Guest Post: How and Why Character and Conflict Should Interact in Fiction by Jacqueline Seewald

 Please welcome Jaqueline Seewald to the blog today...

How and Why Character and Conflict Should Interact in Fiction by Jacqueline Seewald

To write the kind of fiction readers can’t or won’t put down: Create compelling conflict. Perfection is boring. So is a dull life. For example, the writer creates a character whose life seems to be going along beautifully until things twist around. Example: a successful executive is suddenly fired. A talented surgeon is involved in an accident losing the use of a hand. Each individual must learn to surmount obstacles. These are some ways character and conflict interact.

 

In my mystery novel BLOOD FAMILY, Kim Reynold’s life is going well. But she’s troubled by not knowing anything about her biological father. Just when she succeeds in locating him, her father dies under suspicious circumstances. She soon finds herself in conflict with a family she’d never known. As she investigates further, her life is put in jeopardy.

 

The writer needs to set up values and goals unique to the character/protagonist. The plot must fit the character. Which should come first? Plot or character? Either one. They just have to work well together. Plots have a chain of cause and effect relationships, not just what happens, which is the story, but why things happen the way they do. Clearly, this brings character into play. It is important to initially define the main characters--what they want, what motivates and drives their needs.

 

I try to start a book or story in medias res, beginning in the middle of a scene of some significance. Something important should be happening. Dialogue and action are crucial. I don’t want a static beginning.

 

I suggest the writer intrigue the reader by starting with some form of mystery. Make readers curious from the first and then keep them guessing.

 

Think of the middle of the novel as rising action (Aristotle’s words). What happens grows organically from what occurs in the beginning. The protagonist runs into difficulties and can’t easily solve them. Don’t slow the pace. Keep the tension building. Increase the danger and/or the obstacles. This goes for any genre of fiction whether it is romance, sci-fi, mystery, literary etc.

 

Comments welcome. 

  

Jaqueline Seewald ©2020 

Jacqueline Seewald most recent mystery novel is Blood Family. Her short stories, poems, essays, reviews and articles have appeared in hundreds of diverse publications and numerous anthologies. Her writer’s blog can be found at: http://jacquelineseewald.blogspot.com