Workshop: "Conflict isn't just for fights" by D.M. Wyatt
Title: Superhero Muses essay: Conflict isn't just for fights
Author: D.M. Wyatt
Author's Notes: Although I've never made a living as a screenwriter, I had trained to be one. I was a film major in college and took a lot of writing classes and seminars in addition to reading more than my fair share of books on screenwriting.
The method of storytelling for a screenwriter is very different than a fanfic writer's. Screenwriting is very strict in format and scripts mostly should use familiar plot structures. There are also limits on what you can describe, how you can describe it and even how long the script can (or should) be. All scripts are also written in presence tense.
However, as you know, with fanfiction there are almost no limits. Fics can be short, weighing in at only a few dozen words, up to novel length epics (I've written one of those, actually) and there is no expected format or structure. I've seen fanfic take the form of "news" articles and even vid making and some artists create forms of fic since their media very often tells its own kind of stories.
The limits of fanfic are only inside the writer's mind.
Actually, it's the lack of limits I think partly drove my interest in starting to write fanfic in the first place. I also wanted to improve my sex scene writing skills, which I think I've done.
Anyway, despite the differences between the storytelling methods of the two, I actually think the advice people give to screenwriters in terms of content of their stories (character development, creating conflict, how to write compelling dialogue) could probably be helpful to any writer, including fanfic writers.
The most important thing to me, and maybe my character development and dialogue suffers a bit at times because of it, is creating conflict. I feel it's vital to help create a compelling story. The hero's journey mustn't be an easy one, otherwise it's not a road worth traveling.
Yet, sometimes I see fics that don't have enough conflict, so I hope my thoughts on conflict will be helpful to you.
~:::~
Conflict is at the very core of most successful films whether they are the more obvious films with conflict, like action/adventure, sci-fi epics or horror films or less obviously filled with conflict like romantic comedies and even otherwise cerebral art house flicks. However, that's true with almost any successful story of any kind: novels, short stories, even poems and haiku each have their own sorts of conflict.
And there are different kinds of conflict. If you've taken writing or composition in school, or read almost any writing book, you are probably familiar with the three basic types:
- man vs. man
- man vs. nature
- man vs. himself
Since most fanfics have relationships at their cores I'm going to forgo talking about the man vs. nature kind and the man vs. himself kinds of conflict. As a wannabe screenwriter, I'm not sure I'd have the literary chops and would be up to talking about those in any case... So, when I refer to conflict, what I mean is more the man vs. man kind.
You might think: I don't want to have fighting all the time, that's not why I like the pairing. They love each other, they're my one-true-pair... Why would I write them fighting?
Well, conflict doesn't mean that you need to have your characters fighting each other, although that does happen even in otherwise happy relationships. Think about you and your significant other: do you always see things the same way? Does he drive you mad when he refuses to stop for directions or starts to throw things when he can't find something? There is always some sort of conflict, even between couples that are otherwise living happily-ever-after...
You might ask: So, why should I put in conflict if I want to have a happy ending? Why is it so important anyway?
Well, you don't have to write a tragedy to have conflict in your story, even romances and comedies have conflict. Any obstacle that keeps the character from easily achieving their goal is, essentially, conflict.
I have come to believe that every scene have some sort of conflict mainly because I have seen it at work. Adding conflict to my own stories, I think, makes them better. Probably the main reason that is so is because it makes any story more dynamic. It helps to that because conflict does a couple of things at once:
- Provides motivation & Moves the story forward
- Reveals character
1. Provides Motivation & Moves the Story Forward
Almost any story includes an objective for the character; a motivation or a reason that he or she does things. Any obstacle that keeps your character from achieving his goals, that forces your character to act in order to achieve (or fail to achieve) their objective, can be a source of conflict.
When I say "conflict" I'm not necessarily talking big ideas here. Your story, and your character's objective, doesn't have to be something huge like, oh, say like protecting the world from an alien armada bent on conquest. The characters' objective could be as simple as eating dinner and the obstacle to achieving that goal can come from either outside the relationship or from within.
To use a story about "eating dinner" as an example, say the World's Finest Men want to eat dinner? (This is a superhero muses' essay, so I'll use Clark and Bruce for all my examples... why not? I mean they're both sexy and superheroes, so what's not to love?)
Anyway, so what if they want to go out to eat, but before Bruce can wine and dine Clark an emergency call comes in from the Watchtower... They don't get to eat, which was their original objective, until they handle the emergency and save the world from the alien horde bent on taking over management of Earth.
So, that example has conflict that came from outside the relationship. It's just icing that you get some serious alien butt-kicking, and maybe even stellar hurt/comfort, before you can get to the romantic dinner for two.
