HOME | DD

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

I know, I know, there are more than two types of conflict. You've done got click baited!

The Two Types of Conflict
Conflict is the most important tool a writer can use to make their story more engaging. The main type people focus on is the conflict between their heroes (protagonists) and their opponents (antagonists). I call this inter-conflict, meaning conflict between two groups.

But there is another type of conflict which can often be overlooked: the conflict between your heroes and between your antagonists. I call this intra-conflict, meaning conflict within a group.

In this guide, I'll be talking about these two types of conflict and how you can facilitate them in your story through the use of conflict causing traits and conflict solving traits.

Why They're Both Important
Inter-conflict is important because it's the bread-and-butter of your story. Inter-conflict drives the story because both groups are competing for the same thing (or at least they should be, otherwise why would they be competing against each other?)

Intra-conflict is essential in your story for three reasons:
Arguments Happen - People always argue and disagree with members of their group. If there isn't any intra-conflict, the group can seem unrealistic and you're missing out on a fantastic opportunity to create additional conflict.
Closer Relationships Means Higher Stakes - People often have stronger relationships with those in their group as opposed to those outside their group. The close relationship between characters will often raise the personal stakes of the conflict.
It Creates an Exploitable Weakness - Intra-conflict will create a weakness in one of your groups. This gives you an amazing opportunity to have the other group exploit that weakness to cripple their opponent. This is where intra-conflict is used to escalate the inter-conflict.
Don't forget that this goes both ways. You'll want your opponents exploiting your heroes' group as well as your heroes exploiting your opponents' group.

How to Facilitate Inter- and Intra- Conflict in Your Story
The easiest way to facilitate inter- and intra- conflict is to diversify your cast on a character level as soon as possible, giving each character traits which will cause and/ or 'solve' both types of conflict.

There are many ways to do this, but I prefer using something I call conflict causing traits and conflict solving traits. I've defined both below:
Conflict Causing Trait - A trait (or opinion or piece of backstory) which has the potential to cause conflict with other characters and matches another character's conflict causing trait in a way which will create friction between them.Conflict Causing Trait - A trait (or opinion or piece of backstory) which is designed to either balance out or reduce the negative impact of another character's conflict causing trait, or provide an opportunity for another character to learn to overcome their conflict causing trait, etc.
Choosing Conflict Causing Traits

You want the conflict causing trait to be a large part of the characters life. For the best dramatic effect, it needs to be a source of pain and it needs to hinder their growth as a character. You also want it to have the potential to cause conflict with both their opponents and allies.

Because of this, I prefer to match a character's conflict causing trait with their most prominent character weakness/ flaw or their justification for this weakness (see point 2 and 3 here) . I'll also sometimes match it with their surface desire or character change (point 1 and 5 in the same tutorial respectively).

For example, our heroes conflict causing trait is their primary weakness, the ruthless use of black truths without caring who the truth hurts.

Matching Conflict Causing Traits

Choosing a conflict causing trait for one character is easy. The hard part is giving another character a conflict causing trait which creates conflict between the two characters. These two traits will connect the characters with an invisible string you'll pluck more frequently and intensely as the story progresses.

These traits don't need to be black and white. You don't need to counter loyal with unloyal or lies with truth. The more imaginative these conflict causing traits match up, the better.

For example, here are a few potential matching conflict causing traits for the black truth example used above:
An ally/ opponent who is always deceptive. They use black lies to protect themselves and their allies.
An ally who is starting to use white lies to bring about good. The hero completely opposes this, causing conflict as both try to defend their views.
Choosing a Matching Conflict Solving Trait

Conflict solving traits don't have to be peacekeeping abilities or negotiation skills. They're simply traits and characteristics designed to balance, counteract or nullify another characters conflict causing trait. The conflict solving trait can also act as a mechanism for another character to learn the dangers of their conflict causing trait so they can overcome it.

Again, these traits don't have to be a black and white opposite of the corresponding conflict causing trait.

For example, here are a few conflict solving traits to match our black truth conflict causing trait:
An ally/ opponent has this trait but to a greater extent. The hero can learn how damaging the trait is by witnessing either the opponents bad behaviour or their allies fall from grace.
An ally is deeply compassionate and empathetic. They use these traits to teach the hero how some truths shouldn't be told, or shouldn't be told in such a destructive manner.
The hero learns their closest ally has been deeply scarred by the actions of someone else with the trait in the past.
The End
And that's all I have to say on inter- and intra-conflict. Implementing this in your story will be a lot less straightforward than I've made it look in this guide, but I promise your perseverance will pay off.

Also, don't forget that this isn't the only way to facilitate both types of conflict in your story. Take this guide with a grain of salt and experiment until the method works for you. Or conclude that it's a load of old rubbish. Either way, I'd love to hear your thoughts down below!

Forget inter- and intra-conflict,
my life's full of internal conflict
on whether or not to eat at McDonalds.
Sincerely,
M.K. Conan.

