will affect other characters, the world, or plot vs. how their physical safety affects those things How lack of resources or stamina impede progress vs. having resources and stamina improve progress Loss of valuable time vs. gaining valuable time Loss of valuable resources (ex. a fire burning down a house or food becoming contaminated) vs. gaining valuable resources (ex. finding shelter or clean drinking water) Exposing others to illness or danger vs. limited or preventing exposure

4. Person vs. Society

A "society" in a story is any type of collective. It may be as big as a government or as small as a school club. It's a group of people who work as a unit. The character may be in conflict with a culture, tradition, or an established law. It may be a conflict with a lifestyle or a taboo. 

Societal conflicts are less personal than one-on-one conflicts. Often the character is pitted against ideologies that can't be overcome directly or quickly. For example, in The Hunger Games , Katniss is pitted against Panem's government--it has laws, traditions, and ideologies that she can't defeat with sheer force. These things have to be undermined or challenged through smaller actions.

Other times, the collective may work more as a "person"--just multiple people joined together as one. For example, a character may need to overcome a group of bullies who all heckle him together. The fact there are multiple, makes the bullying worse, but doesn't add much more to the dynamics outside of that. 

The character will be different from the collective in a significant way, and the collective will usually try to get the character to bend to their will. Because the opposing force is a collective, it often feels like the odds are stacked against the character.

Worth noting is that it's not unusual for a particular character to become the "face" of the society. For example, President Snow becomes the face of Panem's government, even though from the series' beginning to the series' end, the true antagonist is the society (one of the reasons I think Mockingjay is often misunderstood 😉).

It's also possible to develop a society vs. society conflict in a story. It may be the protagonist is part of a collective that is going head-to-head with an opposing collective. 

Katniss ultimately refusing to be a piece in the Hunger Games

Lyra fighting for truth in a society that wants to keep humankind ignorant in His Dark Materials

Hamilton fighting his way to the top in Hamilton

Helping the society have a revelation (epiphany) Destroying, dismantling, or punishing the collective Convincing society that it is wrong Persuading the collective to allow the character to pursue her goal A compromise with the society Educating society on a better way forward Being forced into submission or defeated by society Eventually siding with society Being exiled from the society or put to death Being persuaded by society to give up

Death (psychological, professional, or physical) vs. life Loss of identity and individuality vs. stronger sense of identity and individuality Affecting society (negatively or positively) by refusing to conform Society being corrupt vs. being enlightened Individual being corrupt vs. being enlightened Believing and perpetuating harmful ideologies and narratives vs. helpful and accurate ones Imprisonment vs. freedom Inviting danger to loved ones vs. safety for loved ones

5. Person vs. God

In modern times, the person vs. god conflict often gets left off lists. It is usually combined with or even replaced by the person vs. fate conflict. But because fate conflicts don't necessarily have gods, and god conflicts don't necessarily include fate, I've decided to put them in separate categories.

One may argue that the person vs. god conflict actually fits into the other categories , and I think that's fair. At the same time, it feels distinct from many conflicts, so I'm giving it its own space. In the end, just remember that these categories are meant to help us gain better discernment, which is certainly my intention. 

Here, a person is in conflict with a god, or even the  God. It may be a person trying to outsmart or even kill a god, or it may be a person struggling to reconcile with God.

In His Dark Materials , Lord Asriel is in conflict with the Authority, which is seen as God. In Princess Mononoke , several characters aim to obtain the head of a forest god in order to bring immortality to the emporer. 

A character may face a personal, internal conflict with God, believing God wants her to do something she does not want to do, for example. Or maybe she is angry at God. Or seeks forgiveness from God. In Les Mis , Jean Valjean hopes to be found worthy of God's mercy. 

Other characters may be in conflict with the concept  of God. Maybe their society believes in a concept of God that the character knows isn't true. (For this reason and others, I'd argue that even an atheist character can have a person vs. god conflict.)

God may seem to retaliate in the form of nature. Jonah was swallowed by a whale. 

With all that said, one may argue that Lord Asriel and the Authority fit into a person vs. person conflict. The forest god fits into a person vs. supernatural conflict. Jean Valjean could arguably fit into a person vs. self conflict. Fighting the concept of a god could fit in a person vs. society conflict. And being swallowed by a whale may be argued to be a nature conflict. 

Nonetheless, this is a category of conflict that goes far back, and I'd be remiss to leave it off. Besides, one can't help but debate if Jean Valjean's relationship with God is really a conflict with himself. I mean, if one believes in a god, and believes to be able to communicate with that god--would that even be considered a conflict with the self? In any case, I still feel person vs. god has a place.

In Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, the antagonist is seen as a god and the key characters want to destroy him.

In  His Dark Materials , Lord Asriel aims to bring about the downfall of the Authority (God).

In Les Mis , Jean Valjean hopes to find mercy from God. 

A god is defeated The character is defeated by a god The character eventually joins the same side as God God is revealed to not actually be a god The god is persuaded by the character The character gains a better understanding of God The character ignores, dismisses, or stops believing in God

Spiritual death and damnation vs. paradise and redemption; eternal misery vs. eternal glory Physical death vs. physical life Cloudy sense of self and purpose vs. divine clarity of one's self and purpose Remaining in ignorance vs. gaining knowledge and wisdom How the outcome of the conflict affects others, society, or the world, negatively or positively Imprisonment (mental, spiritual, or physical) vs. freedom  Losing meaning in life vs. finding meaning in life

6. Person vs. Fate

I feel out of all the conflict types, this one is most often misunderstood.  

Traditionally, person vs. fate is seen as a part of person vs. god, but as I mentioned above, not all fate conflicts actually include gods. In fact, most of those around today, don't. 

Here, the character is in conflict with a destiny. Something is predetermined or foreordained and the character is struggling with that. Certainly the event can come from the will of the gods, but it doesn't have to.  In fantasy, this information often comes from a prophecy. In horror, this may be a kind of curse. In Final Destination , the characters are trying to cheat their deaths--they are fated to die. It can even play into the concept of the universe having a particular order or law (perhaps dharma ?), that must be upheld or fulfilled (like the Circle of Life). 

If you want to broaden the concept further, the "law" or destiny need not be otherworldly. For example, a man on death row arguably has a predetermined fate. This has a slightly different tone than what is traditionally placed in this category, but still fits within it, more or less. One may also broaden the category to look at things such as terminal illnesses or arranged marriages. Even in these cases, there is a sense of a "higher" power being in control (even if that power isn't otherworldly).

The character may openly take action to fight against fate, or the character may have more of a personal struggle with either accepting fate or the costs of the fate. Often characters who fight against fate are punished (and the fate portrayed as inevitable), but it's possible to write a story where that is depicted positively and/or where they succeed in altering fate. With this conflict type, consider whether or not the fate is altered, whether that is a good or bad thing, and whether the character ultimately embraces or rejects fate. Are they punished or rewarded for that? Was the effort worth it?

Usually person vs. fate conflicts emphasizes free will within strict limitations. While some writers choose to ultimately emphasize a lack of free will, others choose to emphasize the power of free will. Free will may alter fate, or the character may realize they have the power to  choose  how to face and accept an inevitable fate.

Sometimes it's interesting to explore the origins of the "destiny." In Dr. Faustus , Dr. Faustus sells his soul to the devil to gain all knowledge--he only has himself to blame for his inevitable fate. Was gaining all knowledge worth an eternity in hell?

Oedipus Rex is prophesied to marry his mother and kill his father. And in his effort to keep this prophecy from happening, he fulfills it. 

In The Lion King , Simba is destined to be the king to fulfill the Circle of Life, but rejects that idea in the second half of the middle.

In Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince , Harry struggles with accepting the prophecy that was revealed in the previous book.

The character unknowingly brings about his fate, in his efforts to thwart it The character eventually embraces her destiny The character successfully alters fate Another character intervenes, bringing about the destined outcome Fulfilling a prophecy in an unexpected way

Death vs. life Disrupting divine order vs. upholding divine order; or chaos vs. order Lack of choices vs. power of choices Experiencing limitations vs. power and opportunities How the outcome affects society and the world, negatively and positively How the behaviors and outcome affect one's soul (ex. ultimately going to hell vs. going to heaven)

7. Person vs. the Supernatural

A character may be in conflict with something otherworldly . This may be magic, a ghost, a vampire, or a portal--pretty much anything speculative. This type of conflict can seem to overlap with person vs. person conflict. For example, a character may be in conflict with a werewolf. It may also seem to overlap with person vs. nature conflict , such as a character trying to heal a magical ailment. 

This conflict type often emphasizes a struggle with the unknown. Characters may have to learn how the supernatural functions in order to overcome the conflict.  Getting the necessary information typically proves difficult because the character has few resources to turn to. Usually there is a mystery, to some degree. 

Mulder and Scully taking on the paranormal in The X-Files .

In The Ghostbusters , characters take on ghosts.

In Stranger Things , characters must confront creatures of The Upside Down. 

Defeating the supernatural element Being defeated by the supernatural element Learning to live with the supernatural element Limiting the influence of the supernatural element Making one's self inaccessible to the supernatural element

Death (psychological, professional, or physical) vs. life Physically or emotional pain and injury vs. Physical or emotional health and safety How the outcome will affect the character's future lifestyle negatively or positively Opportunities (gained or lost) Plot goal lost or achieved  How the outcome will affect loved ones or the world negatively or positively Remaining in chaotic ignorance vs. gaining valuable knowledge

Frankly, all kinds of stakes could fit here, depending on how the supernatural manifests.

8. Person vs. Technology

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

In Oblivion , it is revealed that an alien artificial intelligence is working to acquire Earth's resources and destroy humanity. 

In Ralph Breaks the Internet , the characters must learn how to navigate and use the internet to save Sugar Rush.

Learning how to use the technology Defeating or disabling the technology Overcoming technology with other (or new) technology Overcoming technology with human heart, intellect, or physicality Being defeated by technology

Death (psychological, professional, physical, or sometimes spiritual) vs. life Loss of humanity (literally or figuratively) vs. preservation of humanity Being dependent (on technology) vs. being self-reliant Danger in exploration vs. safety in what is familiar and simple Having one's view of reality altered vs. coming to the truth about reality Improvement in life and society vs. decay in life and society The potential of the technology (negative and positive)

As you work on your stories, check to make sure you have a variety of conflicts. Obviously some types work better for certain genres than others . You probably wouldn't want to put a supernatural conflict in a romance, for example (unless of course, you are writing a paranormal romance, then definitely do that). 

Something important to keep in mind is that conflicts are usually most effective when they have a sense of cohesion and progression. A story that has a bunch of conflicts that aren't connected or don't move anything forward, is scarcely a story at all . Usually conflicts build in intensity, which moves the plot forward. If a conflict doesn't directly move a plotline forward, then it should usually move the character arc or the theme forward--by the impact it has on the character or the thematic topic it explores. 

If you need help brainstorming more specific types of conflict, check out the conflict thesaurus on Writers Helping Writers . 

Announcement: Hello everyone! If you are an email subscriber, you might have noticed your email looks a little different 🤔. I switched my feed services to follow.it . Follow.it also lets you change your delivery channels--for example, you can get my tips delivered to you through Telegram instead of email. They will soon have more options up, such as WhatsApp, FB Messenger, WeChat and more. (If you want to change your delivery method for my tips, go here , and scroll down to "Output Channels.") If you aren't already subscribed, what are you waiting for? 😉 When you subscribe, you get a free copy of my booklet, Core Principles of Crafting Protagonists , so sign up here . 

Happy writing!

3 comments:

I've written stories with some of these conflicts but doubted myself because I couldn't really see stakes - good to see them pointed out. Stakes don't have to be life or death.

Hi Tim, Yes, it's so easy to get stuck on thinking everything must be life or death to be powerful. Definitely some things are worse than death. And they also don't have to be so intense to be meaningful and significant.

thats helpful

I love comments :)

Popular Writing Tips

Helpful Links

Search articles.

September C. Fawkes

Let's be Social

Get writing tips by email:

Editing Testimonials

Find more of my tips on ...

Recommended for Writers!

• Recommended Reading
• Conferences & Conventions
• Icon Credit

What Is Conflict in A Story? [Definition, Types, and Examples]

Key Takeaways:

Conflict in a story is the central challenge or set of obstacles that the characters must face. It drives the story forward, creating tension, shaping the plot, and often reflects the deeper themes or messages the author wants to convey.

