I’m touched by the abundance of kind and thoughtful responses to my series on the importance of maximizing the CONFLICT in your stories – especially my previous newsletter about Tiger Woods’ victory in the 2019 Masters.
I hope you know how gratifying it is when you take the time to write to me, and to share your questions or comments, and tell me that you’re enjoying and benefiting from what I’ve shared.
I especially want to reply to this question from a follower named Dan. I think you’ll find it helpful as you try to elevate the emotional power of your stories.
Dear Michael,
I agree about needing conflict in my stories. But when I try, I fail. I am a nice person – always have been. Never in conflicts, same wife for 40 years. So I struggle having my characters do things I could not imagine doing. When I try to include conflict, it comes off like milk toast.
I encounter lots of filmmakers, fiction writers and business leaders who, like Dan, mistakenly believe that conflict must be big, action packed and extraordinary.
Then, because their own lives have been relatively happy, kind, and (oh, no!) ordinary, or because they have no desire or ability to write about comic book battles or violent confrontation, these storytellers can’t – or think they can’t – elicit a great enough emotional response in their readers or audiences.
So before I reveal how to create conflict in your stories, I’d better tell you what conflict actually is….
CONFLICT is simply whatever prevents a character from getting what he wants.
Whatever desire drives your hero towards a compelling goal, something needs to stand in his way. It’s not the desire itself, but the obstacles your hero faces, that keep us leaning into your story, eager to see or hear what’s going to happen next.
Certainly, if your hero confronts an alien invasion, a supernatural demon, a crazed serial killer, or a ruthless gang of terrorists, those conflicts can generate lots of thrills and suspense.
But conflict is more than just combat.
Conflict is not simply two people arguing – though an argument may reveal that the characters involved have seriously opposing desires. But I’m guessing if you think about the movies or novels you’ve loved, or the biggest goals you’ve achieved in your own life, seldom did they involve a lot of yelling and screaming.
What gave those stories and personal situations such emotional impact was the actions you or those heroes had to take, and the monumental difficulties that had to be overcome in order to ultimately succeed.
Whenever you feel stuck somewhere in the middle of a story you’re developing, please avoid the contrived “Let’s-add-a-disaster,” or the “What-if-he’s-really-an-alien?” approach to conflict.
Instead of making up outlandish external obstacles because they sound original or exciting, create conflict that grows organically out of your hero’s desire.
If that goal is clearly defined, difficult to achieve, and of vital importance to the hero, then the challenges of achieving that goal will provide plenty of conflict.
And if you’re trying to relate a true story or a personal experience where there simply weren’t that many obstacles to overcome, then it’s time to find a better story to tell.
But suppose the obstacles your hero faces involve athletic competition, hard labor, racial prejudice, poverty, romantic rivalry, pregnancy, drug abuse, dishonesty, corruption, disease or death?
Some of these situations might also involve violent confrontation, but they don’t have to. More often the obstacles involve ignorance, obsession, physical weakness, failure, separation, dishonesty and manipulation.
And what if those external conflicts are combined with the wounds and fears that create inner conflict?
What if your heroes believe they are weak, isolated, unloved, unforgivable, or worthless, and as a result are desperate for wealth, fame, status, power, control, escape, or isolation?
These added inner conflicts are what make your stories universal. They tap into the pain and fear we all share, and they give us a sense of the courage that we all long for.
These universal conflicts move audiences deeply and powerfully. And storytellers who tap into them can achieve monumental success.
If you don’t believe me, just notice that the conflicts listed above are all illustrated in F1, Sinners, Green Book, Marty Supreme, Hamnet, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, A Star is Born or One Battle After Another – all current or former Oscar nominees for Best Picture.
So to Dan, I’d say this. Whether you’re creating your signature story for the stage or the page, or longing to write a script or a novel that will change people’s lives, you have plenty of conflict to draw from. Just look deeper into your own history, and your own struggles.
Whatever you have accomplished, it wasn’t without challenges and setbacks. Whatever got you from where you began to where you are now, that journey wasn’t without hardship and pain. Find those moments of struggle and sadness and ask yourself how you overcame them, and how you learned and grew from your failures.
Look deeper into the fears that held you back, and the moments of quiet courage you’ve found as you moved through your life.
Then look to those closest to you who confronted their own challenges and fears. You’ve been married 40 years (!), so the two of you had to have struggled through problems and conflicts as you shared your pain and celebrated your triumphs.
Use all of these experiences as a foundation for the conflict you want to introduce into your stories. Then the characters you create will resonate with you and will come to life.
Stop trying to write about characters and actions you can’t imagine, and write about those you can, because you’ve seen and experienced their struggles first hand.
These are the stories that will touch your audiences deeply, and these are the stories they long to hear.