Description
body div#devskin0 hr { }

I know, I know, there are more than two types of conflict. You've done got click baited!

The Two Types of Conflict
Conflict is the most important tool a writer can use to make their story more engaging. The main type people focus on is the conflict between their heroes (protagonists) and their opponents (antagonists). I call this inter-conflict, meaning conflict between two groups.

But there is another type of conflict which can often be overlooked: the conflict between your heroes and between your antagonists. I call this intra-conflict, meaning conflict within a group.

In this guide, I'll be talking about these two types of conflict and how you can facilitate them in your story through the use of conflict causing traits and conflict solving traits.

Why They're Both Important
Inter-conflict is important because it's the bread-and-butter of your story. Inter-conflict drives the story because both groups are competing for the same thing (or at least they should be, otherwise why would they be competing against each other?)

Intra-conflict is essential in your story for three reasons:
Arguments Happen - People always argue and disagree with members of their group. If there isn't any intra-conflict, the group can seem unrealistic and you're missing out on a fantastic opportunity to create additional conflict.
Closer Relationships Means Higher Stakes - People often have stronger relationships with those in their group as opposed to those outside their group. The close relationship between characters will often raise the personal stakes of the conflict.
It Creates an Exploitable Weakness - Intra-conflict will create a weakness in one of your groups. This gives you an amazing opportunity to have the other group exploit that weakness to cripple their opponent. This is where intra-conflict is used to escalate the inter-conflict.
Don't forget that this goes both ways. You'll want your opponents exploiting your heroes' group as well as your heroes exploiting your opponents' group.

How to Facilitate Inter- and Intra- Conflict in Your Story
The easiest way to facilitate inter- and intra- conflict is to diversify your cast on a character level as soon as possible, giving each character traits which will cause and/ or 'solve' both types of conflict.

There are many ways to do this, but I prefer using something I call conflict causing traits and conflict solving traits. I've defined both below:
Conflict Causing Trait - A trait (or opinion or piece of backstory) which has the potential to cause conflict with other characters and matches another character's conflict causing trait in a way which will create friction between them.Conflict Causing Trait - A trait (or opinion or piece of backstory) which is designed to either balance out or reduce the negative impact of another character's conflict causing trait, or provide an opportunity for another character to learn to overcome their conflict causing trait, etc.
Choosing Conflict Causing Traits

You want the conflict causing trait to be a large part of the characters life. For the best dramatic effect, it needs to be a source of pain and it needs to hinder their growth as a character. You also want it to have the potential to cause conflict with both their opponents and allies.

Because of this, I prefer to match a character's conflict causing trait with their most prominent character weakness/ flaw or their justification for this weakness (see point 2 and 3 here) . I'll also sometimes match it with their surface desire or character change (point 1 and 5 in the same tutorial respectively).

For example, our heroes conflict causing trait is their primary weakness, the ruthless use of black truths without caring who the truth hurts.

Matching Conflict Causing Traits

Choosing a conflict causing trait for one character is easy. The hard part is giving another character a conflict causing trait which creates conflict between the two characters. These two traits will connect the characters with an invisible string you'll pluck more frequently and intensely as the story progresses.

These traits don't need to be black and white. You don't need to counter loyal with unloyal or lies with truth. The more imaginative these conflict causing traits match up, the better.

For example, here are a few potential matching conflict causing traits for the black truth example used above:
An ally/ opponent who is always deceptive. They use black lies to protect themselves and their allies.
An ally who is starting to use white lies to bring about good. The hero completely opposes this, causing conflict as both try to defend their views.
Choosing a Matching Conflict Solving Trait

Conflict solving traits don't have to be peacekeeping abilities or negotiation skills. They're simply traits and characteristics designed to balance, counteract or nullify another characters conflict causing trait. The conflict solving trait can also act as a mechanism for another character to learn the dangers of their conflict causing trait so they can overcome it.

Again, these traits don't have to be a black and white opposite of the corresponding conflict causing trait.

For example, here are a few conflict solving traits to match our black truth conflict causing trait:
An ally/ opponent has this trait but to a greater extent. The hero can learn how damaging the trait is by witnessing either the opponents bad behaviour or their allies fall from grace.
An ally is deeply compassionate and empathetic. They use these traits to teach the hero how some truths shouldn't be told, or shouldn't be told in such a destructive manner.
The hero learns their closest ally has been deeply scarred by the actions of someone else with the trait in the past.
The End
And that's all I have to say on inter- and intra-conflict. Implementing this in your story will be a lot less straightforward than I've made it look in this guide, but I promise your perseverance will pay off.

Also, don't forget that this isn't the only way to facilitate both types of conflict in your story. Take this guide with a grain of salt and experiment until the method works for you. Or conclude that it's a load of old rubbish. Either way, I'd love to hear your thoughts down below!

Forget inter- and intra-conflict,
my life's full of internal conflict
on whether or not to eat at McDonalds.
Sincerely,
M.K. Conan.