Click here to jump directly to the best examples of conflict in literature and films!

Conflict is an essential part of any story. It is what drives the plot and keeps the reader engaged.

But what is conflict in a story? What are the different types? What are good conflict examples? And how can you use conflict to create a powerful novel or screenplay ?

Because conflict is the driver for a story , I always take time to carefully consider how to best introduce it, build it up, and resolve it in the most satisfactory way possible.

When I wrote Bare Knuckle Days , an 80’s coming-of-age drama that won the Grand Prize in the FilmMakers International Screenplay Awards, I was faced with the challenge of two parallel storylines, each with its own central conflict, and how to weave them together into the main plot.

That’s the importance of conflict. Without it, you don’t really have a story. But do it right, and you have something special.

In this article, we will explore these questions and more. So let’s get started!

What is Conflict in a Story?

Conflict is the engine that drives a narrative forward. It is the source of tension and drama and propels the characters in the story toward a resolution to the story’s main problems.

Without conflict, a story would simply be a series of static events with no forward momentum!

The most fundamental form of conflict in literature is the struggle between opposing forces, whether two individuals, two groups, or even two opposing ideas.

This driving force can take many forms, from a physical battle to a clash of wills, but the result is always the same: conflict creates tension, and this keeps readers engaged.

Conflict drives change, and change drives the story!

So next time you’re stuck for ideas for compelling fiction, remember: all you need is a little conflict to get the story moving!

Why is Conflict Important?

Conflict is essential in a story because it provides suspense, drives the plot, and develops the characters. Without conflict, the reader would have no reason to keep turning the page.

Conflict allows the writer to explore complex topics and create sympathy for the characters. The writer can show how the central characters grow and change in the story’s resolution by making those characters face challenges.

In addition, conflict can add humor to a story and make it more relatable. When readers see relatable characters struggling with the same problems they do, it can create a sense of connection.

Ideally, this necessary element should be presented as an internal and external conflict whereby the main character must face physical and psychological challenges.

Ultimately, a major conflict is essential to any good story. It keeps the reader engaged and allows the writer to create an emotionally complex tale with deeper meaning.

How To Write Conflict in a Story

1: Make the conflict complex

To create a truly compelling story, you’re going to need to create complex and multi-layered conflict. The story becomes more unpredictable when you introduce multiple points of conflict. Readers of your story will be eager to see how the characters resolve their various issues.

A thought-provoking conflict has the potential to demonstrate the nuances of the human experience. By avoiding the portrayal of characters as purely good or evil, a complex conflict reminds us that most people are capable of both virtuous and questionable actions.

An intriguing conflict has the potential to showcase the intricacies of the human experience!

2: Make the conflict active

One of the most significant mistakes writers make is to allow their story’s conflict to remain passive. In other words, the characters are not actively pursuing their goals but are instead reacting to events as they unfold. This can result in a storyline that feels stagnant and uninspired.

To avoid this problem, ensure that your characters always strive towards something in their own lives. They should be proactive in their quest to overcome the obstacles in their path, and their decisions should always drive the plot forward.

3: Make the conflict believable

A story’s conflict must be believable and realistic for readers to invest in the characters and the plot. Even if we’re talking about aliens or supernatural conflicts, realism comes from the protagonist’s decisions and how they implement them.

If the conflict is contrived or unbelievable, readers will have difficulty suspending their disbelief and immersing themselves in the story.

There are a few key elements that you can focus on to make your story’s conflict more believable.

• First, consider the motivation of your characters. Why do they want what they want? What is driving them to take action? Make sure that their motivation is clear and understandable.
• Second, think about the stakes involved in the conflict. What is at stake for your characters? How much is riding on the outcome of the conflict? What do they stand to lose? Higher stakes will make the conflict more intense and exciting.
• Finally, ensure that the conflict is appropriate for the setting and genre of your story. A kitchen gunfight might be realistic for an action story in a dark house, but it would be out of place in a historical romance set in Regency England.

4: Make sure the conflict serves the story!

As a writer, it’s important to ensure that your story’s conflict serves the story. In other words, the conflict should be an integral part of the plot and the fictional world you have built, not just something happening to the characters.

The conflict should drive the story forward and provide tension and suspense. It should also be resolved satisfyingly, even if (or especially if!) the protagonist fails in their initial quest.

If the conflict in your story doesn’t serve its purpose, it can come across as contrived and forced. So, take a moment to consider the conflict and make sure it serves the larger purpose of your story.

5: Resolve your conflict without clichés

When addressing conflicts in your story, it can be tempting to rely on clichés or stereotypes as an easy way out. However, it is important to steer clear of these shortcuts. Instead, strive for more realistic and practical solutions.

Not only will cliched shortcuts make your story feel formulaic and unoriginal, but they can also alienate readers who don’t identify with the clichés or stereotypes being used.

Instead, resolve the conflict (or opposing force) in a way that feels true to the characters and the world you’ve created. This will require more work, but creating a unique story will ultimately pay off.

The Role of Conflict in a Story

Conflict is the engine that drives the plot of the story forward and gives a tale its shape and purpose. In short, it is the struggle between two opposing forces, whether as a character’s internal battle with themselves or an epic clash between armies.

The introduction of a story is typically where the first hint of conflict is introduced. From there, the conflict begins to grow and develop (during the inciting incident and rising action sections of the story) until it reaches the climax , the point at which the tension is at its highest and the outcome of the conflict is uncertain.

After the climax is the falling action , and finally, the story ends with the actual resolution , the moment when everything is wrapped up, and the world enters its new normal.

In short, conflict in literature is essential to any good story. It gives the story purpose and keeps things interesting for the characters and the reader.

How to Use AI To Write Conflict

AI (artificial intelligence) story-generator tools  have come a long way. If you are struggling with good ideas for your story’s conflict, try using one of these programs for ideas! While AI story generators cannot yet write complete stories without humans, they can make story writing easier.

To see how well this works using Sudowrite, I inputted the following sentence into the program:

Sudowrite gave me three options for possible story directions and I was able to choose which one I wanted to pursue. I chose one about a creepy temple, and this is what was written for me:

As you can see, using AI can be a shortcut to creating fantastic ideas for conflict in a story. It can also be used for other aspects of storytelling, such as describing characters, plot points, and events. I have used Sudowrite and Jasper.ai for AI storytelling, and Sudowrite is my favorite – click the link to check out my full review!

Types of Conflict

While conflict is often thought of as a battlefield, the truth is that there are many different types of conflict. In a story, this can take the form of inner struggles within a character’s mind, external obstacles they face, opposing goals between characters, or the challenges of relationships and interpersonal conflict.

Each type of conflict brings challenges and complications, adding depth and intrigue to the story.

Internal Conflict

One of the most common types of conflict is internal conflict (aka ‘character vs. self’ or ‘man vs. self’).

This inner turmoil can manifest itself in many ways, but it always boils down to the central characters trying to overcome the mental and emotional obstacles in their own lives. It drives the characters forward, giving them a goal to strive for and a reason to keep going.

For example, a character might be struggling with an addiction, trying to break free from an unhealthy relationship, working through trauma, or overcoming a personal flaw stemming from doubt, fear, or guilt. At its heart, it is always about the character’s struggle with themselves.

This type of conflict can be challenging to resolve, as the character must overcome their own demons before moving on. It is also a common theme because it is something that everyone can relate to on some level. We all have inner demons that we must face, and watching characters do the same can be inspiring and cathartic.

Whatever the case, internal conflict gives the story depth and makes the characters more relatable and sympathetic. It reminds us that we are not alone in our inner struggles and that facing them head-on and even overcoming them is possible.

External Conflict

Man vs. man (aka character vs. character).

Many literary works explore the theme of man vs. man (or character vs. character conflict), which arises when two characters directly oppose each other. This can be due to rivalries, differences in opinion, or simply because two characters are after the same goal.

It can take the form of a physical confrontation, as in the case of a boxing match, or a more psychological battle, such as between two rivals vying for the same position at work.

These conflicts can be some of the most intriguing to read about, as they often lead to unexpected alliances and betrayals. Often, the stakes are high, and both parties fight for something they believe is worth fighting for.

The theme of man vs. man is often seen in stories about sports or competition, as it pits two individuals against each other in a test of skill and strength.

However, it can also be found in tales of love and hate, where two people are at odds with each other due to jealousy or some other strong emotion. In either case, the conflict between the two parties is usually intense and may have far-reaching consequences.

While this theme is certainly not unique to literature, it is a common thread that runs through many stories and poems. It is an age-old conflict that fascinates readers as it brings out the best and worst in human nature.

Man vs. Nature (AKA Character vs. Nature)

Throughout literature, there are countless stories of man pitted against nature (AKA character vs. nature).

This is when a character must contend with external natural forces beyond their control, such as bad weather, natural disasters, hostile environments, dangerous animals, or even their own physical limitations. These challenges can test a character’s resolve and force them to adapt to survive.

This type of conflict in literature often creates a sense of hopelessness and despair as the protagonist struggles against overwhelming odds.

However, they can also be used to showcase the strength of the human spirit as the protagonist battles against all odds to prevail. Whether used to create suspense or inspire hope, there is a common thread of humanity trying to triumph over the forces of nature.

Perhaps the most iconic example is the story of Robinson Crusoe , who is stranded on a deserted island and must use all his ingenuity and strength to survive.

We see a similar tale in The Call of the Wild , where a dog must learn to fend for himself in the wilderness. Even in more modern literature, such as The Hunger Games , we see the characters battling against other humans and the elements of nature itself.

Ultimately, these stories resonate with us because they speak to our deepest fears and desires. We all need to feel safe and secure, and when we read about someone overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds, it gives us hope that we can do the same.

At its core, it is all about hope, courage, and determination in the face of natural adversity.

Man vs. Society (Character vs. Society)

Man vs. society (AKA character vs. society) conflict occurs when the protagonist challenges an unjust social system or authority figure. Often, the protagonist fights against an entire group or institution, whether a government, a corporation, a school, or even the general public.

This type of story conflict can add an element of suspense and drama as the reader wonders if the protagonist will be able to overcome such overwhelming odds.

In addition, man vs. society conflicts can also be used to explore social issues and get the reader thinking about more significant problems in the world.

For example, a story about a character fighting against a corrupt government could raise awareness about political corruption or social justice.

Man vs. society conflict is a versatile narrative tool that can add suspense, drama, and depth to a story while simultaneously creating a commentary about the injustices and shortcomings of our own local and global institutions.

Man vs. Supernatural (Character vs. Supernatural)

In a Man vs. Supernatural story, the protagonist squares up against unnatural or alien forces beyond their control. This could be anything from monsters and ghosts to witches and deities. In short, anything not of our natural Earth.

The key is that the opponent is significantly more powerful than the protagonist, and the protagonist often has to rely on a combination of skill, knowledge, strength of will, and courage to prevail rather than brute force.

Supernatural conflict usually leads to a very suspenseful and exciting story as the reader wonders whether or not the protagonist will be able to overcome the odds of facing something that cannot be defeated by conventional means.

Man vs. Supernatural stories are often thrilling tales of good vs. evil that keep readers glued to the page.

Examples of Conflict in Stories

Internal conflict: character vs. self.

In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye , Holden Caulfield is a prime example of an individual experiencing internal conflict.

As a teenager, he is caught between childhood and adulthood, innocence and maturity. This is evident in his relationships with people, his observations of the world around him, and his own thoughts and emotions. For Holden, everything seems phony, and he longs for something real and honest.

Yet, at the same time, he is afraid of change and struggles to let go of his childhood. This conflict within himself ultimately leads to his breakdown.

Holden’s story is a resonant example of the internal conflict many people also experience as they move through real life.

External: Character vs. Character

In most stories, the protagonist is pitted against an antagonist, creating an external conflict. However, sometimes the conflict is between two characters who are equally matched. This can create a tense and suspenseful story as readers wonder who will come out on top.

A classic example of character vs. character conflict can be found in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies . In the book, a group of boys are stranded on an island and must fend for themselves. The conflict arises when two boys, Ralph and Jack, start vying for power.

The two are evenly matched in ability and charisma, making it impossible to predict who will emerge victorious.

External: Character vs. Nature

Character vs. nature conflict occurs when a character struggles against an outside force of nature.

