Monday, April 24, 2006

Learning Curve

This morning one of my CP's had great news. After coming close to finaling in a contest she is a finalist in another one! I'm happy for her. I've never seen anyone who has worked as hard on improving her writing as she has.

Also this morning, I read the PRO ask-an-author daily log. It had something on it that struck a chord with me. It talked about layering conflict and gave the conflicts in three parts: the personal, the interpersonal, and the societal.

I'd never thought of it in so many parts and when they explained them - it made a lot of sense. The author said to give your characters conflict in all three areas.

Personal- put them in conflict with themselves about something.
Interpersonal - is the clashing of the hero and heroine.
Societal - is often the external conflict/ or actions by one character forces the other to make choices that put them in conflict with themselves and their family/friends/society.

I've never looked at that broad of a spectrum with the conflict, but I know I have instinctively pulled in all three, but never really dug deep into all three. We'll see if this really did click when I finish this contemporary.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes it really helps to have things spelled out in black and white. Thanks for sharing the tip!

Elisabeth Naughton said...
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Elisabeth Naughton said...

Interesting way to explain it. Thanks for sharing!

And congrats to your CP! Great news!