{"id":2858,"date":"2015-06-14T01:44:02","date_gmt":"2015-06-14T01:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/Conflict-is-something-pushing-back"},"modified":"2015-06-14T01:44:02","modified_gmt":"2015-06-14T01:44:02","slug":"conflict-is-something-pushing-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/2015\/06\/14\/conflict-is-something-pushing-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Conflict is something pushing back."},"content":{"rendered":"        \n<p><strong>Conflict<\/strong> is something pushing back. If the character has nothing pushing on her, and she&#8217;s pushing on nothing, there&#8217;s no conflict. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Confrontation is not necessarily conflict. Violence loses its power very quickly, and should be used sparingly, and only when the story demands it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Things being difficult can provide conflict &#8211; solving a mystery, having to make a hard choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wish-fulfilment fantasies, in which a sequence of nice events occur, are not stories, because they lack conflict. Ask: What&#8217;s the catch?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A character who&#8217;s driven (by external forces) or obsessed (with an internal goal) isn&#8217;t going to walk away from the conflict when it becomes hard. We will find them interesting to watch. This is because we admire someone who, unlike us, has a clear goal; and we expect them to encounter trouble and exhibit their character in overcoming it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The threat of loss of something the character values gives power to conflict. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People practicing their professions, even interesting professions, don&#8217;t make stories until something becomes personal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>#shortfiction Damon Knight<\/p>\n\n      ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>        Conflict is something pushing back.<br \/>\n       <a href=\"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/2015\/06\/14\/conflict-is-something-pushing-back\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[68],"tags":[94,88],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}