This can take many forms, one of which is characters battling the elements, such as in The Perfect Storm , where a group of fishermen must fight against a raging storm at sea;

Another is when the main characters struggle against a natural disaster, such as in The Impossible , where a family must survive after being caught in a devastating tsunami;

Another form of character vs. nature is when the characters battle dangerous animals, as in The Revenant , where an 1820s fur trapper must fight for his life after being attacked by a grizzly bear.

Whatever form it takes, this type of struggle provides an opportunity for characters to showcase their strength and determination in the face of natural external forces.

External: Character vs. Society

In Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird , the main character, Atticus Finch, is in conflict with the community in which he lives.

Atticus is a well-respected lawyer and moral man who believes in justice and equality for all, regardless of race. However, his town is racially divided, and the people are overwhelmingly prejudiced. This conflict is evident throughout the novel but is perhaps most apparent in the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of a crime he did not commit.

Despite knowing that Robinson will almost certainly be found guilty, Atticus persists in fighting for his innocence. In doing so, he risks everything – his reputation, safety, and even his life – but never gives in.

The external conflict between Atticus and society highlights the injustice of racism and underscores the importance of standing up for what is right despite overwhelming odds.

External: Character vs. Supernatural

In Stephen King’s The Shining , the central conflict is between the protagonist, Jack Torrance, and the supernatural forces present in the Overlook Hotel.

Jack is a writer who has been struggling with alcoholism and anger issues, and he takes a job as the winter caretaker of the hotel to try to get away from it all and focus on his work. However, it quickly becomes apparent that something is not right at the Overlook.

The hotel seems to have a mind of its own, and it starts to drive Jack insane. He becomes increasingly violent and eventually tries to kill his wife and son. In the end, the family can escape, thanks mainly to Jack taking his own life in a final stand against the ghosts that have taken over the hotel.

Final Thoughts

Conflict is an integral part of any story. It creates tension and suspense and makes the reader want to keep turning the pages.

To create conflict that works, you need to understand what it is and how to use it effectively.

The tips we’ve shared should help you write compelling conflict that will keep your readers engaged and help you become a better writer!

Common Questions (FAQs)

How do you identify conflict in a story.

Look for scenes where the characters are struggling to achieve a goal. This can be an external struggle, such as overcoming an obstacle, or an internal struggle, such as dealing with a personal issue. Conflict can also arise when two characters have different goals or values. For example, if one character wants to leave a relationship but the other wants to stay, this can create tension and conflict.

What makes a good conflict in a story?

A good conflict in a story is relatable to the reader and elicits an emotional response. It should also be believable and make sense within the story’s context. Another essential aspect when you create conflict is that it should be active rather than passive. Finally, a good conflict should have a clear resolution, preferably satisfying for the reader.

What is moral conflict?

Moral conflict is an important element of storytelling as it immerses readers in a protagonist’s dilemmas. It refers to a character’s struggle between two opposing moral principles, such as truth and loyalty or lawfulness and mercy. This conflict can arise within the character, causing them to make difficult decisions. Alternatively, it can come from outside sources – people or institutions asking them to perform an action against their beliefs. Writing moral conflict adds depth to characters and effectively displays their principles.

Interested in learning more about great storytelling ? Check out these other helpful articles:

What is Pacing in a Story? Tips for Story Pacing for Writers

What are the 7 Elements of a Story? [Essentials to Include!]

How to Write a Character Backstory: Guide for Fiction Writers

Filmmaker, Author, Actor and Story Consultant

Neil Chase is an award-winning, produced screenwriter, independent filmmaker, professional actor, and author of the horror-western novel Iron Dogs. His latest feature film is an apocalyptic thriller called Spin The Wheel.

Neil has been featured on Celtx, No Film School, Script Revolution, Raindance, The Write Practice, Lifewire, and MSN.com, and his work has won awards from Script Summit, ScreamFest, FilmQuest and Cinequest (among others).

Neil believes that all writers have the potential to create great work. His passion is helping writers find their voice and develop their skills so that they can create stories that are entertaining and meaningful. If you’re ready to take your writing to the next level, he's here to help!

Similar Posts

The Innocent Archetype [In-Depth Guide For Storytellers!]

How to Use a Character Development Worksheet [With Free Download!]

How to Start a Story: 11+ Simple & Proven Strategies for Authors

The Everyman Archetype: An In-Depth Guide For Storytellers

Common Themes in Literature List: 15+ With Examples!

How to Write a Montage in a Script: The Ultimate Guide

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Privacy Overview
• Strictly Necessary Cookies

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Story in Literary Fiction

• Literary Fictional Story
• Character in Literary Fictional Story
• Narration of Literary Stories
• Desire and Motivation
• Credibility
• Improving Dialogue
• Characterization Improves Dialogue, Motivates Plot, and Enhances Theme
• Techniques for Excellence in Creating Character in Literary Fiction
• How to Change Fiction Writing Style
• Author’s Attitudes
• How Literary Stories Go Wrong
• Preparing to Write the Great Literary Story
• The Anatomy of a Wannabe Literary Fiction Writer
• Victims as Characters in Literary Fiction
• Information and Literary Story Structure
• 1st person POV in Literary Story
• Top Story/Bottom Story
• Strong Voice and Attention to Time
• Humor and Fiction
• Emotional Complexity in Literary Fiction

Conflict in Literary Fiction

• What Exactly Is a Character-Based Plot?
• Writing in Scene: A Staple for Reader Engagement in Fiction
• Creating Story World (setting) in Literary Fiction
• Perception in Literary Fiction: A Challenge for Better Narration
• Creating Quality Characters in Literary Fiction
• Mastering the Power of a Literary Fictional Story
• Understanding Empathy
• Q & A On Learning to Think About Narration in Literary Fiction To Write Better Stories
• Incorporating Rhythm in Prose Style
• Fiction Writer’s Manual
• A Simple Life
• Gatemouth Willie Brown on Guitar
• The Wreck of the Amtrak’s Silver Service
• The Indelible Myth
• Inside the Matryoshka
• Speaking of the Dead
• The Necklace
• The Golden Flute
• The Amish Girl
• Dr. Greiner’s Day in Court
• The Cart Boy
• The War of the Flies
• Father Ryan
• Suchin’s Escape
• The Stonecutter
• Facing Grace with Gloria
• The Perennial Student
• The Activist
• Curse of a Lonely Heart
• The Miracle of Madame Villard
• On the Road to Yazoo City
• Captain Withers’s Wife
• The Thirteen Nudes of Ernest Goings
• Crossing Over
• Lost Papers
• Sister Carrie
• Graphic story: Homunculus
• Graphic Story: Reddog
• mp3 Short Stories
• The Surgeon’s Wife
• The Spirit of Want
• Guardian of Deceit
• Art Gallery
• Tour of Duty
• Short Fiction of William H. Coles 2000-2016
• The Art of Creating Story
• Illustrated Short Fiction of William H. Coles 2000-2016
• Facing Grace with Gloria and other Stories
• The Necklace and Other Stories
• The Short Fiction of William H. Coles 2001-2011
• The Illustrated Fiction of William H. Coles 2000-2012
• Lee K. Abbott
• Steve Almond
• John Biguenet
• Robert Olen Butler
• Ron Carlson
• Lan Samantha Chang
• D’Ambrosio
• Peter Ho Davies
• Jonathan Dee
• Fred Leebron
• Michael Malone
• Rebecca McClanahan
• Josh Neufeld / Sari Wilson
• Richard North Patterson
• Michael Ray
• Jim Shepard
• Rob Spillman
• Kirby Wilkins
• Susan Yeagley / Kevin Nealon
• Geoffrey Becker
• Julia Glass
• Lori Ostlund
• Lydia Peelle
• Andrew Porter
• Sylvia D. Torti
• Workshop & Tutorial
• Story in Fiction Today
• About Things Literary
• Opening Lines
• Women Authors
• About Style and the Classics
• The Fiction Well
• SILF Gallery
• Book Reviews
• Narration in Literary Fiction: Making the Right Choices, by William H. Coles
• How Humor Works in Fiction, by William H. Coles
• Books on Writing
• Stories for Study
• SILF – Audio mp3 Download
• Books about Writing
• Book Candy TV
• Workshops – I. Choosing a workshop
• Workshops – II. Making the Experience Valuable
• Workshops – III. How to Critique a Manuscript
• Workshops – IV. Workshops and Literary Agents
• Workshops: V. Top-Ten Rules for Fiction Workshops

by William H. Coles

Conflict is the essence of drama, and all literary fiction requires drama to please the reader and to succeed as a story. At the story core, conflict is the momentum of happening and change and is crucial on all levels for delivering information and building characterization .  Conflict is the source of change that engage s a reader, and in a story, conflict and action do what description and telling of feelings and situations do not.

The best storytellers seem to have a knack for engaging the reader, bringing them inside the skin of the story. Readers are carried through a story with a succession of related action scenes.  However, many contemporary authors don’t seem to have the ability or desire to do this for their readers. There is the increasing habit of storytelling about me—my thoughts, my life, my accomplishments–often under the guise of fiction. But for lasting success–a story that will carry into the future of great literature as an art form–authors should strive for most of their story ideas to be expressed in creative fiction with drama and conflict, and not as authorial catharsis.  It is the way to write great stories.

In life everything seems to move toward inertia. Throw a rock into the air, it falls to the ground and lies motionless.  Pour water into a glass, it flows and settles and becomes motionless.  We are born, we are active, but we are always moving toward the solitude and inaction of motionless death. In fiction, writers succumb to this natural tendency to write stories that seek a state of inertia, a state where nothing happens. This is especially prominent when a story relies on narrative description of past events–description and exposition in place of dramatic action scenes. Inertia is avoided by in-scene and in-the-moment action, by learning to instill conflict in narrative that must press on to resolution or no resolution, and by assuring an overall conflict embedded in all aspects of the prose. 

Here are ways conflict can be embedded in prose.

1. Write lively dialogue.

Conflict in dialogue is essential. Even snippets of dialogue should have elements that interest a reader.

Almost never is this type of interchange useful:

“Do you plan to join the church?” “Yes, I think I will.”

This is flat, uninteresting dialogue. This type of dialogue is so disruptive to flow, it must be revised or omitted.  The information, if necessary, can be provided in a few words of narrative: I decided to join the church .

In order to keep the story moving, lively dialogue with conflict is needed.  In the examples below (overwritten for emphasis), note how the use of conflict helps establish the emotion of the dramatic present and enhance characterization. It also allows, when appropriate to situation and character, subtle back story information to be layered into the story writing. Here are some alternatives.

“Do you plan to join the church?” “It’s none of your damn business”

“Do you plan to join the church?” “The church never did anything for me; why should I join?”

“Do you plan to join the church?” “Your piety irritates me.”

“Do you plan to join the church?” “Will you join too?”

2. Be dramatic in the storytelling.

Drama is storytelling and in fiction, dramatic elements are necessary to move the reader sentence by sentence, idea by idea.  And drama provides the tension. Conflict is established and readers, especially if they sympathize (not necessarily like)  the character, become  tense about what will happen. In literary fiction, withholding information to evoke tension is not often useful. When the author and the narrator know who killed the parson, tension is in the discovery, and the process of discovery, of the murderer. It’s mechanical and may often seem contrived. In literary fiction, contrivance is not effective. Characters and their decisions and foibles drive the plot. All plot information essential to the story is usually delivered when needed (not withheld for tension). Now readers become involved in what will happen to a character they care about. And they will discover tension in a series of logically structured and logically interrelated scenes filled with conflict in the language, in the syntax, among the characters, and in plotting.

3. Use language with conflict and energy.

The beauty of language is enhanced when motion and conflict can be incorporated in the prose to maintain a reader’s interest word by word. In writing, the reader’s mind is active in creating and forming images. Basically, authors don’t create still-life images, they paint portraits that intrigue and engage the reader with scenes that live on the page. There was a bird on a limb. Static. The flying bird settled on the limb. Improved with some action. The olive branch quivered when the claws of the sparrow grasped the sturdy twig. A lot of energy.

A.  Word choice

Some objects as nouns have life and motion, some don’t.

Sparrow.  Nail.  Butterfly. Comet.  Ocean.   Atom.   Building.  Pebble.  Tadpole.   Vacuum.  Hurricane.   Skeleton.  Flame.  Puddle.

