Conflict is fun!

[TheLowKing]

You know why people watch soap operas? It's not for the stellar acting, the profound story arcs, or the fascinating setting:

John the carpenter's wife Mary has an affair with the much younger Steve the bartender, but he's her step-sister's son. She gets pregnant... with quintuplets! John doesn't realize Mary is cheating on him, because he's gripped in an intense rivalry with Shelly the seamstress' father James, and it's this close to coming to blows... so why does he look longingly at James whenever James isn't looking? Meanwhile Shelly's long-lost son Edward just came back to the village after 20 years, having been presumed lost at sea! He had a DNA test done, and he's brought the result in an unopened envelope. Whoa!

I hammered this out in a minute flat. (OK, fine, 3 minutes.) It's stupid, silly, superficial garbage. But there's drama! Excitement! Intrigue! Conflict! It's obviously ridiculous... but it's fun!

In real life, being part of a team that has a unified goal, that works together well, whose skills complement each other, who make up for each other's weaknesses... is fucking glorious. A once in a lifetime experience. A world like that would be wonderful.

But if you're writing fiction?

Boooooooooring!

Happiness is dull. A scene consisting of two people fighting (physically, verbally, or otherwise) is 10 times more enjoyable to read and write than one consisting of the same two people cooperating harmoniously to achieve their shared goal.

So make sure your story has a decent amount of conflict. Your company of adventurers entering a dungeon should not all get along. The Elf is prejudiced against the Orc. The rogue is greedy and steals from the shared coin purse. The overeager teenager takes far too many risks. The druid is a suspiciously effective healer, and the cleric suspects them of using Forbidden Magicks. And all the while, one of them might secretly be working for the malignant spirit who resides at the bottom floor of the dungeon. Clashing personalities, conflicting goals, intrigue and betrayals, schisms and redemption! Oh my!

 

[Hvast]

I think... it depends. I am actually tired of modern media overdoing it. You seldom find a group of people who feel like actual friends who work together. Sure, conflict is necessary for any story but character vs character is not the only source of it. Also, if you have a harmonious group working together, then few conflicts between them that do happen will have a much greater impact.

 

[Zeebop]

This is something I ran into with Good Sex. Writing purely happy fun content wholesome lovey-doveyness just isn't very appealing. It may hold for a scene, but it's conflict that tends to draw people in, and gives an opportunity to heighten the emotional appeal of the erotic scenes.

 

[TheLowKing]

I think... it depends. I am actually tired of modern media overdoing it. You seldom find a group of people who feel like actual friends who work together. Sure, conflict is necessary for any story but character vs character is not the only source of it. Also, if you have a harmonious group working together, then few conflicts between them that do happen will have a much greater impact.

Yeah, there is such a thing as overdoing it. The worst kind of drama is that which only occurs because no one fucking talks to each other. Infuriating.

I edited the OP to say "a decent amount of conflict" instead of "lots of conflict".

 

[MichaelChaseLit]

You know why people watch soap operas? It's not for the stellar acting, the profound story arcs, or the fascinating setting:

John the carpenter's wife Mary has an affair with the much younger Steve the bartender, but he's her step-sister's son. She gets pregnant... with quintuplets! John doesn't realize Mary is cheating on him, because he's gripped in an intense rivalry with Shelly the seamstress' father James, and it's this close to coming to blows... so why does he look longingly at James whenever James isn't looking? Meanwhile Shelly's long-lost son Edward just came back to the village after 20 years, having been presumed lost at sea! He had a DNA test done, and he's brought the result in an unopened envelope. Whoa!

I hammered this out in a minute flat. (OK, fine, 3 minutes.) It's stupid, silly, superficial garbage. But there's drama! Excitement! Intrigue! Conflict! It's obviously ridiculous... but it's fun!

In real life, being part of a team that has a unified goal, that works together well, whose skills complement each other, who make up for each other's weaknesses... is fucking glorious. A once in a lifetime experience. A world like that would be wonderful.

But if you're writing fiction?

Boooooooooring!

