Mastering Conflict In Screenwriting
Conflict is something many writers understand intuitively. Or we think we do. This article isn’t about the craft of writing conflict, but rather the writer’s approach to it. It describes how the writer can leverage conflict to maximize audience engagement. Much of this article will no doubt be familiar to the experienced screenwriter, but they […]
11 Types Of Conflict To Add Interest To Your Screenplay
Conflict is defined as the act of two characters (or entities) with oppositional viewpoints challenging each other until one of them ostensibly wins by the end of the story. They may also both lose or both win. Sometimes, it’s more about the struggle of trying to achieve a result. It is the backbone of drama […]
The Nature Of Conflict (Part 2)
MORAL IMPERATIVES AS CONFLICT Many war films, especially those about Vietnam, feature moral dilemmas that the characters have to face and deal with. Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Deerhunter for example, put characters in untenable situations of conflict between their duty and their conscience. In Apocalypse Now, Martin Sheen’s character (Captain Benjamin Willard) is […]
The Nature Of Conflict (Part 1)
Everyone knows conflict. It’s the drum beat of our lives many day and the lifeblood of our writing always. Audiences are a hundred times more interested in any work of fiction if there’s conflict. Even most non-fiction pieces revolve around interesting, read as conflict-filled, moments. But how do we set up and maximize conflict in […]
To Create Conflict Use Disguise and Deception
One the most important (and least discussed) ways to create drama in a story is by using disguise and deception.* Disguise and deception were central to much of the best plotted literature of the 19th century. Witness their importance to Les Misérables, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and A Tale of Two Cities. In Les Misérables, arguably the greatest […]