Find those that are animate or inanimate, moving or motionless.  Imagine writing prose while being aware of the quality of the word in regard to movement. Life is movement and change—and the conflict it implies. It should be obvious how word choice can improve the reader interest in well-crafted prose.

Description of animate things, rather than inanimate, is always better for story in fiction. In general, description (and exposition) should always be buried in action for maximum effect.

B. Modifiers

When an inanimate object is on the page, writers often need to prevent the burned-out effect inanimate objects create. Some inanimate objects, with modification, can imply motion (and impending conflict). Here are examples:

hand/trembling hand; knife/serrated knife; car/race car; gun/Gattling gun, etc.

Action can be implied with similar effects by changing general to specific.

Soil›››muck; Meteor›››shooting star; Spice›››cilantro; Horse›››thoroughbred; Painting›››hunt scene.

And in the language, it is always wise to strive for motion when the story motion and pacing allow (i.e., don’t drivel, write only what counts for the story). Compare:

He sat in the chair.

This might be improved, if space permits. This has action, imagery, and information.

He put his hands back for support, bent his knees, and painfully lowered himself into the wheelchair.

C. Syntax and conflict.

Note the way syntax, and how ideas are delivered, can change the energy of a sentence, often by clarifying the conflict.

A basic message: Grandpa killed Granny

At the funeral and for years after, grandfather never mentioned the day he hammered granny to her grave. Comment, The construction—past, distance, telling–gives a fait accompli tone that might not serve well.

Grandfather killed our granny. Comment, A telling.  No action.

No one was witness and we had to imagine Grandfather standing over the bed and smashing Granny’s skull with a hammer before she woke. Comment, Action filtered through character’s imagination but action and conflict present because of in-the-moment construction.

Grandpa stared at the hammer as Granny’s blood began to congeal with hair and fragments of skull bone. Comment, There is in-scene action with tension present (What happened? Is she dead?)

After he killed Granny with a hammer, Grandfather washed imagined blood off his hands every hour of the day until the skin was raw. Comment, In-scene action.  Implied emotion of guilt.  Movement. Internal conflict revealed.

We thought Grandfather was an intelligent man, well educated, famous in his own right, but we discovered his major flaw the night we discovered Granny murdered in her bed and Grandfather laughing hysterically a few feet away. Comment, Telling. Lots of information. The only action is description of the past with Grandfather laughing.  Basically unsuccessful sentence. Energy potential dissipated by complicated construction.

In-scene, in-the-moment action, rather than telling, invigorates the language. Note also how changing position and content of phrases changes emphasis. In general, the basic noun/verb structure that comes last in sentence or phrase construction is often strongest in effect. Note too, the more general, rather than specific, the sentence, the less effective it is. Complex constructions, when compared to simple terse constructions, lose energy and impact.

3. Build Emotional conflict

Drama and emotions.

In a good story, emotions of characters never match exactly. Even in a love story, the love interests need to be unequal–at least one never sure if this is love, or one loaded with guilt from a previous affair, etc. These out of sync emotions are what will add dramatic energy to the scene writing. It is, after all, conflict, and conflict is drama. Keep emotions changing and flowing in nature and intensity, and always relate the emotion to the core need or desire of the character.

Internal conflict examples

Love/hate Sympathy/blame Fear/sentimentality Pliant/resistant Understanding/unyielding

4. Use humor as source of change and conflict.

All humor requires a change, disparity, surprise, that cause a change in perception that activates a humor response. Humor can express conflict. Ridicule, a type of humor, is an example. Woman sports commentator to on-air, older-man colleague: “What was it like, Cliffy, when you played tennis . . . you know . . . in the age of the dinosaurs, when the technology couldn’t give us the speed of the ball on serve.” Here the attempt of humor by ridiculing the age difference implies competitive conflict in the relationship, and says that the woman commentator may be unreasonable and insecure (character development). An example of embedded conflict in the language illuminated in a humor attempt.

Conflict in storytelling and in the prose used for storytelling in literary fiction is essential. There are unlimited ways to discover the use of conflict and action. Writers improve by developing a style based on conflict and action to please readers through character development and reader engagement in the story. Persistent practice in writing dramatic prose is necessary throughout a writer’s career.

Click here to donate

Read other Essays by William H. Coles

Leave a comment cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

12 thoughts on “ Conflict in Literary Fiction ”

May I know when did you post it?

This essay was first published on Sep 8, 2009.

I love this site

I LIKE THIS SITE TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

You are so late for this

I LIKE THIS SITE TOO

I LIKE THIS SITE

Conflict is Drama , up to how much it is true.

I came here originally to gain some understanding on the essence of a conflict to provide backstory for a research paper over the conflicts in Hamlet, but in the end this not only helped me further my analysis and argument, it also strengthened my writing of all kinds of literature.

Pingback: Assignment 6: Create a character-based fictional scene | Literary Fiction Workshop

Excellent article, but applicable to any writer who seeks to improve the art and craft of storytelling, not just literary writers.

School of Writing, Literature, and Film

• BA in English
• BA in Creative Writing
• About Film Studies
• Film Faculty
• Minor in Film Studies
• Film Studies at Work
• Minor in English
• Minor in Writing
• Minor in Applied Journalism
• Scientific, Technical, and Professional Communication Certificate
• Academic Advising
• Student Resources
• Scholarships
• MA in English
• MFA in Creative Writing
• Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies (MAIS)
• Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing
• Undergraduate Course Descriptions
• Graduate Course Descriptions
• Faculty & Staff Directory
• Faculty by Fields of Focus
• Promoting Your Research
• 2024 Spring Newsletter
• Commitment to DEI
• Twitter News Feed
• 2022 Spring Newsletter
• OSU - University of Warsaw Faculty Exchange Program
• SWLF Media Channel
• Student Work
• View All Events
• The Stone Award
• Conference for Antiracist Teaching, Language and Assessment
• Continuing Education
• Alumni Notes
• Featured Alumni
• Donor Information
• Support SWLF

The CLA websites are currently under construction and may not reflect the most current information until the end of the Fall Term.

What is Conflict in Literature? || Oregon State Guide to Literary Terms

"what is conflict in literature": a literary guide for english students and teachers.

View the Full Series: The Oregon State Guide to Literary Terms

• Guide to Literary Terms
• BA in English Degree
• BA in Creative Writing Degree
• Oregon State Admissions Info

What is Conflict in Literature? Transcript (English and Spanish Subtitles Available in Video, Click HERE for Spanish Transcript)

By J.T. Bushnell , Novelist and Oregon State University Senior Instructor of Literature

25 March 2021

“Tension is the mother of fiction,” says the writer and writing teacher Jerome Stern. I think he’s right. Tension is that tingle of anticipation you feel when you’re reading something great, the interest and excitement that keeps you turning pages. But where does tension come from?

Let’s do a little mental experiment. Let’s say you’re talking to your favorite fifteen-year-old girl. What would your reaction be if she said, Oh my gosh, you have to hear this story! So, the other day I stayed home while my parents and sister went to a picnic, right? So I washed my hair and then laid in the sun to let it dry, and I dozed off for a while. Then I got hot and went inside and listened to some music.

Now, if you’re like most of us, your reaction would probably be, Uh, I thought you said you had a story. Did you hear something disturbing in the music? Did something happen to your hair? Did you get locked out, or caught in a rainstorm, or maybe attacked by a swarm of murder hornets? Where’s the story?

In a story we want something to happen, usually something bad. Until it does, we’re not very interested. Tension might be the mother of fiction, but problems are the mother of tension.

In fiction, those problems are called conflict. More precisely, conflict means thwarted, endangered, or opposing desire . It’s basically when a character wants something but something else gets in the way. Maybe the character wants a thing but can’t get it. Maybe the character has something but is in danger of losing it. Maybe the character wants two things that are incompatible. Whatever its form, though, it gets our attention.

conflict_definition.jpg

Remember our favorite fifteen-year-old girl, for example? Well let’s modify her story a little. Let’s say that while she’s listening to music, a car she doesn’t recognize comes down her driveway. Let’s say the driver is a boy she noticed the night before at the local teen hangout, the one who fingered an X into the air and said, “Gonna get you, baby.” Let’s say he flirts with her and tries to coax her into the car, and she starts to realize he’s actually a grown man dressed up like a teenager. So is the guy in the passenger seat, who eventually asks if he should go yank out the phone cable. The first guy tells him to shut up, then very sweetly threatens to set her house on fire and hurt her family if she doesn’t come get in his car. Still boring?

That’s the summary of a story called “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, and it’s bristling with tension. Why? Because of all the conflict! The girl wants the men to leave, but that desire is thwarted. She wants to stay inside her house, but that desire is endangered. She wants to protect herself, but she also wants to protect her family, and if she believes the man in the car (which she shouldn’t), she can’t have both. She also wants other things that are thwarted, endangered, or opposed, and this is the web of conflict that produces both the action of the story and, ultimately, its deeper meaning. It creates the tension, it launches the plot, and it evokes the themes . Quite simply, without the conflicts, there is no story.

To understand what’s interesting about a story, then, you only have to keep an eye out for what the characters want, and then what gets in the way of it. Those questions will lead you through the story’s branches and into its beating heart.

Want to cite this?

MLA Citation: Bushnell, J.T.. "What is a Conflict?" Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms, 25 Mar. 2021, Oregon State University, https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-conflict. Accessed [insert date].

Further Resources for Teachers and Students

Check out the following free (OER) PowerPoint and MS Word activities to solidify your understanding of conflict in a story

literary_terms_conflict.pptx

conflict_activity.docx

Interested in more video lessons? View the full series:

The oregon state guide to english literary terms, contact info.

Email: [email protected]

College of Liberal Arts Student Services 214 Bexell Hall 541-737-0561

Deans Office 200 Bexell Hall 541-737-4582

Corvallis, OR 97331-8600

liberalartsosu liberalartsosu liberalartsosu liberalartsosu CLA LinkedIn

• Dean's Office
• Faculty & Staff Resources
• Research Support
• Featured Stories
• Undergraduate Students
• Transfer Students
• Graduate Students
• Career Services
• Internships
• Financial Aid
• Honors Student Profiles
• Degrees and Programs
• Centers and Initiatives
• School of Communication
• School of History, Philosophy and Religion
• School of Language, Culture and Society
• School of Psychological Science
• School of Public Policy
• School of Visual, Performing and Design Arts
• School of Writing, Literature and Film
• Give to CLA

• Ask LitCharts AI
• Discussion Question Generator
• Essay Prompt Generator
• Quiz Question Generator

• Literature Guides
• Poetry Guides
• Shakespeare Translations
• Literary Terms

External Conflict

External Conflict Definition

What is external conflict? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

An external conflict is a problem, antagonism, or struggle that takes place between a character and an outside force. External conflict drives the action of a plot forward.

Some additional key details about external conflict:

• In an external conflict, a character may be struggling against another character, the natural world, or society.
• External conflict is defined in contrast to  internal conflict , in which the struggle is between a character and themselves—for example, between selfish and selfless impulses.
• External and internal conflicts aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, they can often play out simultaneously.

A Closer Look at External Conflict

Conflict is an essential element of any plot : in most works of literature, one or more characters are struggling to solve a problem, defeat an enemy, win an achievement, or make some kind of change in the world. Conflict motivates characters to take action, and that's what keeps readers engaged. When the protagonist of a story is working to solve a problem or defeat an enemy, readers naturally want to know what will happen next: Does the character we're rooting for win or lose? If they find challenges on the way to their goal, will they overcome them? And how will they do it? Though many works of literature focus on a central conflict, a single story can include more than one conflict or problem, and in works of literature that feature multiple storylines with different protagonists, several sets of characters may be involved in separate ongoing conflicts. 

Three Types of External Conflict

Literary critics usually sub-divide external conflict into the three categories: character vs. character, character vs. nature, and character vs. society. 

• Character vs. Character: In this type of conflict, the protagonist, or main character, faces off with an antagonist who must be defeated. Classic fairy tales and myths often fall into this category: the miller's daughter outsmarts Rumpelstiltskin; Cinderella is freed from the household of her evil step-mother; Theseus slays the minotaur. 
• Character vs. Nature: Here, the character's enemy is not another person, but instead the natural world. Often, the protagonist is stranded in the wilderness, threatened by a storm or blizzard, or struck by a terrible disease, and must fight for their life. Many adventure stories center on a character vs. nature conflict. Robinson Crusoe  is one such example: the protagonist, Robinson Crusoe, is shipwrecked on an island and must find a way to survive.  
• Character vs. Society: In these stories, the protagonist questions and perhaps rebels against the social norms of their community or of society at large. Most works of literature that focus on a character vs. society conflict are intended to encourage readers to examine how their own society functions in unjust ways. Dystopian novels like Margaret Atwood's  The Handmaid's Tale   feature this kind of conflict, as do stories that portray injustice (such as Native Son , Invisible Man , or Trifles ).