– Michael
P.S. In the next two newsletters, I’m going to offer two terrific examples of emotionally powerful stories that succeed through their brilliant use of conflict: the film Bohemian Rhapsody, and an early autobiographical speech by Tony Robbins.
Stay tuned!
Check out the other articles in this series:
In the past few weeks, I keep thinking: When is the next article coming? Why is he taking so long? What could he say that will be helpful?
Now we have it. And the advice connects to another difficult area — how to elicit emotion.
So insightful. So useful. Much food for thought. I’m still pondering.
How to show on screen these conflicts? A great entry for using my most creative skills.
I’ll be putting this advice to good use during the next days (hopefully not too many) until the next installment.
Thanks so much, Michael!
Michael Hauge, what do you charge to read the first ten pages of a screenplay? Pauline Hetrick
Don’t forget the cardinal Michael Hauge rule of character discovery and development: “I will do anything to achieve (my goal) — but please don’t ask me to do (X). Because (X) is the one thing that would be the end of me. To do (X) would destroy my *identity.* Don’t even ask me to THINK about it!”
Take the long road to making your character deny, avoid, deflect from, defer, and finally (when there’s really no other choice) deal with (X), and you have a story with a character who has outer AND inner conflict.
That’s what I learned from the Michael Hauge Shrek analysis. Seek it out, people!
When I saw that this article was written by Michael Hauge, I was pleased. I read and watch everything I can from or about you, because there will always be something in it for me to learn. You have an understandable way of explaining things, making everything easy. You speak to everyone on their level. I know I will always get something out of it. Michael Hague is an exceptionally good teacher.
So I’m starting out in screenwriting. When I tell people about my ideas in person people like it and I shared my logline in class but when I share it with people online they keep telling it’s not very interesting because it’s redundant and it’s been done before.
I do have a conflict and it does elicit an emotional response. My screenwriting friend told me it’s deep. But others mainly people online who I’ve talked to all said it sounds like it had a birdbox feel. However isn’t all films a bit redundant? I actually had a dream about this and trying to make it sound original but people keep telling me it sounds like this movie and that movie.
Great article! Thanks Michael. I think this kind of conflict really does require a writer to dig deep and, above all, to find the emotional truth of a situation as people act upon one another in a relationship. Each is striving for what they want. Both have difficulties and obstacles to overcome. And in the relationship between Freddie and Mary, neither wants to hurt the other. This is the kind of complexity that holds my interest when I watch a film or read a book. I believe it serves one of the most important functions of story-telling, which is to help us understand one another better and become more compassionate.
Great article. So helpful.
To Snady: don’t take everything people say to heart – especially the negative. If the Hollywood folks in your circle are encouraging, then take it and ignore the online trolls.
Also, it’s just a logline. Have you got a full outline yet? You are so early in the story process that your story may (and should) end up way different than what you think it is now. Michael’s friend, Chris Vogel spoke about this on a podcast I was listening to today.
Moreover, if you understand what makes a good story,a broken/wounded hero, after a strong VISIBLE and achievable goal, and an opponent/s there to block your hero – even himself, and have this embedded in your logline, it will end up being original by the time you write – Fade Out.
Thank you so much for this article. I have much in common with Dan. Although there was a lot of conflict in my family, I tended to avoid it wherever I could. My first book had not one ounce of conflict in it whatsoever. It is still not easy for me, but this really helps.
Michael, this is great and sorts out some questions I had. Oddly enough, the kind of conflicts I deal with are the mundane horrors of life and they can cut pretty deep. Thank you.
Sadly, a film I recently saw actually had as some of the last words the same last words i had planned for my screenplay. Augh! If i ever finish it though i hope it won’t matter since the whole plot is very different and the words have a different setting.
@Snady, stop telling people about your scene/plot it’s clearly not doing you any good (aha! Conflict!) and it doesn’t matter what it “sounds like” etc, it only matters once it’s written and acted. Then it’s a thing.
Just write the thing, make the scene and then they’ll see. And really it doesn’t matter anyway, you’re writing for you and your audience.
God bless you, Michael. Your articles are always simple but very profound. You’re such a brilliant couch.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Always what I need when I need it most.
Its really amazing……….
Very well put and a necessary commentary on the same-ol,’ same-ol’ palaver that abounds among screenwriting gurus. I do wish everyone in the writing community would just stop using the word “conflict.” The word is misleading and confusing and not illustrative of the issue at hand, which is that the writer must put obstacles in the path of the hero or heroine’s quest. And as Mr Hauge discusses, an obstacle can be anything from an emotional barrier or poverty to an abusive husband, a sexual predator, a sadistic policeman or the Great Wall of China. It’s something to be overcome.
Exactly what I need to read today ❤️. 🙏.
Thanks mentor, I read your advice 15 years ago when I came to film scene. Thanks for uplifting the life of wannabes. Thanks very much