Primary conflict.

Conflict is the driving force behind your story

In a story, conflict is any moment where the protagonist of the story wants something, but
someone, something, or the world around them is standing in their way. You need conflict in
order for ideas to become a story. Conflict in a story is what links one plot point to another; it’s
what gives your characters something to fight for and a reason to change and grow as they fight
for those things. Whether your story’s conflict is between your protagonist and another
character, between them and the wider world, or even between them and the shadows deep
within themself, it’s engaging conflicts that will keep your readers there beside them for the
entire journey.

Different types of conflict

Character vs. Character

The character vs. character conflict (also called interpersonal conflict) is a situation in which two
people, or groups of people, find themselves fighting for contrasting desires that are absolutely
exclusive to each other.
In these stories, your characters will fight tooth and nail for what they want, they may question
whether they want what they want (this ties into internal conflict, which we’ll look at next), and by
the end of the story one or both of your characters will either end up with nothing or they’ll learn
to want something different. You may close your story with the defeat of one character—usually,
your antagonist—or your conflicting characters may come to some sort of peace with one
another.

Character vs. Self

Also called internal conflict, this is where a character struggles with two conflicting desires or
needs, such as whether to do something against their personal ethics in order to succeed or
survive, or whether to alter a deeply-ingrained set of beliefs when faced with new information or
a new circumstance.

Character vs. Society

This type of conflict sees the protagonist pitted against a collective, impersonal antagonistic
force.

Character vs. Nature

These are stories in which the main character, or central characters, are battling against a force
of something beyond anyone’s control. This could be something like being lost at sea and
surviving against impossible odds or preparing a town against the threat of an incoming
hurricane.
This second stage is where you introduce the primary conflict and set the story in motion. Each
subsequent event should be more complicated than the previous, creating tension and
excitement as the story builds. This is the turning point in the story—the point of the highest
tension and conflict. This is the moment that should leave the reader wondering what’s next.
In this stage, the story begins to calm down and work toward a satisfying ending. Loose ends
are tied up, explanations are revealed, and the reader learns more about how the conflict is
resolved. The central conflict gets resolved and the story ends.
Once your characters have fought their way through the conflict that you’ve thrown at them,
you’re going to need to give them a resolution. The most important thing to remember is that the
resolution to their conflict must come from — from them—from the choices they make, from the
things they learn about the world and about themselves, from the way they grow as a person
through the events of the plot. Resolution in a story comes from the protagonist gaining a
deeper understanding of their own weaknesses and learning how to overcome them. In many
ways, it should directly reflect what caused the conflict in the first place.