Not a bad idea for a story, actually, and it should make the dinner more rewarding, giving them more than one reason to fight the bad guys. I mean, wouldn't you be extra annoyed that dinner with your soul mate was interrupted by some ugly aliens wanting to hurt people you swore to protect? That aspect of the "conflict" would add some depth to your characters reactions to the threat...
Or maybe the conflict that keeps them from eating dinner comes from within the relationship. Maybe Bruce is visiting Metropolis and all Clark can cook are recipes his mother taught him. However, he's a bit clumsy in the kitchen and it takes Clark forever to cook anything. It tastes good, but you have to bring loving patience when you eat at Clark's. Even though Bruce loves Clark to cook for him, he's cranky because he's so hungry. So, he can't wait and wants to eat as soon as possible. Bruce also wants to eat Thai, but Clark loathes it and would rather eat in after making Bruce dinner. He doesn't care if they don't eat until nine.
So, do they stay in or eat out? What do they even eat?
Maybe they compromise and settle on ordering Chinese in, but the conflict and how they resolve it moves the story forward to its conclusion to where they can finally sit down to eat.
The best thing about adding conflict is you could add it for either comedic or dramatic affect. Depending what you want to do with the story, it could really work either way. With either of the above scenarios, whether they get played as drama or comedy, how the characters deal with the obstacles could potentially reveal a lot about both men.
Which brings me to point 2....
2. Reveal Character
Conflict can help you reveal a lot about your characters. The way you show how they deal with a problem, whether they ultimately resolve it or not, can say a lot about the people they are, which is the point of writing anyway, isn't it?
I mean, why are you writing what you are? It's because you actually like the people you take the time to write about, I would think. Unless someone's come up with a way to get paid for writing fanfic that I haven't heard of, you're writing because you enjoy doing it. That's why I do it, anyway. I get a lot of satisfaction out of exploring the character of the people I write about...
Lately, I've fallen in love with Bruce and Clark, although I've loved Clark (as a character) off and on since I was a girl. I adore Clark's ability to love so completely and selflessly and yet he is still so strong and determined to always do the right thing, even if he doesn't always think things through before he acts.... But it's Bruce's overly analytical, surly, brusque, business-like nature which hides a soul that endearingly loves deeply that makes me love him as well...
They are as different as two men can be, one deliberate and the other impulsive, and yet are alike in how loving they can be. How they're written makes them engaging people, and charming together.
The interesting thing about writing for me is trying to figure out how they would react in a given situation with the attributes I think they have. If you present the two very different men with the same obstacle, they would react differently. How Bruce and Clark are so different would give you an idea of how they might handle the same situation different ways... the conflict then reveals more about who they are because of how they choose to tackle the problem.
In the examples I gave about how dinner might be interrupted, might give the perfect chance for you to explore how they differ as people. For example, Bruce, as the greatest detective in the world, would probably approach the problem analytically. He would present logical reasons why eating Ma Kent's meatloaf isn't the thing for them to do. Maybe he's watching his figure because of a new training regimen he's on. That's something Clark doesn't have to think about. While it would give Clark a great deal of satisfaction to prepare a meal the way his mom did, a fat-filled meatloaf would conflict with Bruce's needs and Thai presents healthier alternatives that he loves. Perhaps, Bruce could convince Clark based on those facts alone.
But then Clark hates Thai and never eats it, so maybe Bruce wants him to give in and try it again to see if there is something other than Thai that could tempt him. Clark wants to stay home, doesn't want to eat Thai and wants to make Bruce dinner. Bruce's logical arguments sway Clark against making dinner but he still doesn't like Thai, so they instead compromise and eat Chinese instead.
It makes for a more complicated story (Who would have thought deciding what to do for dinner would have been so involved?), but it makes for a far more dynamic one than if they just held hands as they completely agreed on what to eat. Despite their initial differences on the matter, their joint goal of eating dinner is finally achieved and how they got there would have revealed a lot about both men and the end result is the same: you have them together at the end eating a romantic dinner for two.
Although conflict in every scene is always proclaimed a good thing, both in the screenwriting classes I have taken and inside the dozens of books I own on writing screenplays, sometimes it's not so easy to practice. It's not always easy to see opportunities to insert conflict into a scene. I've had to struggle with that myself from time to time. So, I will use my own recent experience with this as an example.
NOTE: While you don't probably need to have read my story to understand the examples I give below, it might help. If you feel so inclined, read Mistletoe here: http://dm-wyatt.livejournal.com/57791.html
My Real Life Examples
I had some trouble writing my most recent story, an entry for the World's Finest Gift Exchange titled Mistletoe, mainly because I had trouble finding suitable conflict. It was originally a completely schmoopy idea I had for the prompt: Bruce tries to avoid Clark's attempts to get him under a mistletoe since he doesn't do public displays of affection.
