A week ago I began a new series of articles revealing the many ways you can use CONFLICT to achieve your ultimate objective as a storyteller: eliciting emotion.
The biggest reason we all lean into compelling stories is because we want to FEEL something. So to capture and captivate your audience’s rapt attention, and to move them to take action that can change their lives, you must give them an emotional experience they won’t forget.
So over the next few weeks I’m going to show you how to do just that.
Enjoy!
Almost seven years ago, Tiger Woods won the Masters Golf Tournament for the 5th time in his career.
Witnessing this was an amazing, wonderful, and long-awaited experience. And it was the greatest individual comeback in sports – ever.
As you may have guessed, I’m a big fan of golf and of Tiger Woods.
Yes, I’m one of the fortunate few who appreciate the excitement of watching people in polo shirts wandering around acres of trees and grass to hit a ball with a stick. But even if you’re not as passionate or obsessive as I am, you probably still heard about this particular event. Photos of Tiger raising his arms in victory appeared on the front pages of every major newspaper in the U.S. (along with media outlets all over the world).
So the question I want to ask is…Why?
Why all the fascination and recognition and reactions to this one event, when athletic competitions are won and records are broken in a multitude of sports every year? Why this victory, when Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer of this era (and many would say ever) had won before – 80 times, in fact? Tiger was already a legend, and his countless achievements had received an avalanche of publicity long before 2019.
But it was never anything like the response to this particular victory.
So why this time?
The answer is simple: conflict.
The obstacles Tiger had to overcome were so great, and the odds so stacked against him, that his victory captured everyone’s attention and emotion.
Just two years prior, Tiger was so crippled by back problems that he declared he was done with golf. He was in so much pain that at times he couldn’t walk or even stand. He’d undergone numerous surgeries, culminating in a spinal fusion that would have ended the careers of most golfers.
The fact that Tiger battled back from this to be able to play again and be a contender was amazing enough. But it had been 7 years since Tiger had won any major tournament.
And this was the Masters, the most prestigious tournament in golf, with the most coveted prize. So Tiger was competing with the top-ranked golfers in the world, almost all of them younger than he was.
Tiger was 43 years old. He was no longer the golfer who could outdrive everyone and intimidate all his competitors.
For any golfer, the pressure of being at the top of the leaderboard at the Masters is monumental. So imagine what it was for Tiger. He had to win one more major tournament just to prove he was still Tiger.
So all those obstacles – the pain and the surgeries and the endless practice and the younger, stronger competitors and the overwhelming expectations – were what stood between Tiger and his goal. And each one of them added more conflict to his story.
This is what makes Tiger’s story so exciting, suspenseful, and fulfilling. The gut wrenching anxiety we felt as we watched him inch closer to the possibility of winning, transported us from our own lives to Augusta National.
On that final day, with his ultimate victory, Tiger made the world feel inspired and fulfilled.
As a storyteller, whether you want to entertain and inspire an audience, grow your business and your brand, or change people’s lives for the better, you must master the art of creating conflict for your characters.
– Michael
P.S. Next week, I’ll go deeper into this powerful path to emotion by exploring the difference between Conflict and Combat. See you then!
Read the prior CONFLICT articles in this series:
Excited to read more! I get so much out of your discourses. Thank you!
Nice to hear from you, Michael! I will look forward to reading your next articles about this..
When are you coming back to your home state of Oregon again?
Martha Miller, Portland, OR
You’re killing me… How could you leave us hanging like this? 😂
Thanks for this post, Michael. I need to put more emotion into my stories.
Good reminder about conflict. I’m looking forward to your followup posts!
Can’t wait for the follow-up articles.
Thanks to YOU I’m learning the importance of conflict. You are a master. Thank you, sir.
I totally agree with needing conflict in stories. I try, and I fail. I look at other movies and television shows for examples. When I see some of the conflicts in stories, I can’t believe it could ever happen, even in fiction. So I have a problem. I am a nice person. Always have been. Never in conflicts. Same wife for 40 years. I struggle having my characters do things I could not imagine doing. When I do include conflicts, it come off like milk toast.
I also watched Tiger win the Masters. I was no longer a fan but dangit if he didn’t reel me back in with this win. That win demonstrated what one can do when you focus, be disciplined and maybe even get a little luck involved. 3 things I constantly try to improve in my writing endeavors.
I never watched Tiger play golf as it’s not a sport that interests me, until this Masters. As I was getting the CBS Sports and ESPN alerts on my phone I found myself turning on the TV and watching him win. My husband (who also is not a golf fan) came into the room and watched too. It felt like we were watching a moment in history. Thanks for the reminder.
I feel conflicted🤔 and THAT’S what we want the audience to feel. Michael is a laser beam of understanding and offers do much insight to the craft of Storytelling!!
Thank you, Michael.
Thank you!
At last, I see Michael Hauge in my inbox again.
I missed you.
Looking forward to your masterful lessons.
Tiger went through a lifetime of events in the last 10 years alone. I enjoyed your article summed up the struggle, that ended in a triumph.
I appreciate your comments about conflict and definitely could not agree with you more.
Your advice is so clear. I’m always so grateful to you for giving it so freely.
Thank you for being THE story master. I’m taking notes.
Look forward to next update and let me know if in Chicago now that I’ve returned from California.
Best.
Agree with the earlier comment by Dan. I’m a nice person. Although I understand conflict is an inevitable part of the human condition, I don’t naturally think in terms of conflict when writing. It takes a lot of effort for me to get in touch with possibilities of conflict and heighten conflict in my writing. I’m looking forward to your advice, Michael!
Wow, so good, so helpful. Thank you.
Awesome start, I look forward to reading the articles that follow
That victory had me in tears. It was so incredibly inspiring. I totally agree it was the greatest comeback in the history of sports.
make sense… looking forward to your next article.