Every story needs conflict. Conflict creates a purpose for a story, raises questions on who will get what they want, and generates suspense as we wonder how they’ll fight to get it. Without conflict, you literally don’t have a story.
The bigger the conflict and the larger the stakes, the more exciting the story. If two characters are fighting over a teddy bear, that likely won’t be as exciting as two characters fighting over the same woman (or man), or two characters fighting to win a major sports championship. The difference lies in what each character risks losing if they should fail.
Two kids fighting over a teddy bear might seem important to both children at the time, but the stakes are much too low for anyone else to care (unless there’s a bomb or gold inside the teddy bear). Adding a bomb or gold immediately raises the stakes and that’s what’s far more important than possessing any object itself.
Raising the Stakes
Once you understand the crucial role conflict plays in shaping every story, you need to know how to raise the stakes to make the conflict greater. Three ways to raise the stakes of any conflict include:
- Make the outcome life or death
- Make the fight irreversible
- Make the fight extremely difficult
Life or death struggles represent the ultimate conflict because the characters who fail wind up dead. In war, law enforcement, or crime, there’s a chance of dying. This risk of dying makes conflict dangerous and thus more intriguing.
Physical deaths are easy to see, but sometimes emotional deaths can be just as devastating. A character who tries to save a child from a burning building risks their life. They’re either going to live or die trying.
However, a character who tries to marry their true love but fails also suffers a form of death in that their dream is gone forever. This type of emotional death can also occur when athletes fight for a sports championship (only one can win), or when characters fight to achieve a special goal such as stopping a friend from making a huge mistake (such as getting involved with the wrong people like a street gang).
Physical or emotional death represents the ultimate consequence of failure. What makes death so terrible is that it’s irreversible. When conflict involves second chances, it doesn’t matter if characters fail because they’ll get another chance later. When there’s only one chance, suspense skyrockets.
Think of Luke in “Star Wars” as he rushes down the trench to blow up the Death Star. He’s got once chance. If he should fail, the Death Star will blow up the rebel base. It doesn’t matter if Luke goes back and makes a second attack run, even if he’s successful because the rebel base will be gone from his failure to succeed the first time.
When there’s only one chance to succeed, that makes the conflict far more important than if there’s the chance of trying again and again with no risk of consequences.
Finally, make the conflict difficult. Trying to steal from a 97-year old grandmother or 4-year old kid is easy and not very interesting. Trying to steal from the President of the United States or the head of an organized crime mob is far more interesting because of both the difficulties involved and the dangers. The President of the United States and an organized crime mob head wield enormous powers to hurt or even kill their enemies, so trying to steal from them immediately puts any character at risk. The greater the risk, the greater the suspense.
Watch the above scene from “The STing” where a con man, played by Paul Newman, tries to cheat the head of an organized crime mob, played by Robert Shaw. Robert Shaw’s character is going to cheat by stacking a deck so he gets the winning hand. Yet Paul Newman winds up winning anyway when he cheats as well.
Although this scene doesn’t show it, earlier scenes showed that the organized crime head has no problems killing people who cross him, and if he learns that Paul Newman cheated him, he’ll order a hit man to kill Paul Newman.
Not only is Paul Newman facing possible death, but he’s got one chance to win. If he fails, he won’t get a second chance. Finally, cheating someone who’s trying to cheat you is extremely difficult, especially when you’re surrounded by other people watching you at all times. This scene increases tension by risking death, making the fight irreversible, and making the fight extremely difficult.
Summary
So make sure every story you tell includes conflict. Then make sure to amp up that conflict as much as possible by making the outcome life or death (either physical or emotional), making the fight irreversible, and making the goal as difficult as possible.
(Updated versions of “The 15-Minute Movie Method“, “Story Starter“, “Emotional Log Lines” and “Writing Scenes For Screenplays” are now available on Amazon.)
