When you write a work of fiction, or a work of nonfiction that is meant to be more like storytelling then poetry or a textbook, there needs to be a conflict to drive the story.
There needs to be something at stake.
A reason that this story is important to the reader.
Why does it matter that the characters succeed in what they are doing?
Why does it matter that someone realizes what is happening?
But once you have a bit of practice in storytelling, you can go farther.
If you are just starting out, and you don't want to write about nothing but conflict, than you can go a bit farther from the beginning.
First, just because there needs to be a conflict to drive the plot, just because there needs to be something at stake, does not mean there cannot be wonderful things and happiness.
Simply ask yourself, how can there be wonderful things and happiness as we are trying to resolve the conflict?
How can the two things coexist in this story?
And the conflict does not have to be the same thing as the theme of the story.
The conflict is like an engine. It creates excitement, it drives the plot.
It is like the Saturn V rocket. The Saturn V rocket has a powerful engine. But the purpose of the Saturn V Rocket is not to have a powerful engine. It is to fly to the Moon.
The conflict is the engine. The flying to the Moon is the theme. What the story is about.
One thing creates excitement. Another thing is the main thing you want to talk about in the story. These two things don't have to be the same.
For example, Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park. The conflict is a survival story. Our heroes don't want to get eaten.
But the story is not just a survival story. It is a story about dinosaurs.
The survival story is the conflict.
Showing dinosaurs is a theme.
The survival story is a theme too.
But Steven Spielberg did not do the movie simply to show a group of people who survived danger.
He did it to show dinosaurs.
There can be a theme besides the conflict.
Once you have a bit of practice telling stories, or if you don't want to write about nothing but conflict, you can take up these two things in addition to having a conflict to drive the story.
These do not replace having a conflict to drive the plot. But a story can be built around more than one thing. A story can be built around several things.
A story can be a survival story that is also about dinosaurs.
Or a survival story that is also about flying in space and almost reaching the Moon.
A story can have a conflict and have parties and a beautiful view in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
A story can have conflict and have beautiful, wonderful things and happiness.
And once you have a fair amount of practice, or perhaps even earlier if you feel up to it, you can turn to a more advanced question.
Which is, what is the point of it all?
Why do we care about this conflict?
Why do we care about this story, its conflict, its beautiful things?
What is the meaning of it all?
Does that meaning come from the conflict?
Or maybe from something else, one of the other story elements?
Or both?
What is the point of it all?
Why do we care about this conflict, why do we care about this story?
I always start with the higher purpose.
I always start by seeking some higher meaning that is important and meaningful.
But then, by the time I actually became a writer, I had been telling stories for decades in other ways- all of my life, from early childhood.
And those stories always started by seeking out that higher meaning.
Something meaningful, some higher purpose.
But then, by the time I started writing seriously, I had been telling stories for 15 years or more in different ways.
Perhaps it took me some time to become good at storytelling by starting with seeking a higher purpose.
But there is one thing.
It motivated me to do what I do.
I write because of that higher purpose.
Still, the fundamentals apply.
A story needs conflict to drive the plot.
But this is the basic fundamentals of writing.
Writing can be more than just the basic fundamentals.
When you are ready, go beyond those fundamentals.
Go on to adding beautiful, wonderful things in addition to the conflict, and adding a theme for the story, something for it to be about, in addition to the conflict.
Go on to seeking that meaning, that higher purpose.
When you are ready.
Because it is important to master the fundamentals too.
Anyway, hope this helps!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson