A Few Words on Drama and Conflict – guest post by W.D. Kilpack III
I was reading something fantasy author Stephen R. Donaldson (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever) wrote about drama. He went into some depth, but the summary goes pretty much like this. Every story has three essential characters: the hero, the villain, and the victim. He defined drama as the process of the characters in the story changing from one of those roles to the next. This sort of realism is why I categorize Donaldson’s fantasy novels as “realistic fantasy.” They are real people, with flaws, who make mistakes, not all white knights who never do anything wrong or make the wrong choices.
So what else goes into creating drama? Deciding what each character knows about events. How did they learn the things they know? What more do they learn throughout the story? (Or refuse to learn?) What do they miss due to point of view or other circumstances? Last, at what cost do they learn these things and how do they impact them, their relationships, or even their ability to survive?
All of these things come down to one word: conflict. It is essential to existence. If there was no conflict, then there would be no progress or evolution. For example, if no one was unhappy with being limited to a landline telephone, then there would never have been reason for a wireless phone. So, if you’re one of those people who hear the word “conflict” and gasp, then stop. Not only is it essential to existence, but it’s also essential to making a story interesting. In other words, no conflict? Then why am I even reading this? It’s boring and has absolutely nothing to do with the real world.
W.D. Kilpack III – 3x International Firebird Book Award Winner