It's important to remember that a single story can, and often does, include several types of conflict. For example, one character might have a conflict with another character and a broader conflict with society.

External vs. Internal Conflict

While this guide focuses on external conflict, it's good to know that there's another type of conflict that you may also encounter in literature: internal conflict. Unlike external conflict, internal conflict does  not take place between a character and an entity that is separate from that character. Instead, an internal conflict is a struggle that takes place within a character, usually surrounding the question of how to behave or what action to take next. Here's an example:

• In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck faces all sorts of character vs. character conflicts during the course of his adventures, and more broadly could be said to experience a character vs. society conflict as he is traveling with an escaped slave, Jim, in the slave-holding South. But Huck's deepest conflict is internal, as he must struggle with his own morality (his natural sense of morality and the morality instilled in him by other Southerners) about his efforts to help Jim gain freedom. Huck has to struggle against his inner belief that helping Jim is wrong or sinful and find his deeper conviction that helping his friend is, in fact, the right thing to do. 

External Conflict Examples

External conflict, of one sort or another, is essential to most of the stories people tell, no matter the genre.

External Conflict in  Romeo & Juliet  

Shakespeare's play  Romeo & Juliet  recounts the tragic love story of a couple who are caught up in a larger feud between their families. The feud results in both character vs. character external conflict and character vs. society external conflict. 

At the character vs. character level, Romeo's relationship with Juliet puts him into conflict with Juliet's hot-headed cousin Tybalt. Eventually, Tybalt kills Romeo's friend Mercutio, and Romeo kills Tybalt in response. Similarly, Juliet's relationship with Romeo puts her into external conflict with her father, who expects her total obedience to his wishes and threatens to disown her when he doesn't get it. 

But all of these character vs. character external conflicts also have aspects of character vs. society conflicts. Romeo's love for Juliet causes him to question the very nature of the feud between their families. His efforts to stop the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt ultimately bring about Mercutio's death. After Romeo avenges Mercutio's death by killing Tybalt, the Prince banishes Romeo from the city, having previously decreed that all violence must stop. Thus, Romeo finds himself in conflict with the broader society of Verona. For Juliet's part, her efforts to be with the man she loves put her in conflict with an entire society that treats women and their marriages as simply a means to political ends, and as a matter in which women themselves have no control. 

In Romeo and Juliet, the character vs. character and character vs. society conflicts are all deeply intertwined, which is part of what makes those conflicts so powerful and engaging.

External Conflict in "To Build A Fire" by Jack London

In the short story "To Build A Fire," Jack London writes about a man who foolishly attempts to travel alone through the Alaskan wilderness in the extreme cold. After he falls through some hidden ice and gets wet, he struggles to build a fire with his few matches to keep himself alive. After finally lighting a fire with his last match, the heat from his fire leads to disaster:

High up in the tree one bough capsized its load of snow. This fell on the boughs beneath, capsizing them. This process continued, spreading out and involving the whole tree. It grew like an avalanche, and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out! Where it had burned was a mantle of fresh and disordered snow. The man was shocked. It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death.

While the man eventually dies, his dog, who is at home in the natural world, survives. The man's struggle against the cold and the snow is an example of an external conflict between a character and nature. 

External Conflict in 1984 by George Orwell

In George Orwell's novel 1984 , the protagonist, Winston,  tries—and fails—to resist the oppressive power of the police state in which he lives. In one passage, the narrator describes the power of the Party (the unilateral political organization that controls Winston's society) as follows:

It was as though some huge force were pressing down upon you—something that penetrated inside your skull, battering against your brain, frightening you out of your beliefs, persuading you, almost, to deny the evidence of your senses. In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. 

Winston does interact primarily with one member of the party — a man named O'Brien — and he could certainly be said to have a character vs. character conflict with O'Brien. However, O'Brien is very much just a representative of the broader party, and so Winston's struggle against the Party is primary, and the novel can be said to be an example of an external conflict between a character and society.

What's the Function of External Conflict in Literature?

Without a problem or conflict, most stories wouldn't go anywhere: the protagonist would stay at home, or perhaps they would achieve their goals without any of the challenges or struggles that make a good story interesting to read. Think about J.R. Tolkein's  Lord of the Rings:  if there was no conflict between the dark forces of Sauron and the other inhabitants of Middle-Earth, Frodo would not need to go on his journey to destroy the ring. Or Shakespeare's  Hamlet :  if Hamlet was not seeking revenge on his father's murderer, most of the story would not take place—Hamlet would have simply gone back  to university to continue his studies. The protagonist of a story may win or lose, but either way, the protagonist's struggle against another character, the natural world, or society drives the plot forward and ultimately makes the story worth telling.

Other Helpful External Conflict Resources

• The Dictionary Definition: A basic definition of the term.
• Conflict in Literature:   This TedEd video concisely explains external  and internal conflict.
• What is Conflict:  This article from Thought Co further breaks down the three types of external conflict into sub-sets like 'character vs. technology' and 'character vs. God.'
• Creating Conflict with Purpose : Gain a writer's perspective on how to create conflict in a story.

• Rhetorical Question
• Bildungsroman
• Climax (Figure of Speech)
• Climax (Plot)
• Static Character
• Tragic Hero
• Dramatic Irony
• Rhyme Scheme

• Quizzes, saving guides, requests, plus so much more.

The Ultimate Narrative Essay Guide for Beginners

A narrative essay tells a story in chronological order, with an introduction that introduces the characters and sets the scene. Then a series of events leads to a climax or turning point, and finally a resolution or reflection on the experience.

Speaking of which, are you in sixes and sevens about narrative essays? Don’t worry this ultimate expert guide will wipe out all your doubts. So let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Everything You Need to Know About Narrative Essay

What is a narrative essay.

When you go through a narrative essay definition, you would know that a narrative essay purpose is to tell a story. It’s all about sharing an experience or event and is different from other types of essays because it’s more focused on how the event made you feel or what you learned from it, rather than just presenting facts or an argument. Let’s explore more details on this interesting write-up and get to know how to write a narrative essay.

Elements of a Narrative Essay

Here’s a breakdown of the key elements of a narrative essay:

A narrative essay has a beginning, middle, and end. It builds up tension and excitement and then wraps things up in a neat package.

Real people, including the writer, often feature in personal narratives. Details of the characters and their thoughts, feelings, and actions can help readers to relate to the tale.

It’s really important to know when and where something happened so we can get a good idea of the context. Going into detail about what it looks like helps the reader to really feel like they’re part of the story.

Conflict or Challenge 

A story in a narrative essay usually involves some kind of conflict or challenge that moves the plot along. It could be something inside the character, like a personal battle, or something from outside, like an issue they have to face in the world.

Theme or Message

A narrative essay isn’t just about recounting an event – it’s about showing the impact it had on you and what you took away from it. It’s an opportunity to share your thoughts and feelings about the experience, and how it changed your outlook.

Emotional Impact

The author is trying to make the story they’re telling relatable, engaging, and memorable by using language and storytelling to evoke feelings in whoever’s reading it.

Narrative essays let writers have a blast telling stories about their own lives. It’s an opportunity to share insights and impart wisdom, or just have some fun with the reader. Descriptive language, sensory details, dialogue, and a great narrative voice are all essentials for making the story come alive.

The Purpose of a Narrative Essay

A narrative essay is more than just a story – it’s a way to share a meaningful, engaging, and relatable experience with the reader. Includes:

Sharing Personal Experience

Narrative essays are a great way for writers to share their personal experiences, feelings, thoughts, and reflections. It’s an opportunity to connect with readers and make them feel something.

Entertainment and Engagement

The essay attempts to keep the reader interested by using descriptive language, storytelling elements, and a powerful voice. It attempts to pull them in and make them feel involved by creating suspense, mystery, or an emotional connection.

Conveying a Message or Insight

Narrative essays are more than just a story – they aim to teach you something. They usually have a moral lesson, a new understanding, or a realization about life that the author gained from the experience.

Building Empathy and Understanding

By telling their stories, people can give others insight into different perspectives, feelings, and situations. Sharing these tales can create compassion in the reader and help broaden their knowledge of different life experiences.

Inspiration and Motivation

Stories about personal struggles, successes, and transformations can be really encouraging to people who are going through similar situations. It can provide them with hope and guidance, and let them know that they’re not alone.

Reflecting on Life’s Significance

These essays usually make you think about the importance of certain moments in life or the impact of certain experiences. They make you look deep within yourself and ponder on the things you learned or how you changed because of those events.

Demonstrating Writing Skills

Coming up with a gripping narrative essay takes serious writing chops, like vivid descriptions, powerful language, timing, and organization. It’s an opportunity for writers to show off their story-telling abilities.

Preserving Personal History

Sometimes narrative essays are used to record experiences and special moments that have an emotional resonance. They can be used to preserve individual memories or for future generations to look back on.

Cultural and Societal Exploration

Personal stories can look at cultural or social aspects, giving us an insight into customs, opinions, or social interactions seen through someone’s own experience.

Format of a Narrative Essay

Narrative essays are quite flexible in terms of format, which allows the writer to tell a story in a creative and compelling way. Here’s a quick breakdown of the narrative essay format, along with some examples:

Introduction

Set the scene and introduce the story.

Engage the reader and establish the tone of the narrative.

Hook: Start with a captivating opening line to grab the reader’s attention. For instance:

Example:  “The scorching sun beat down on us as we trekked through the desert, our water supply dwindling.”

Background Information: Provide necessary context or background without giving away the entire story.

Example:  “It was the summer of 2015 when I embarked on a life-changing journey to…”

Thesis Statement or Narrative Purpose

Present the main idea or the central message of the essay.

Offer a glimpse of what the reader can expect from the narrative.

Thesis Statement: This isn’t as rigid as in other essays but can be a sentence summarizing the essence of the story.

Example:  “Little did I know, that seemingly ordinary hike would teach me invaluable lessons about resilience and friendship.”

Body Paragraphs

Present the sequence of events in chronological order.

Develop characters, setting, conflict, and resolution.

Story Progression : Describe events in the order they occurred, focusing on details that evoke emotions and create vivid imagery.

Example : Detail the trek through the desert, the challenges faced, interactions with fellow hikers, and the pivotal moments.

Character Development : Introduce characters and their roles in the story. Show their emotions, thoughts, and actions.

Example : Describe how each character reacted to the dwindling water supply and supported each other through adversity.

Dialogue and Interactions : Use dialogue to bring the story to life and reveal character personalities.

Example : “Sarah handed me her last bottle of water, saying, ‘We’re in this together.'”

Reach the peak of the story, the moment of highest tension or significance.

Turning Point: Highlight the most crucial moment or realization in the narrative.

Example:  “As the sun dipped below the horizon and hope seemed lost, a distant sound caught our attention—the rescue team’s helicopters.”

Provide closure to the story.

Reflect on the significance of the experience and its impact.

Reflection : Summarize the key lessons learned or insights gained from the experience.

Example : “That hike taught me the true meaning of resilience and the invaluable support of friendship in challenging times.”

Closing Thought : End with a memorable line that reinforces the narrative’s message or leaves a lasting impression.

Example : “As we boarded the helicopters, I knew this adventure would forever be etched in my heart.”

Example Summary:

Imagine a narrative about surviving a challenging hike through the desert, emphasizing the bonds formed and lessons learned. The narrative essay structure might look like starting with an engaging scene, narrating the hardships faced, showcasing the characters’ resilience, and culminating in a powerful realization about friendship and endurance.

Different Types of Narrative Essays

There are a bunch of different types of narrative essays – each one focuses on different elements of storytelling and has its own purpose. Here’s a breakdown of the narrative essay types and what they mean.

Personal Narrative

Description : Tells a personal story or experience from the writer’s life.

Purpose: Reflects on personal growth, lessons learned, or significant moments.

