Story Conflict Quotes

I think action should be revealed through character, so if you have a plot problem, it's probably a character problem.

What's the trick to writing a good bad guy? Well, for me, it's always been the idea that you pit yourself against authority, you know? I think that's what it takes - and then you can write villainous characters.

The original 'Hobbit' was never intended to have a sequel - Bilbo 'remained very happy to the end of his days and those were extraordinarily long': a sentence I find an almost insuperable obstacle to a satisfactory link.

Good stories must travel through conflict. And in epic stories, the conflict must become unbearable.

I'm not really a plot writer - I'm more interested in the characters and sort of small events that propel the story forward.

'The Turnaround' isn't even really a crime novel. But you need conflict to make a novel, any kind of novel, and I don't know any other way to do it than crime.

The heart responds to the conflict within a story.

The story sometimes writes you into a corner.

Every character needs an adversary - one who is both challenging and a contrast for the hero. The best adversaries reveal something about the character they're contrasting.

We want our villains and antagonists to have distinct motivations.

The more complex and overwhelming the threat to a protagonist, the better the opportunity for the author to create a compelling conflict and a dramatic resolution.

The only thing I knew about novels from a technical point of view was that they should have conflict.

As a writer, I feel like your favorite character shouldn't be safe.

Conflict is the place where character and plot intersect.

You start thinking about a character in a new book, of course you're going to think pretty soon, 'Well, what's their secret? What is their problem?' Maybe, 'What is their secret?' is another way of saying, 'What is their problem?' There's got to be some issue, or you've got a totally boring book!

Stories hold conflict and contrast, highs and lows, life and death, and the human struggle and all kinds of things.

In episodic television you'll have a good guy who's on every week and that's his show! He's the regular on it, and you're not going to be "gooder" than he is; I mean, he's the guy who's got to solve your problem! So if you're playing a good guy, you have to have a problem, and he's going to solve it for you. And the only really strong dramatic part is the heavy, because the meaner and crueler and rottener you are, the better the good guy looks when he whips ya' at the end because he always is gonna whip ya! So, the best dramatic guest shot is the heavy.

We figured the audience would want good stories, great art, wonderful characters, people you could fall in love with that we would immediately put through hell.

If the main character's not in jeopardy - physical, psychological, emotional, whatever - then you don't have any tension, and you don't have a story.

I am drawn towards the sort of characters who are in situations where they don't want to be in. But that's a staple in pretty much in any hero's journey because if you have non-reluctant protagonist then how is there any conflict?

When a novelist or screenwriter is looking for a subject, the element he's seeking is conflict. Conflict makes drama. Conflict produces great characters and memorable scenes. So war is a natural topic.

I always struggle with making the technical aspects of the plot fit with the story that's unfolding in my imagination.

I always like to try different things, different genres; stories that have a dramatic element and can generate conflict which I find appealing; where the characters have to overcome obstacles. That kind of thing is challenging.

I always try to create conflict and drama in my books; it's the engine of the novel.