That was a pretty good idea for some romantic conflict that would certainly end up with the lovers in bed at the end, which (I had hoped) would help me fit the story into the requested rating of NC-17. While conflict is at the heart of the idea since their objectives in the story (Clark wanted to get Bruce under mistletoe and Bruce wanted to avoid the same) were in direct opposition to each other, the way the story originally unfolded that was pretty much all the conflict that there was.
The details I had originally come up with (a highly orchestrated Wayne Manor party where PDA would not be appropriate followed by open declarations of love and a sexy romp lit only by romantic firelight with Clark on top) didn't really seem to flow all that well. Not only didn't I show anything about either man, really, by the way I'd achieved some of my own goals for the story, they were frankly boring as well as being completely out of character.
In my first draft, after the party I had Clark and Bruce smiling at each other all the way up to their bedroom. When Bruce walked toward the naked man on his bed, Clark just smiled at him and he just smiled right back. Maybe that was an okay idea. Everyone would have probably liked it just fine and it would have fit the prompt perfectly, but it just didn't feel right.
I mean, with the way I'd written Bruce as a control freak in addition to being a bit frigid in the first part of the story, there is really no way he would ever let Clark be on top much less willingly speak out his feelings for Clark. So maybe it's not surprising I ran into some problems.
I even had Clark swinging their clasped hands back and forth like a schoolgirl in love before they hopped into bed. Then, because I wanted Clark on top, Bruce then "allowed" Clark to take the lead while they declared their love for each other...
Most people, realistically, don't just declare their love for each other so the way I'd written it, that just didn't seem natural to me. It just seemed.... wrong for the Bruce I'd written up until that point in the story. He all but said he wasn't a touchy-feely guy when he'd resisted Clark's attempts to get him under the mistletoe. Why would he then openly declare his love for Clark later, even in private and during sex?
I tried to make it work and I struggled with it and it just didn't seem to flow well from the way I'd written the rest of the story. I think the sex was pretty hot, but it felt tacked on probably mostly because it seemed so out of character.
I wasn't sure what to do, really. I thought about and realized they didn't really have a reason to go to bed and declare their love for each other.
In real life, you don't really need a reason to do anything. Often people just do things without really wondering why they do them, sorta like me asking Jen if she'd like me to write an essay on conflict. I didn't really have a reason, I just wanted to get my thoughts on the subject worked out and figured it might make a good essay to share, but in stories I think it works better if the characters have a reason to do things. In a literary sense, I think they must have one.
So, as a reason for them to declare their love to each other I inserted a bit of hurt/comfort (never a bad thing, IMO, since I am a huge hurt/comfort fan) and made Clark feel unsure of the relationship because of some not-so-nice gossip he'd overheard. That fit in with Clark's character, the ultimate outsider trying to fit in, he is always a bit insecure. Also, it gave frigid Bruce a reason to declare his love, even without using the word, as he tried to soothe Clark's fears.
The new way the scene played out was more in keeping with both men and how I'd written them up until they'd climbed the stairs after the party was over. Clark loves Bruce but is unconfident and perhaps always doesn't see why Bruce would love him in return. And the Dark Knight just isn't going to do the "chick-flick moment" and state his feelings out loud just because I wanted him to.
Bruce, as I'd written him, would have to have a reason. In this case, he had to try to comfort and reassure Clark, which gave Clark the chance to do the same. I achieved the chick-flick schmoop I had wanted, yet it was also in keeping with the characters I'd written.
As for Clark being on top, I gave Bruce a reason (or more likely just an excuse) to let Clark do it: a sore shoulder. Maybe he wanted to have Clark take the lead, but my Bruce is ever in control. He had controlled everything in the story up until then, after all. Every moment in the party played out exactly the way he'd wanted, up until Clark had overheard that gossip that is.
How would I believably get him to let Clark be the top? So I had him let the sore shoulder bother him more than it probably really did to give him an excuse, a reason, to let Clark make love to him instead of the other way around.
The series of scenes that led up to Clark achieving his objective, getting Bruce under some mistletoe, maybe weren't perfect, but the way I'd changed it to include more conflict had been more satisfying to me as a writer. It allowed me to explore Clark's and Bruce's characters more. They are interesting and complicated men, and giving them obstacles to overcome in order to achieve their goals allows me to show their complexity in a more dynamic way than simple exposition would.
In screenwriting it's always more important to show than it is to tell, showing who the characters are instead of just explaining it is usually the better choice. I think the same is true of fanfic, and it's hard to do that unless you give them obstacles to overcome; have some conflict to help you reveal their character.