THE CAREER NOVELIST
If you would rather stick closer to earth, there is certainly no
shortage of strength in historical characters. Who knows? If we look
hard enough we may even find strength in people around us today;
if not in our leaders, then at least in our friends. And that is a
thought that wins my sympathy.
CONFLICT: THE BIGGEST PROBLEM OF ALL
Seventeen years as an agent makes one accustomed to handing out
rejection. I do not like to turn away authors, but it is part of my
job—a big part. Sadly, there is one oft-recurring reason that manu-
scripts do not make the grade. It is so common, in fact, that I have
a number of different ways to express it:
- Your novel gets off to a slow start.
- It takes too long for your novel to get into gear.
- The tension level in your story is low.
- Your protagonist's central problem is not strongly focused.
All of these comments in some way refer to the engine that dri-
ves any story: conflict. Authors use a variety of terms to describe this
quality: tension, the "problem," the "obstacle," friction, suspense.
Whatever the term, it is the encounter between characters and
whatever blocks them from their goals or happiness.
Conflict keeps us reading. When a character about whom we care,
or even with whom we simply identify, runs up against a problem, a
block, an obstacle, we want to find out how things will turn out. If
everything is fine and dandy, who cares? It is conflict that stops us
in our tracks and forces us to pay attention.
Indeed, there is something almost mathematical about the effect
of conflict upon a reader. It can even be expressed as an equation:
"The degree of believable conflict contained in a story or scene (x) is
directly proportional to the level of reader interest in that same
story or scene (y) and the span of the reader's attention (z)." Not for
nothing is the news on TV always bad.
One of the tritest, but truest, pieces of advice one reads in how-
to-write-fiction books is "Establish conflict early." Other expressions
of this same principle are "Hook your reader right away" and "Grab