If you’ve heard it before, you’re going to keep hearing it. Conflict makes a good story. But it can’t just be a simple problem. It should start as something wrong and snowball into a catastrophe by the climax of the story. You do this by broadening and deepening the conflict over the span of the book.
Broadening The Conflict
One way to increase the tension of a conflict is to broaden it. This means adding more people who are effected by the problem. If it’s a murder mystery, you can add more victims, suspects, and clues. If it’s a romance, you can add more romantic interests or more ex-girlfriends from the past. The more people involved, the more complicated the conflict. As each new person is effected by the issue, the readers will be pulled into the story anew.
Deepening The Conflict
Another way to heighten the tension in a story is to deepen the conflict. This occurs when the protagonist is pulled further into the conflict and there is no chance of running away from it. Deepening the conflict also means you make it more personal to the protagonist. Make the next murder victim a loved one. Let the lover do something that triggers a traumatic childhood memory. Find ways to make the outer conflict grow into an inner conflict as well. If something is effecting the character’s emotions, it will effect your reader and draw them further into the story.
Final Thoughts
By broadening and deepening the story conflicts, writers can grow the problems into disasters for the protagonist to face. It forces your characters to stretch further and grow more so they can overcome the obstacles. The bigger the conflict, the greater the triumph, and the happier the readers.
Thanks for reading!
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