When you think of the word ‘conflict’ – what words come to mind?
My thoughts: good guys vs bad guys, character growth, intergalactic war….but there’s actually much more to conflict. Joe Bunting from the Write Practice wrote a brilliant post titled The Secret To Creating Good Conflict
Here’s a quote from the original post (read it!) – “Conflict, in good stories, is not about spectacular events or painful emotions. Good conflict is about values.”
I had a light-bulb moment while reading that post. Harry Potter valued family, justice and peace. Voldermort valued chaos, destruction and pain. No wonder they were enemies. It all boils down to what they valued. If Voldermort was also a family guy, I doubt he would have, well, destroyed Harry Potter’s family and effectively stopped the entire series from taking off.
Luke Skywalker valued freedom, family and peace. Darth Vader valued power, chaos and the dark side of the Force. Then he surprised everyone by having a value shift (i.e. from loving chaos to loving family) when he saved his son from Emperor Palpatine, at the cost of his own life. That goes to show that character values definitely don’t have to remain static. I’d say that makes a character much more interesting. Many of us go through life and have value shifts….maybe not as dramatic as Darth Vader’s, but of a more subtle variety. Interesting!
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Published by Raidah Shah Idil
Raidah Shah Idil is a student counsellor, poet, writer, and creative instructor with a passion for YA (young adult), fantasy, sci-fi and detective fiction. She was born in Singapore and moved to Australia at the age of 12. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English) and Bachelor of Science (Psychology) from the University of New South Wales in 2005.
After working as a marketing copywriter and studying the Islamic Sciences in Amman, Jordan for nearly two years, she returned to Sydney, got married, then moved to Malaysia. While working as a part-time tutor at Axiom Learning, she works as an online counsellor for Seekershub Global. She has completed her Diploma of Counselling through the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors. Her full-time job is raising her baby daughter. Everything else is squeezed in between. Literally. Her writing has been published in The Feminist Wire, SISTERS magazine, Daily Life, Lip Mag and Venture Beat. Raidah’s poetry was recently published in the ‘Armed With Only Our Souls’ online DDFS chapbook by New York poet Caits Meissner. Her debut double-featured novel, “Finding Jamilah and the Story of Yusuf” was published by MyLegacy publications in early 2014.
In her spare time (ha), she reads, listens to audiobooks, goes on walks, and is always on the lookout for tasty noodle soup. She currently lives in a green, leafy suburb in Kuala Lumpur with her husband, three small children and mother-in-law.
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Raidah Shah Idil 
Thanks for sharing! That is an interesting way to look at conflict. I never see it in that light. I think this will help me in writing my first story.
No problem! It really is interesting to view conflict as something that boils down to values.