Book in a Month: Day 4

I hate conflict. It's a fact. If there's conflict, I run screaming the other way. Well okay, I actually slink silently the other way in hopes of avoiding the conflict, but you get the idea. This is a bad thing for a writer.

Conflict is the staple of a story. Without conflict, there is no story. So how do I, as an avid flee-er of conflict, put it into my stories? Good question. It's one I'm still figuring out actually.

When I was younger and was just writing because I loved making stories up, I didn't really get that I needed conflict. Or, rather, I didn't get that I needed lots of conflict. I didn't understand that the big conflict wasn't enough, that everything in the story need to conflict with the protagonist. Everything has to go against her and make it harder for her to get to her goal. Or almost everything.

I thought it was enough to just have the journey be the conflict. And to be honest, I was scared of hurting my protagonists. I was worried that if it was too hard, they wouldn't actually make it too the end.

But as I've gotten older, and read more great books, I've realized that there must be more conflict or there's no point in getting to the end. Things have to be hard, or my protagonists aren't going to need to get to the end to get the resolution. Without the hardship, the hurt, the pain in all its forms, the resolution isn't a resolution. And a story isn't a story. Or it isn't a good one.

That's what I've been learning with this rewrite. So, I'm trying to be more conflicted. It's not easy, but the more I try, the more I realize that it's actually kind of fun to throw things at my protagonist. She's strong. She can handle it. Or, if she can't she'll learn from her scars.

Anyway, today I wrote eight more chapters. Here are the numbers:

Pages: 8

Total Pages thus Far: 34

Words: 2,479

Total Words thus Far: 10,987