They’ll focus on eloquent setting description or complex character development but then give the main character no conflict to resolve. Just as they want to avoid conflict in their own lives, they don’t want to place their characters into uncomfortable, confrontational situations. Yet readers crave it in fiction.įirst-time authors often find the idea of putting their characters into conflict an upsetting one. In her book Writing Fiction, Janet Burroway says that, in literature, “only trouble is interesting.” It’s a bit ironic that in real life, we resist trouble we shy away from conflict. Every kind of story, every genre – novel, short story, science fiction, romance, mystery, historical, young adult, etc. The finer details like story setting, character, and plot events all give the reader context and understanding, but conflict, according to McKee, is the “soul” of story.

This is what Robert McKee, the author of Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, calls the Law of Conflict, and storytelling is governed by it. “Nothing moves forward in a story except through conflict.”

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