C is for Conflict

What are you reading this week? I’m reading Laura Moore’s Once Tasted. Yummy!

To complete the GMC– Conflict is the basis for all commercial fiction.  It’s the lure that draws a reader to care for and cheer for the hero/heroine. It makes them want to continue to read on. Conflict is that important. Challenges and conflicts also control your pacing.

 

Sagging middle–conflict to the rescue.

 

Conflict is the tug and/pull in a romance between the hero and heroine. It’s the personal relationship distracting the cop from solving the mystery. Or it’s the politics that hinders his investigation. It’s the not getting along with his superiors which puts his career on the line.

 

There are all kinds of conflicts new and old. What makes them unique is the author’s voice as well as their spin on a story. Throughout your novel a character needs to grow. The conflict or challenge is the vehicle which allows them to grow.  Hero starts out as a self-centered jerk, but ends up the protector putting the heroine and everyone else before himself. Guess what? That guy was always there, only buried under years a mental anguish. Just remember the conflict and the hero have to be believable. The conflict and resolution have to be within the hero’s skill set. Even if you push the envelope, you can’t have him performing open heart surgery on a person to save their life, if  he’s a mechanic. He can be the guy who would never stop to help someone until he came upon a woman and child on a less traveled road.

 

Remember: It’s imperative your main characters are different people at the end of the story than at the beginning. Conflict is not only the moral compass to guide your  hero/heroine it’s what draws in your readers and keeps them reading.

Enjoy your weekend. I’ll be writing and judging contest entries all weekend. What will you be doing?

Marian

http://www.marianl.com

https://www.facebook.com/marian.lanouette

 

 

Filed under: romance