Happiness is dull. A scene consisting of two people fighting (physically, verbally, or otherwise) is 10 times more enjoyable to read and write than one consisting of the same two people cooperating harmoniously to achieve their shared goal.

So make sure your story has a decent amount of conflict. Your company of adventurers entering a dungeon should not all get along. The Elf is prejudiced against the Orc. The rogue is greedy and steals from the shared coin purse. The overeager teenager takes far too many risks. The druid is a suspiciously effective healer, and the cleric suspects them of using Forbidden Magicks. And all the while, one of them might secretly be working for the malignant spirit who resides at the bottom floor of the dungeon. Clashing personalities, conflicting goals, intrigue and betrayals, schisms and redemption! Oh my!

I definitely agree, for the most part. I *do* think you need the happy moments as a sort of juxtaposition to the drama; if it’s bad thing after bad thing after bad thing, it’s whatever… but throw a moment of joy in there? The glee being torn to shreds when the next bad thing happens greatly exaggerates any pain that can be given.

also, it’s very fun to write drama/ bad things happening and it’s very… boring?… to write happiness.

 

[lady-lux]

I'd say that some kind of conflict is essential to any story, and since it can't always be conflict with "the bad guys" (who, if they do exist, may be abstract or absent much of the time), it's often necessary for some that conflict to be between the protagonists. So the challenge is to ensure that it feels organic, not forced purely for the sake of drama, and that it doesn't leave all the main characters coming across as unlikeable jerks who the reader simply doesn't care about. As always, it comes back to some kind of balance.

Conflict among the protagonists is also useful for the "show, don't tell" principle: it lets us reveal the different traits of characters organically. Rather than simply saying that this character is very neat and orderly, we can show their clashes and frustrations with this other character who is more relaxed/messy/disorganised. This is (I think?) what is originally meant by one character being a "foil" to another: that the clashes in their personalities highlight their different strengths and weakness. And it feeds character development by giving them each directions in which they can grow.

One other factor on this site in particular, though, is that a lot of people are seemingly here looking for a power fantasy in which the main character is never challenged in any meaningful way, which just neutralises whatever sense of conflict might exist. That type of story doesn't appeal to me at all, but the popularity of them speaks for itself.

 

[Zeebop]

Also, some conflicts work better for erotic stories than others.

Man vs. Man is the most common. It could be two rivals for the affection of another, or enemies-to-lovers as working against one another turns into something more, or just a dude trying to get into the pants of every woman available.

Man vs. Self isn't too uncommon. An individual struggles with their own sexual hangups or desires. A lot of transformation/sissification/feminization/bimbofication fic also plays with this, as the individual is fighting (and often losing) to what is happening to them, but it also holds true for puberty (well, not on CHYOA), losing your virginity, old age, and pregnancy, with all the mental, physical, and social hangups that come with that.

Man vs. Nature is fairly rare in erotica. You seldom see a story where dudes are inconvenienced because they want to fuck, but the storm is raging and it's hard to keep an erection when the lightning is coming down, or the beach sand gets in your ass crack. Occasionally you get scenarios like "We need to fuck in our sleeping bag or we'll freeze to death," but the emphasis is usually less on survival and more the general scenario, so there's less conflict.

Man vs. Society is a good one, although it's usually difficult to put a sexy face on fighting the faceless laws, bureaucracy, or sexual norms that prevent you from achieving whatever level of sexual gratification is the prize. I think there's more of this in a low-key way these days because of the rise in bigotry against LGBTQ+ folks, so you could have a sexy story about a gay couple wanting to get married and facing hurdles, or someone that wants to transition and facing negative blowback from their family and coworkers.

Man vs. Machine is often essentially a science fiction story. Traditionally this would be the Terminator with a hardon or the overly controlling computer a la HAL 9000, but today there's all sorts of bimbofication apps and things that can come into play for a near-contemporary setting.

Man vs. Supernatural is very common with fantasy stories, and I don't necessarily mean Orcs and Elves, but things like supernatural curses, wish-granting entities, etc. that give an inexplicable reality-altering phenomenon that the protagonist has to deal with.

