Creating Conflict that Resonates

September 30, 2020 by Julie Eshbaugh in Drafting, Revising

Conflict is essential to good storytelling. However, not all conflict will have the same impact on a story. It isn’t enough to just throw progressively more challenging obstacles at your characters. Meaningful conflict is conflict that resonates with your readers.

Creating Conflict for your Characters Using Conditioning Forces

August 23, 2020 by Julie Eshbaugh in Drafting, Revising

Creating conflict isn’t just about creating obstacles. Conditioning forces are one kind of obstacle that writers can use to create conflict for their characters.

The concepts in this post come from Uta Hagen’s great handbook, Respect for Acting, first published in 1973. Though Hagen’s book was written as a guide for actors, many of its ideas on creating a character can be applied to the art of writing.