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Monday, August 23, 2010

What's your problem?


So we are all well aware by now how important conflict is in a novel.

What if Katniss had never been sent to the Hunger Games? Would we really have wanted to read about her day to day life in District 13? What if Edward had been a totally normal dude, moody and to be honest a bit boring (hello, classical music)?

With my last WIP, I had to stop working on it because the conflict just wasn't working. There wasn't enough and it didn't make sense and it just didn't work. And with my current WIP, well, I'm wondering....
Is it possible to have too much conflict?

2 comments:

Deb Salisbury, Magic Seeker and Mantua-Maker said...

I'm not sure you can have too much tension, but you could have too much or the wrong kind of *conflict* - too many arguements, being my pet peeve.

Amparo Ortiz said...

I tend to love books with tons of conflict thrown in them. But here's the kicker: there has to be one major conflict that continues throughout the novel, and all the other conflicts have to stem from it.

Think Harry Potter and all the relationship/family problems. They all lead back to Voldemort in some way, right? That's what makes all those "sub-conflicts" believable and totally not overwhelming.

Also, if your book has a theme (which I hope it does!), those little conflicts can reflect it, and not be solely tied to the major conflict. The key is to give everything a purpose.