Man vs. Fate is traditional (Oedipus, anyone?), but there's less a sense of destiny in today's world. You could still have a prophecy issued from any source and the individual will strive to avoid it; maybe the classic setup is "I don't want to die a virgin!" and the quest is less about getting in a girl's pants than dealing with the overhanging idea of missing out.

Man vs. God is very uncommon, and I think that's less the blasphemy angle than the fact that spiritual conflict often takes a back seat to desires of the flesh, and once you've indulged the latter arguing about the former isn't on many folks' menu. I do think there are some good ideas here, especially when dealing with religious taboos and norms regarding sexuality and seeking spiritual guidance on the same. Making that sexy is the real trick.

 

[TheLowKing]

That's a great list!

Man vs. Self

"I have no cock and I must fuck".

"We need to fuck in our sleeping bag or we'll freeze to death"

My favourite story of this type was one where a mother and son get stuck in a car in a blizzard, and she had to survive by drinking his cum. Yep.

Man vs. Society is a good one, although it's usually difficult to put a sexy face on fighting the faceless laws, bureaucracy, or sexual norms that prevent you from achieving whatever level of sexual gratification is the prize. I think there's more of this in a low-key way these days because of the rise in bigotry against LGBTQ+ folks, so you could have a sexy story about a gay couple wanting to get married and facing hurdles, or someone that wants to transition and facing negative blowback from their family and coworkers.

Stories that focus on taboo kinks probably fall under this, too? Which would make it pretty common.

 

[Impregmaniac]

What about Man Vs. Life, where the individual's life just fucking sucks, but they must still trudge along nonetheless because of reasons outside their control? And all they want is for it to not suck for a little while?

 

[Dansak]

I feel slightly called out, conflict is rare in my stories, so too are character flaws. I know full well that both are essential but they are a weakness I have in my writing. At least I am aware of it and try to do better but more often than not it just doesn't come out right.

Great post with brilliant advice.

 

[TheLowKing]

I feel slightly called out

Mostly I called out myself. I'm the kind of person who always chooses to do good in video games because I don't like hurting the feelings of fictional characters.

Similarly, when writing, I have a tendency to consider all characters a reflection of myself, so obviously I want them to be nice and friendly and rational, and once they're that, it can be hard to foster conflict between them. What has helped me is consciously placing some secondary characters outside of myself, casting them as adversaries (not enemies!) both in the story and in my mind. This allows them to do things I never would, and for other characters to resist, which basically guarantees conflict.

For example, in the story I'm currently working on/publishing, Gwen is a brat. She's annoying, manipulative, talks back, and is generally an all-around nuisance. And now my natural desire to do good actually helps create conflict: she's bad, so she deserves for bad things to happen to her, and when they do, that's a good thing. It's not malice, it's righteous justice!

 

[Dansak]

Mostly I called out myself. I'm the kind of person who always chooses to do good in video games because I don't like hurting the feelings of fictional characters.

Similarly, when writing, I have a tendency to consider all characters a reflection of myself, so obviously I want them to be nice and friendly and rational, and once they're that, it's can be hard to foster conflict between them. What has helped me is consciously placing some secondary characters outside of myself, casting them as adversaries (not enemies!) both in the story and in my mind. This allows them to do things I never would, for other characters to resist, basically guaranteeing conflict.

For example, in the story I'm currently working on/publishing, Gwen is a brat. She's annoying, manipulative, talks back, and is generally an all-around nuisance. And now my natural desire to do good actually helps create conflict: she's bad, so she deserves for bad things to happen to her, and when they do, that's a good thing. It's not malice, it's righteous justice!

I don't know why I find it so hard to write conflict and character flaws. Maybe it is because I primarily write for my own sanity, I find it cathartic and calming, so perhaps I'm shying away from conflict because of the reason I write in the first place.

But if I am going to improve my writing then I need to tackle this issue. I'm in the middle of writing something for CHYOA now and it's going very well, but has zero conflict, besides a little internal conflict for the protagonist. I'm going to look at where I can insert some conflict, the book club in the sleepy village where it's based could do with a little drama I think!