Conflict is very often the magic sauce for generating tension and turning a ho-hum story into one that rivets readers. As such, every scene should contain a struggle of some kind. Maybe it’s an internal tug-of-war having to do with difficult decisions, morals, or temptations. Or it possibly could come from an external source—other characters, unfortunate circumstances, or the force of nature itself.
It’s our hope that this thesaurus will help you come up with meaningful and fitting conflict options for your stories. Think about what your character wants and how best to block them, then choose a source of conflict that will ramp up the tension in each scene. For the full entry of this and 200+ additional conflict scenarios, check into our best-selling resources: The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles, Volumes 1 and 2.
Being Assigned an Undesirable Partner
Category: Power struggles, increased pressure and ticking clocks, relationship friction, duty and responsibilities, loss of control
Examples:
Being saddled with the boss’ entitled, clueless kid as an intern
Getting stuck with new recruit (as a police officer or similar job)
Being told by parents to buddy up with the new kid next door…
Minor Complications:
Power struggles
Personality clashes
Arguments…
Potentially Disastrous Results:
Starting a feud that brings out the worst on both people
Talking behind the person’s back and being overheard
Being reprimanded for not being a “team player”…
Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict):
Wanting to succeed but being angry as the partner will benefit too
Wanting to give the benefit of the doubt but growing more suspicious of who is responsible when too many small things go wrong
Being torn between acting professional and giving in to childish behavior as friction escalates…
People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: The character themselves, the partner, friends and family, co-workers, people who depend on the two and need them to work together well
Resulting Emotions: agitation, annoyance, bitterness, contempt, defeat, defensiveness, determination…
Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: abrasive, confrontational, controlling, disloyal, grumpy…
Positive Outcomes:
Once differences are put aside, each party may come to appreciate the other’s uniqueness
Dealing with people who are not easy to work with will teach the character strategies for getting along and keeping emotion out of it, which will serve them in the future
Standing up to whoever is responsible for the match (parents, a boss, etc.) and refusing to continue to participate will help the character reclaim their power…
If you’re interested in other conflict options, you can find them here.
Use Conflict to Transform Your Story
Readers have a lot of choices when it comes to selecting books, so make it easy for them to choose yours. Conflict will help you deliver a fresh story premise every time, drawing readers in through meaningful challenges that reveal a character’s innermost needs, fears, weaknesses, and strengths.
To assist you, we’ve created a two-volume resource with 225 possible conflict events. Each volume contains expert advice on how to use conflict to improve your story along with a plethora of scenarios to challenge your characters.
For more information, read up on these GOLD and SILVER editions. You can also view the books at Goodreads to see what other authors are saying about them.
Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.
This is one conflict entry anyone can draw from experience. We all have been in such position at some point.
So true! And then when we find the perfect one *cough cough Becca cough cough* we realize what a gift that is!