Example of Narrative Essay Types:

Topic : “The Day I Conquered My Fear of Public Speaking”

Focus: Details the experience, emotions, and eventual triumph over a fear of public speaking during a pivotal event.

Descriptive Narrative

Description : Emphasizes vivid details and sensory imagery.

Purpose : Creates a sensory experience, painting a vivid picture for the reader.

Topic : “A Walk Through the Enchanted Forest”

Focus : Paints a detailed picture of the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings experienced during a walk through a mystical forest.

Autobiographical Narrative

Description: Chronicles significant events or moments from the writer’s life.

Purpose: Provides insights into the writer’s life, experiences, and growth.

Topic: “Lessons from My Childhood: How My Grandmother Shaped Who I Am”

Focus: Explores pivotal moments and lessons learned from interactions with a significant family member.

Experiential Narrative

Description: Relays experiences beyond the writer’s personal life.

Purpose: Shares experiences, travels, or events from a broader perspective.

Topic: “Volunteering in a Remote Village: A Journey of Empathy”

Focus: Chronicles the writer’s volunteering experience, highlighting interactions with a community and personal growth.

Literary Narrative

Description: Incorporates literary elements like symbolism, allegory, or thematic explorations.

Purpose: Uses storytelling for deeper explorations of themes or concepts.

Topic: “The Symbolism of the Red Door: A Journey Through Change”

Focus: Uses a red door as a symbol, exploring its significance in the narrator’s life and the theme of transition.

Historical Narrative

Description: Recounts historical events or periods through a personal lens.

Purpose: Presents history through personal experiences or perspectives.

Topic: “A Grandfather’s Tales: Living Through the Great Depression”

Focus: Shares personal stories from a family member who lived through a historical era, offering insights into that period.

Digital or Multimedia Narrative

Description: Incorporates multimedia elements like images, videos, or audio to tell a story.

Purpose: Explores storytelling through various digital platforms or formats.

Topic: “A Travel Diary: Exploring Europe Through Vlogs”

Focus: Combines video clips, photos, and personal narration to document a travel experience.

How to Choose a Topic for Your Narrative Essay?

Selecting a compelling topic for your narrative essay is crucial as it sets the stage for your storytelling. Choosing a boring topic is one of the narrative essay mistakes to avoid . Here’s a detailed guide on how to choose the right topic:

Reflect on Personal Experiences

• Significant Moments:

Moments that had a profound impact on your life or shaped your perspective.

Example: A moment of triumph, overcoming a fear, a life-changing decision, or an unforgettable experience.

• Emotional Resonance:

Events that evoke strong emotions or feelings.

Example: Joy, fear, sadness, excitement, or moments of realization.

• Lessons Learned:

Experiences that taught you valuable lessons or brought about personal growth.

Example: Challenges that led to personal development, shifts in mindset, or newfound insights.

Explore Unique Perspectives

• Uncommon Experiences:

Unique or unconventional experiences that might captivate the reader’s interest.

Example: Unusual travels, interactions with different cultures, or uncommon hobbies.

• Different Points of View:

Stories from others’ perspectives that impacted you deeply.

Example: A family member’s story, a friend’s experience, or a historical event from a personal lens.

Focus on Specific Themes or Concepts

• Themes or Concepts of Interest:

Themes or ideas you want to explore through storytelling.

Example: Friendship, resilience, identity, cultural diversity, or personal transformation.

• Symbolism or Metaphor:

Using symbols or metaphors as the core of your narrative.

Example: Exploring the symbolism of an object or a place in relation to a broader theme.

Consider Your Audience and Purpose

• Relevance to Your Audience:

Topics that resonate with your audience’s interests or experiences.

Example: Choose a relatable theme or experience that your readers might connect with emotionally.

• Impact or Message:

What message or insight do you want to convey through your story?

Example: Choose a topic that aligns with the message or lesson you aim to impart to your readers.

Brainstorm and Evaluate Ideas

• Free Writing or Mind Mapping:

Process: Write down all potential ideas without filtering. Mind maps or free-writing exercises can help generate diverse ideas.

• Evaluate Feasibility:

The depth of the story, the availability of vivid details, and your personal connection to the topic.

Imagine you’re considering topics for a narrative essay. You reflect on your experiences and decide to explore the topic of “Overcoming Stage Fright: How a School Play Changed My Perspective.” This topic resonates because it involves a significant challenge you faced and the personal growth it brought about.

Narrative Essay Topics

50 easy narrative essay topics.

• Learning to Ride a Bike
• My First Day of School
• A Surprise Birthday Party
• The Day I Got Lost
• Visiting a Haunted House
• An Encounter with a Wild Animal
• My Favorite Childhood Toy
• The Best Vacation I Ever Had
• An Unforgettable Family Gathering
• Conquering a Fear of Heights
• A Special Gift I Received
• Moving to a New City
• The Most Memorable Meal
• Getting Caught in a Rainstorm
• An Act of Kindness I Witnessed
• The First Time I Cooked a Meal
• My Experience with a New Hobby
• The Day I Met My Best Friend
• A Hike in the Mountains
• Learning a New Language
• An Embarrassing Moment
• Dealing with a Bully
• My First Job Interview
• A Sporting Event I Attended
• The Scariest Dream I Had
• Helping a Stranger
• The Joy of Achieving a Goal
• A Road Trip Adventure
• Overcoming a Personal Challenge
• The Significance of a Family Tradition
• An Unusual Pet I Owned
• A Misunderstanding with a Friend
• Exploring an Abandoned Building
• My Favorite Book and Why
• The Impact of a Role Model
• A Cultural Celebration I Participated In
• A Valuable Lesson from a Teacher
• A Trip to the Zoo
• An Unplanned Adventure
• Volunteering Experience
• A Moment of Forgiveness
• A Decision I Regretted
• A Special Talent I Have
• The Importance of Family Traditions
• The Thrill of Performing on Stage
• A Moment of Sudden Inspiration
• The Meaning of Home
• Learning to Play a Musical Instrument
• A Childhood Memory at the Park
• Witnessing a Beautiful Sunset

Narrative Essay Topics for College Students

• Discovering a New Passion
• Overcoming Academic Challenges
• Navigating Cultural Differences
• Embracing Independence: Moving Away from Home
• Exploring Career Aspirations
• Coping with Stress in College
• The Impact of a Mentor in My Life
• Balancing Work and Studies
• Facing a Fear of Public Speaking
• Exploring a Semester Abroad
• The Evolution of My Study Habits
• Volunteering Experience That Changed My Perspective
• The Role of Technology in Education
• Finding Balance: Social Life vs. Academics
• Learning a New Skill Outside the Classroom
• Reflecting on Freshman Year Challenges
• The Joys and Struggles of Group Projects
• My Experience with Internship or Work Placement
• Challenges of Time Management in College
• Redefining Success Beyond Grades
• The Influence of Literature on My Thinking
• The Impact of Social Media on College Life
• Overcoming Procrastination
• Lessons from a Leadership Role
• Exploring Diversity on Campus
• Exploring Passion for Environmental Conservation
• An Eye-Opening Course That Changed My Perspective
• Living with Roommates: Challenges and Lessons
• The Significance of Extracurricular Activities
• The Influence of a Professor on My Academic Journey
• Discussing Mental Health in College
• The Evolution of My Career Goals
• Confronting Personal Biases Through Education
• The Experience of Attending a Conference or Symposium
• Challenges Faced by Non-Native English Speakers in College
• The Impact of Traveling During Breaks
• Exploring Identity: Cultural or Personal
• The Impact of Music or Art on My Life
• Addressing Diversity in the Classroom
• Exploring Entrepreneurial Ambitions
• My Experience with Research Projects
• Overcoming Impostor Syndrome in College
• The Importance of Networking in College
• Finding Resilience During Tough Times
• The Impact of Global Issues on Local Perspectives
• The Influence of Family Expectations on Education
• Lessons from a Part-Time Job
• Exploring the College Sports Culture
• The Role of Technology in Modern Education
• The Journey of Self-Discovery Through Education

Narrative Essay Comparison

Narrative essay vs. descriptive essay.

Here’s our first narrative essay comparison! While both narrative and descriptive essays focus on vividly portraying a subject or an event, they differ in their primary objectives and approaches. Now, let’s delve into the nuances of comparison on narrative essays.

Narrative Essay:

Storytelling: Focuses on narrating a personal experience or event.

Chronological Order: Follows a structured timeline of events to tell a story.

Message or Lesson: Often includes a central message, moral, or lesson learned from the experience.

Engagement: Aims to captivate the reader through a compelling storyline and character development.

First-Person Perspective: Typically narrated from the writer’s point of view, using “I” and expressing personal emotions and thoughts.

Plot Development: Emphasizes a plot with a beginning, middle, climax, and resolution.

Character Development: Focuses on describing characters, their interactions, emotions, and growth.

Conflict or Challenge: Usually involves a central conflict or challenge that drives the narrative forward.

Dialogue: Incorporates conversations to bring characters and their interactions to life.

Reflection: Concludes with reflection or insight gained from the experience.

Descriptive Essay:

Vivid Description: Aims to vividly depict a person, place, object, or event.

Imagery and Details: Focuses on sensory details to create a vivid image in the reader’s mind.

Emotion through Description: Uses descriptive language to evoke emotions and engage the reader’s senses.

Painting a Picture: Creates a sensory-rich description allowing the reader to visualize the subject.

Imagery and Sensory Details: Focuses on providing rich sensory descriptions, using vivid language and adjectives.

Point of Focus: Concentrates on describing a specific subject or scene in detail.

Spatial Organization: Often employs spatial organization to describe from one area or aspect to another.

Objective Observations: Typically avoids the use of personal opinions or emotions; instead, the focus remains on providing a detailed and objective description.

Comparison:

Focus: Narrative essays emphasize storytelling, while descriptive essays focus on vividly describing a subject or scene.

Perspective: Narrative essays are often written from a first-person perspective, while descriptive essays may use a more objective viewpoint.

Purpose: Narrative essays aim to convey a message or lesson through a story, while descriptive essays aim to paint a detailed picture for the reader without necessarily conveying a specific message.

Narrative Essay vs. Argumentative Essay

The narrative essay and the argumentative essay serve distinct purposes and employ different approaches:

Engagement and Emotion: Aims to captivate the reader through a compelling story.

Reflective: Often includes reflection on the significance of the experience or lessons learned.

First-Person Perspective: Typically narrated from the writer’s point of view, sharing personal emotions and thoughts.

Plot Development: Emphasizes a storyline with a beginning, middle, climax, and resolution.

Message or Lesson: Conveys a central message, moral, or insight derived from the experience.

Argumentative Essay:

Persuasion and Argumentation: Aims to persuade the reader to adopt the writer’s viewpoint on a specific topic.

Logical Reasoning: Presents evidence, facts, and reasoning to support a particular argument or stance.

Debate and Counterarguments: Acknowledge opposing views and counter them with evidence and reasoning.

Thesis Statement: Includes a clear thesis statement that outlines the writer’s position on the topic.

Thesis and Evidence: Starts with a strong thesis statement and supports it with factual evidence, statistics, expert opinions, or logical reasoning.

Counterarguments: Addresses opposing viewpoints and provides rebuttals with evidence.

Logical Structure: Follows a logical structure with an introduction, body paragraphs presenting arguments and evidence, and a conclusion reaffirming the thesis.

Formal Language: Uses formal language and avoids personal anecdotes or emotional appeals.

Objective: Argumentative essays focus on presenting a logical argument supported by evidence, while narrative essays prioritize storytelling and personal reflection.

Purpose: Argumentative essays aim to persuade and convince the reader of a particular viewpoint, while narrative essays aim to engage, entertain, and share personal experiences.

Structure: Narrative essays follow a storytelling structure with character development and plot, while argumentative essays follow a more formal, structured approach with logical arguments and evidence.

In essence, while both essays involve writing and presenting information, the narrative essay focuses on sharing a personal experience, whereas the argumentative essay aims to persuade the audience by presenting a well-supported argument.

Narrative Essay vs. Personal Essay

While there can be an overlap between narrative and personal essays, they have distinctive characteristics:

Storytelling: Emphasizes recounting a specific experience or event in a structured narrative form.

Engagement through Story: Aims to engage the reader through a compelling story with characters, plot, and a central theme or message.

Reflective: Often includes reflection on the significance of the experience and the lessons learned.

First-Person Perspective: Typically narrated from the writer’s viewpoint, expressing personal emotions and thoughts.

