One of the most important elements in any story, romance or otherwise, is the conflict”¦in my humble opinion. I’ve mentioned in other blog posts at various places that I grew tired of formulaic romance a long time ago and one of the reason why is because they lack real conflict. I will concede that an unplanned pregnancy is a conflict on many levels, but let’s face it. In today’s society it’s rarely frowned upon, therefore there goes about a dozen or so reasons it would be a conflict to begin with. And sometimes an unplanned pregnancy is reason for celebration”¦again, robs it of the conflict element right away. Anywho”¦yeah, formula romance just doesn’t do it for me. I crave conflict.
My fellow writers and my editor long ago dubbed me the Conflict *****. Fill in the blank”¦I’m sure you can guess. Trying to be a good girl, I opted for Queen today. ïŠ So, I am Queen Conflict and I want to introduce you to my royal court today.
My King is quite authoritative and knowledgeable so we’ll turn to him for the mere definition of conflict. Yes, dear take it away.
Hum, hum”¦according to our good friend Mr. Webster of County Dictionary, a conflict is: a clash between hostile or opposing elements, ideas, or forces.
Thank you dear. Most appreciated. And just what is the purpose of this conflict that you speak of?
It adds drama, suspense, and excitement, love”¦
Wonderful! Just what we want in our romance. So, in order to achieve this we must create chaos for our characters. All hail, chaos! Okey, doke”¦how do we do that exactly? By giving our characters enough problems to send them to therapy for years.
There are two kinds of conflict: external and internal. External comes in several forms including but not limited to””man v. man, man v. nature, man v. society, man v. machine, or man v. a supernatural force. Seems simple enough right? How many of these can we give our poor unsuspecting hero”¦let’s say, Trent””yeah that’s his name, is trying to get to our heroine’s house to apologize for being a complete jerk, but he hadn’t planned on a sudden thunderstorm coming out of nowhere making it near impossible to see the road. Before he knows it his car skids off the road uncontrollably winding upside down in a drainage ditch and now poor Trent is unconscious. How many did we get in there”¦nature, and machine. Heck we can do better than that can’t we? So, he wakes in the hospital three weeks later to discover he’s paralyzed. He now has a huge issue with God and he’s not too happy with his wheelchair””that covers a couple of more””supernatural force and a machine. Come on Trent what else can we do to you”¦it just happens that he was a professional bull rider who’s now unable to do his job and everywhere he goes people look at him with sympathy which he hates””and there’s society knocking on his door.
I’ll just bet a few of you out there have been writing these conflicts already and had no idea you were, and really didn’t know to expound upon them to create the most drama possible for your character to overcome. Now you know. Let’s see on to some internal conflict, my favorite kind.
Internal conflict happens in our characters’ heads and hearts. They could include self-doubt, moral dilemmas, trust issues, or having to decide between two or more courses of action. How does that apply to Trent exactly? Like he hasn’t been through enough already right? Well, what’s his girlfriend going through? Ooooooohhhhh”¦yeah, she’s got to have her own bundle of crap to deal with. So, Jolie”¦what’s going on with you darlin’? For three weeks she wonders where the hell Trent is””see no one knew they were dating, therefore no one knew to call her. She sits and waits and wonders why he didn’t come back and won’t answer her calls. Oh, I do believe I hear self-doubt knocking on her door. “You’re not good enough, you weren’t worth his time, he forgot about you in a matter of hours.” Three weeks later, she gets a call. From Trent. Who’s in the hospital. Oh dear, is that guilt rearing its ugly head? She races to his bedside to discover his paralyzed state and she begins to question if she can settle for “half” a man”¦
See how fun conflict can be? Now, I’m one to take it to extremes of course. For instance in my latest release, Three for Keeps, you’d think that one woman in love with three men would be conflict enough for me. Wrong. They all have a host of external and internal conflicts to deal with on their own. Oh, yes, I am indeed Queen Conflict”¦
Zoey Matthews is in love. She’s been in love since the day she was dropped off by a social worker at yet another foster home on a back country road miles from nowhere, Missouri. At age ten, she met the men of her dreams. Over the course of sixteen years, Dane Cardwell, Jack Devereux and Ryan Wilkins fell in love with her, too. They’ve each told her they love her, they’ve shown her and each man has gone so far as to ask her to marry him. But what they don’t know is Zoey loves them all.
Her game of kiss and not tell all comes crashing down around her the night of her graduation from veterinary school and Zoey runs for the mountains. Of Colorado. Hoping to outrun her obsession with three men and forget them all together, she stays gone for ten years. But the wound has never healed. In fact, it’s done nothing but fester. Needing to clear the air, Zoey agrees to spend a few days back home with the boys never imagining it would turn into a week filled with comparison sex as Dane, Jack and Ryan each try to get Zoey to choose between them and their varied tastes.
When she finally tells the truth, a truth only one of them has known all along, Zoey fears the foursome will never be able to make a sharing relationship work. After all, aren’t there just too many personalities and desires to sort through? Add in the kink factor and things get really complicated. Zoey’s not convinced the truth has any merit, but there’s one thing she knows for sure”¦this time she’s playing for keeps.
You can keep up with me at: http://lilamunro.weebly.com and you can purchase Three for Keeps at: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-threeforkeeps-641736-144.html
I’ll be sharing more of Three for Keeps throughout the day”¦.
Lila Munro
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