Plot Development: Focuses on developing a storyline with a clear beginning, middle, climax, and resolution.

Character Development: Includes descriptions of characters, their interactions, emotions, and growth.

Central Message: Conveys a central message, moral, or insight derived from the experience.

Personal Essay:

Exploration of Ideas or Themes: Explores personal ideas, opinions, or reflections on a particular topic or subject.

Expression of Thoughts and Opinions: Expresses the writer’s thoughts, feelings, and perspectives on a specific subject matter.

Reflection and Introspection: Often involves self-reflection and introspection on personal experiences, beliefs, or values.

Varied Structure and Content: Can encompass various forms, including memoirs, personal anecdotes, or reflections on life experiences.

Flexibility in Structure: Allows for diverse structures and forms based on the writer’s intent, which could be narrative-like or more reflective.

Theme-Centric Writing: Focuses on exploring a central theme or idea, with personal anecdotes or experiences supporting and illustrating the theme.

Expressive Language: Utilizes descriptive and expressive language to convey personal perspectives, emotions, and opinions.

Focus: Narrative essays primarily focus on storytelling through a structured narrative, while personal essays encompass a broader range of personal expression, which can include storytelling but isn’t limited to it.

Structure: Narrative essays have a more structured plot development with characters and a clear sequence of events, while personal essays might adopt various structures, focusing more on personal reflection, ideas, or themes.

Intent: While both involve personal experiences, narrative essays emphasize telling a story with a message or lesson learned, while personal essays aim to explore personal thoughts, feelings, or opinions on a broader range of topics or themes.

A narrative essay is more than just telling a story. It’s also meant to engage the reader, get them thinking, and leave a lasting impact. Whether it’s to amuse, motivate, teach, or reflect, these essays are a great way to communicate with your audience. This interesting narrative essay guide was all about letting you understand the narrative essay, its importance, and how can you write one.

Order Original Papers & Essays

Your First Custom Paper Sample is on Us!

Timely Deliveries

No Plagiarism & AI

100% Refund

Try Our Free Paper Writing Service

Related blogs.

Connections with Writers and support

Privacy and Confidentiality Guarantee

Average Quality Score

Essays About Conflict in Life: Top 5 Examples and Prompts

Conflict is a broad and gripping topic, but most struggle to write about it. See our top essays about conflict in life examples and prompts to start your piece.

Conflict occurs when two people with different opinions, feelings, and behaviours disagree. It’s a common occurrence that we can observe wherever and whenever we are. Although conflicts usually imply negative aspects, they also have benefits such as stronger relationships and better communication.

To aid you in your paper, here are five examples to familiarize you with the subject: 

1. Useful Notes On 4 Major Types Of Conflicts (Motivational Conflict) By Raghavendra Pras

2. encountering conflict by julius gregory, 3. complete guide to understanding conflict and conflict resolution by prasanna, 4. analysis of personal conflict experience by anonymous on gradesfixer, 5. personal conflict resolving skills essay by anonymous on ivypanda, 1. conflict: what is and how to avoid it, 2. conflicts in our everyday lives, 3. review on movies or books about conflicts, 4. actions and conflicts , 5. conflicts at home, 6. conflicts that changed my life, 7. my personal experience in covert conflict, 8. cascading conflicts, 9. how does conflict in life benefit you, 10. the importance of conflict management.

“Conflict… results when two or more motives drive behaviour towards incompatible goals.”

Pras regards conflict as a source of frustration with four types. Experimental psychologists identified them as approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, approach-avoidance, and multiple approach-avoidance. He discusses each through his essay and uses theoretical analysis with real-life examples to make it easier for the readers to understand.

“The nature of conflict shows that conflict can either push people away or bring them into having a closer, more comfortable relationship.”

The main points of Gregory’s essay are the typical causes and effects of conflicts. He talks about how people should not avoid conflicts in their life and instead solve them to learn and grow. However, he’s also aware that no matter if a dispute is big or small, it can lead to severe consequences when it’s wrongly dealt with. He also cites real-life events to prove his points. At the end of the essay, he acknowledges that one can’t wholly avoid conflict because it’s part of human nature.

“…it is important to remember that regardless of the situation, it is always possible to resolve a conflict in some constructive or meaningful way.”

To help the reader understand conflict and resolutions, Prasanna includes the types, causes, difficulties, and people’s reactions to it. She shows how broad conflict is by detailing each section. From simple misunderstandings to bad faith, the conflict has varying results that ultimately depend on the individuals involved in the situation. Prasanna ends the essay by saying that conflict is a part of life that everyone will have to go through, no matter the relationship they have with others. 

“I also now understand that trying to keep someone’s feelings from getting hurt might not always be the best option during a conflict.”

To analyze how conflict impacts lives, the author shares his personal experience. He refers to an ex-friend, Luke, as someone who most of their circle doesn’t like because of his personality. The author shares their arguments, such as when Luke wasn’t invited to a party and how they tried to protect his feelings by not telling Luke people didn’t want him to be there. Instead, they caved, and Luke was allowed to the gathering. However, Luke realized he wasn’t accepted at the party, and many were uncomfortable around him.

The essay further narrates that it was a mistake not to be honest from the beginning. Ultimately, the writer states that he would immediately tell someone the truth rather than make matters worse.

“To me if life did not have challenges and difficult circumstances we were never going to know the strength that we have in us.”

The essay delves into the writer’s conflicts concerning their personal feelings and professional boundaries. The author narrates how they initially had a good relationship with a senior until they filed for a leave. Naturally, they didn’t expect the coworker to lie and bring the situation to their committee. However, the author handled it instead of showing anger by respecting their relationship with the senior, controlling their emotion, and communicating properly.

10 Helpful Prompts On Essays About Conflict in Life

Below are easy writing prompts to use for your essay:

Define what constitutes a conflict and present cases to make it easier for the readers to imagine. To further engage your audience, give them imaginary situations where they can choose how to react and include the results of these reactions. 

If writing this prompt sounds like a lot of work, make it simple. Write a 5-paragraph essay instead.

There are several types of conflict that a person experiences throughout their life. First, discuss simple conflicts you observe around you. For example, the cashier misunderstands an order, your mom forgets to buy groceries, or you have clashing class schedules. 

Pick a movie or book and summarize its plot. Share your thoughts regarding how the piece tackles the conflicts and if you agree with the characters’ decisions. Try the 1985 movie The Heavenly Kid , directed by Cary Medoway, or Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism by philosopher Alvin Plantinga.

In this essay, describe how actions can lead to conflict and how specific actions can make a conflict worse. Make your essay interesting by presenting various characters and letting them react differently to a particular conflict.

For example, Character A responds by being angry and making the situation worse. Meanwhile, Character B immediately solves the discord by respectfully asking others for their reasons. Through your essay, you’ll help your readers realize how actions significantly affect conflicts. You’ll also be able to clearly explain what conflicts are.

Your home is where you first learn how to handle conflicts, making it easier for your readers to relate to you. In your essay, tell a story of when you quarreled with a relative and how you worked it out.  For instance, you may have a petty fight with your sibling because you don’t want to share a toy. Then, share what your parents asked you to do and what you learned from your dispute.

If there are simple conflicts with no serious consequences, there are also severe ones that can impact individuals in the long run. Talk about it through your essay if you’re comfortable sharing a personal experience. For example, if your parents’ conflict ended in divorce, recount what it made you feel and how it affected your life.

Covert conflict occurs when two individuals have differences but do not openly discuss them. Have you experienced living or being with someone who avoids expressing their genuine feelings and emotions towards you or something? Write about it, what happened, and how the both of you resolved it.

Some results of cascading conflict are wars and revolutions. The underlying issues stem from a problem with a simple solution but will affect many aspects of the culture or community. For this prompt, pick a relevant historical happening. For instance, you can talk about King Henry VIII’s demand to divorce his first wife and how it changed the course of England’s royal bloodline and nobles.

People avoid conflict as much as possible because of its harmful effects, such as stress and fights. In this prompt, focus on its positive side. Discuss the pros of engaging in disputes, such as having better communication and developing your listening and people skills.

Explain what conflict management is and expound on its critical uses. Start by relaying a situation and then applying conflict resolution techniques. For example, you can talk about a team with difficulties making a united decision. To solve this conflict, the members should share their ideas and ensure everyone is allowed to speak and be heard.

Here are more essay writing tips to help you with your essay.

VIDEO COURSE

Finish your draft in our 3-month master class. Sign up now to watch a free lesson!

Learn How to Write a Novel

Finish your draft in our 3-month master class. Enroll now for daily lessons, weekly critique, and live events. Your first lesson is free!

Guides • Perfecting your Craft

Last updated on Jul 24, 2023

What is External Conflict? (with Examples and Writing Tips)

About the author.

Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.

About Martin Cavannagh

Head of Content at Reedsy, Martin has spent over eight years helping writers turn their ambitions into reality. As a voice in the indie publishing space, he has written for a number of outlets and spoken at conferences, including the 2024 Writers Summit at the London Book Fair.

External conflict is the struggle between a protagonist and something in the outside world. It could be against an antagonist, society, nature, technology, or the supernatural. Defined in opposition to internal conflict, any type of ‘fight’ that exists outside the character’s head is external conflict.

In this post, we’ll look at external conflict's role in good writing , giving you some prime examples of the literary device at work — while also dropping some writing tips from top writers and editors.

So, what does external conflict do for us, anyway?

External conflict is at the heart of every story

It brings internal conflict into the real world, it gets the reader to question a character’s motives and choices.

One way to put it is that a story’s external conflict is its story. It’s the obstacle that needs to be overcome or the resistance our hero is up against to achieve their goals. In most Western story models, the inciting incident or catalyst of a plot often arrives as a real-world threat to the protagonist’s way of life, which drives our hero into taking action. It’s the evil oil baron arriving in town to scare off the locals or an ancient spirit that has started haunting a school for orphans.

Ultimately, adding in an element of external conflict is what gives a story substance and stakes. Almost immediately after Luke Skywalker is tasked with saving Princess Leia, he learns what lies in his way: the evil Darth Vader — the man who killed his father. If Vader didn’t exist as the primary source of external conflict, then Star Wars would be the story of a farm boy who went to collect a princess from a space station.

Example: The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel finds a Harvard academic searching for the Holy Grail. But without some sort of stakes, this book could easily read like a sleepy travelogue interspersed with lectures about the Crusades. Thankfully, a zealous monk belonging to an extremist faction of the Catholic Church is also after the Grail — and willing to kill anyone who gets in their way! 

By adding an institutional foe (The Church) personified by an active threat (the murderous monk), Brown turns a treasure hunt into a high-octane chase story that keeps his readers on their toes.

Tip: Where possible, have your antagonist be a character

When your character is up against an abstract enemy — social pressure, the environment, fate — it is often best to channel that conflict through an actual character. You ideally want someone your protagonist can argue or reason with .

Let’s say your protagonist is wrongly convicted of a crime and up against an uncaring criminal justice system. Your antagonist should be someone who represents that system. Maybe they’re:

• A relentless U.S. marshall who’s only doing their job
• A district attorney looking to impress their boss by securing high-profile convictions
• A police detective who just wants to clear their caseload and get a promotion
• A lobbyist for the prison industrial complex

Where possible, you want to put a human face on your hero’s adversary — otherwise, they’ll spend most of the book screaming into the wind instead of tackling the conflict head-on. This idea of personifying an abstract conflict is twice as important if your story’s main struggle is happening between your protagonist’s ears.

MEET EDITORS

Polish your book with expert help

Sign up, meet 1500+ experienced editors, and find your perfect match.

Our last post mentioned how internal conflict is a narrative's true heart. While it’s true that most stories hinge on whether a protagonist can find it in them to change their worldview or attitude, internal conflict alone isn’t always enough to get readers invested. Unless this transformation in our hero’s inner life is reflected by their actions and behaviors, the story will be trapped inside the character’s head. 

A story’s main external conflict should ideally take the character’s internal conflict and dramatize it by adding real-world stakes.

Example: The Godfather

A character’s true colors will usually come out when they’re faced with a decision that tempts them to break their strongly held beliefs. In Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Michael Corleone is the ‘good son’ of the family. Having returned from WWII, Michael is torn between his personal desire to stay out of ‘the business’ and his culturally-ingrained sense of obligation to his family. To get him to the point where one of those ideals has to give way, Puzo creates a situation where Michael has to choose between surrendering his reputation as a moral man by executing a rival mobster and a corrupt police captain — or putting his family’s safety at risk.

In this situation, your characters will become fully dimensional as they struggle between staying the person they thought they were… or becoming the person they need to be.

Tip: Push your character out of their comfort zone

If you’re ever looking to create conflict in your story, don’t just make your characters encounter thugs with guns or the threat of nuclear annihilation. Those sorts of conflicts are overplayed and so generic that almost nobody can truly identify with them. Instead, think about your character’s defining traits — what they are comfortable with — and put them in a situation where they are uniquely unprepared to deal with it. 

A terribly shy accountant who must run away from the police? Dull.

A terribly shy accountant who must publicly confront her company’s CEO? Now that’s interesting!

To bring a character’s interior journey into the real world of the story, their internal conflict will usually be mirrored by an external conflict that tests their attitude or belief system.

The antagonizing force in a story often serves as a foil to the main character — testing their morality, worldview, and resolve by opposing the hero of our story. 

In stories where the protagonist and antagonist are at direct odds with each other, the characters should be sufficiently balanced so as to allow us to consider both characters' perspectives. If we’re looking at a crime caper where a detective is solving a bank heist, you may wish to give the burglar a good reason for committing their crime. Then you can start to play in some interesting waters: is a thief who steals to save their child less noble than a cop who’s working to serve a corrupt system for the benefit of a soulless bank?

There are also antagonists who represent two sides of the same coin. The villain in many stories will often have the same objective as our hero, though their approaches to achieving that goal are vastly different. This usually sets up an interesting conundrum for the protagonist — whether achieving their goal is worth the price they have to pay. It also invites us as readers to reflect on what’s most important, a character’s end goal or the route they take to get there.

Example: The Prestige 

Spoiler alert! The question at the heart of the 2005 adaption of Christopher Priest’s novel is, “How far are you willing to go to get what you want?” The story centers on rival magicians in the Victorian era — both in pursuit of a grand illusion that sees a man instantly transported across a theater. 

As their rivalry grows more intense, we discover the lengths they will go to pull off this single trick: Borden, one of the magicians, turns out to be a pair of twins who each live half a life in order to preserve the trick’s secret. Angiers, the other magician, has found a way to clone himself on stage every night before instantly killing the ‘original’ to ensure that there’s only one of him at any given time. 

Angiers and ‘Borden’ are set up as parallel protagonists, which allows the audience to be behind both of them, to an extent. We support Angiers in his quest to create this trick, but it’s only over the course of the story that we realize the grisly and immoral sacrifices that he is willing to make.

By having an antagonist who serves as a ‘funhouse mirror’ version of the protagonist, the reader is asked to consider: is our hero in the right? and Are they going about things the right way?

And that concludes our guide to conflict in literature. Remember that conflict is at the heart of storytelling the next time you read or write any piece of fiction. It will drive your plot, provide your characters with motives, and give your readers something to be excited about.

Join a community of over 1 million authors

Reedsy is more than just a blog. Become a member today to discover how we can help you publish a beautiful book.

The Ultimate Character Questionnaire

Answer these simple questions to create true-to-life characters.

1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy. Come meet them.

Enter your email or get started with a social account:

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

Bangladesh Needs a New Story

By Tahmima Anam

Ms. Anam is a Bangladeshi-born novelist.

In Bangladesh, we are experts at erasing history.

Ever since our young nation was born 53 years ago in a traumatic war of liberation from Pakistan, historical amnesia and censorship have afflicted Bangladeshis like a chronic illness. When a regime is toppled, its successor moves quickly to erase the symbols and legacy of the previous one as if it had never existed.

That is why, for decades, when one of the two political parties that have dominated Bangladesh — the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party — was in power, the other would often boycott Parliament or refuse to participate in elections it alleged were rigged. There has never been a healthy relationship between the people in power and those who oppose them. Party was always placed before country.

This has been a curse, preventing solid democratic institutions from flourishing in Bangladesh and making our politics fractious, hateful and peppered with violence and counterviolence.

The unexpected revolution that toppled the increasingly autocratic and corrupt rule of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina this month offers Bangladesh a chance to break free of this cycle. What makes this revolution unprecedented and so meaningful is that it was a grass-roots movement led by idealistic university students, not one of the warring main political parties. As a Bangladeshi, I am watching with jubilation.

Yet, I also worry that the old Bangladeshi reflex to expunge the past is kicking in.

Just a few weeks ago, when visitors flew into Dhaka, the capital, they were greeted at the airport by an enormous mural of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ms. Hasina’s father, who was the leader of Bangladesh’s 1971 independence movement and the nation’s founding figure. In 1975, when he was president, he was assassinated in a military coup along with most of his family. The mural’s caption welcomed travelers to “Mujib’s Bangladesh.”

Since Ms. Hasina’s overthrow, portraits and statues of Sheikh Mujib are being defaced and taken down across the country. His former home, which had become a museum to his memory, was looted and set on fire . Ms. Hasina’s declaration of Aug. 15 — the anniversary of her father’s assassination — as a national day of mourning was canceled .

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

Gaza war protesters make a final bid for recognition at Dem convention

CHICAGO − After four days of official and unofficial protests, a large group of protesters still remained on the streets Thursday night during the final hours of the Democratic National Convention, as Kamala Harris prepared to formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination.

Despite concerns that Gaza war protests could shut down the city and tank the convention, Chicago had seen four days of modest demonstrations and marches , with only one − a confrontational Tuesday gathering outside the Israeli consulate − with a notable number of arrests.

"Why aren't more people speaking up for us?" asked Belal Assaf, 60, as he and his 19-year-old son Mohammed, marched for an end to the devastating war. The Chicago Palestinian-American called for more humanitarian aid to Gaza. "It's bad when you don't have any hope because there's a lack of resources."

After leaving Chicago's Union Park the crowd of more than 1,000 marched in a slow procession Thursday night under the elevated train tracks towards the United Center, where tens of thousands of Democrats gathered to see the vice president's elevation as the party's standard bearer against Donald Trump.

More: Fact-checking the Democratic convention: What Kamala Harris, others get right (and wrong)

More: Denied a speaker, pro-Palestinian Democratic delegates make new demand on Kamala Harris

The crowd of protesters, calling for an end to the war in Gaza and U.S. military support for Israel, filled the street under the "L," with nonstop chanting, blowing whistles, beating drums, chalking the street with messages as police grew visibly concerned over the march exceeding its allotted time.

“We’re young, we’re strong, we’ll rally all night long,” some chanted, even as many demonstrators could be seen leaving march.

There were no reports of arrests.

The march began with a rally at Union Park, where police had to temporarily close at least one entrance as the site filled to capacity. Hatem Bazian, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, encouraged the crowd to turn their chants into reality: “Don’t let anyone silence you. Speak, Speak,” he said. “Free Palestine is a state of mind. Go out and actualize it!”

More: Pro-Palestinian protesters take the spotlight during DNC. What impact will they make?

By 9:20, the march had returned to the street outside the park, to chants "Long live Palestine."

Marcher Maureen Sweeney, 69, said she was pleased with Thursday’s protest, and stopped Police Superintendent Larry Snelling to tell him so. Snelling walked with the crowd most of the evening.

“At my age, I feel like I can sort of be the mom and ask people to tamp things down,” Sweeney said. “I absolutely believe that the size of the rally absolutely impacts public perception and policy. The more people who show up, the more they will be heard.”

Sweeney, of San Diego, grew up in Chicago and remembers the riots of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. “I saw them clubbing the heads of protesters in Grant Park,” she said of the decades-old disaster.

“Tonight was great. Protest is the voice of the oppressed.”

As, a mile away, Harris accepted the Democratic nomination before a rapturous crowd at the United Arena, the peaceful protest broke up, with a small group of protesters still yelling at police near the train station

The Straits Times

• International
• Print Edition
• news with benefits
• SPH Rewards
• STClassifieds
• Berita Harian
• Hardwarezone
• Shin Min Daily News
• Tamil Murasu
• The Business Times
• The New Paper
• Lianhe Zaobao
• Advertise with us
• News analysis

Modi positions India as peacemaker in Ukraine conflict

NEW DELHI – Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to position India as a peacemaker in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but his visit to Kyiv also underlined that New Delhi is not going to choose between the two sides in the war.

During a one-day visit to Kyiv on Aug 23, he personally offered to play a role in efforts to bring about a cessation of hostilities, reiterating India’s position that the conflict can be resolved only through dialogue and diplomacy.

Already a subscriber?  Log in

Read the full story and more at $9.90/month

Get exclusive reports and insights with more than 500 subscriber-only articles every month

ST One Digital

$9.90   $9.90/month.

No contract

ST app access on 1 mobile device

Subscribe now

Unlock these benefits

All subscriber-only content on ST app and straitstimes.com

Easy access any time via ST app on 1 mobile device

E-paper with 2-week archive so you won't miss out on content that matters to you

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

• Narendra Modi
• Volodymyr Zelensky
• Vladimir Putin
• Wars and conflicts

Read 3 articles and stand to win rewards

Spin the wheel now

Guterres calls for end to Myanmar violence, persecution of Rohingya

Facebook Twitter Print Email

S even years since the forced mass displacement of Rohingya and other communities from Myanmar’s Rakhine State, the UN Secretary-General has called for an end to the violence and full protection of civilians across the country which is now engulfed in a brutal civil conflict.

Around one million Rohingya are sheltering in Bangladesh and over 130,000 more have sought safe haven across the region without immediate prospects for return, said António Guterres in a statement issued by his Spokesperson on Friday – just ahead of Sunday’s grim anniversary. 

“The dire security and humanitarian situation with ongoing access challenges has exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities of the people of Myanmar , including the Rohingya, who continue to face discrimination and persecution as the armed conflict escalates in Rakhine State ”, the statement said.

The Secretary-General called on all parties to the conflict – being fought between troops loyal to the ruling military junta and numerous armed groups fighting for autonomy or independence - “to end the violence and ensure the protection of civilians in accordance with applicable international human rights standards and international humanitarian law .

Deteriorating situation leaves ‘no path to safety’

Thousands of civilians in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State have been forced to flee on foot as Arakan Army separatists continue to herd them into locations that offer scant safe haven, human rights chief Volker Türk also warned on Friday.

This violence has left hundreds of civilians reportedly killed as they tried to flee the fighting.

“As the border crossings to Bangladesh remain closed, members of the Rohingya community are finding themselves trapped between the military and its allies and the Arakan Army , with no path to safety,” Mr. Türk warned. 

The situation has only worsened over the past four months, as tens of thousands of people, many of whom are members of the Rohingya Muslim minority, have fled a major offensive by the Arakan Army rebels, an ethnic armed group that aims to take control of townships from the Myanmar military.

Historical tragedy continues

The human rights chief highlighted that this August marks seven years since the military operations in Myanmar drove 700,000 across the border into Bangladesh.

“Despite the world saying ‘never again’ we are once more witnessing killings, destruction and displacement in Rakhine,” Mr. Türk said.

In one of the deadliest recent attacks along the Naf River bordering Bangladesh on 5 August, dozens were reportedly killed, including by armed drones , though it remains unclear which side was responsible.

“Parties to the armed conflict are issuing statements denying responsibility for attacks against the Rohingya and others, acting as though they are powerless to protect them. This stretches the bounds of credulity ,” Mr. Türk continued, stressing obligations of all parties under international humanitarian law to protect the Rohingya against risk of further harm.

‘Unequivocal response’ needed

Serious human rights violations and abuses have been committed against the Rohingya both by the military and the Arakan Army, including abductions, forced recruitment, indiscriminate bombardments of towns and villages using drones and artillery, and killings - some involving beheadings.

There have also been an increasing number of Rohingya, nearly half of whom are children, seeking assistance for conflict-related injuries, including those dying of diarrhoea due to lack of access to clean water alongside grossly inadequate living conditions.

“These atrocities demand an unequivocal response - those responsible must be held accountable, and justice must be pursued relentlessly ,” said Mr. Türk.

“Recurrence of the crimes and horrors of the past must be prevented as a moral duty and a legal necessity. It is the responsibility of the international community, with ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] at the forefront, to take all necessary measures to protect the Rohingya and other civilian victims of this cruel conflict,” the rights chief concluded.