This one element has what it takes to make a story great.
It takes a story from ‘bleh’ to ‘woah’.
Almost all great stories of the world have this important element and without this, a story’s structure runs the risk of getting crumbled.
Before I explicitly reveal the element, I want you to read the examples below.
Exhibit A:
A boy born into a rich family gets married to a rich girl and they happily live ever after.
Exhibit B:
A boy born into a poor family have to fight his way to the top, make money, slay fiery dragons and fight an evil demon monster to marry the love of his life (so they can live happily ever after).
Which story would you prefer watching?
And what makes Exhibit B a much interesting story to gamble your time on rather than Exhibit A?
CONFLICT.
Exactly, conflict makes a story great.
Think of a good movie that you recently watched or a novel that you read.
Now, think about the main character (or the protagonist) and what made his story interesting. I’m 99% betting it was a riveting conflict.
For instance, the last movie I streamed was Sarpatta. If we consider Arya’s Kabilan character to be the protagonist, then his conflict would be – rising up to the occasion, fight his inner battles, and restore redemption for his clan and his guru.
If Kabilan had been already powerful, faced no losses, had no inner demons to fight, had no villains to undermine his growth – I would have stopped watching the film midway. It’s because he had these conflicts set in front of him, the story became ‘interesting’ to watch for us.
More conflicts unfailingly leads to a better story. Higher the stakes, higher the interest.
You can use conflicts almost anywhere in your life. Here’s an instant example one can template for a job interview:
“I managed to mitigate a loss of Rs.5 crore (conflict) and reap 20% profits for my previous company with my copywriting skills.”
That was just an example. But you can also use it in your emails, your public speeches, your short stories, feature length scripts, social media posts, etc.
In short: we find people and stories with conflicts more interesting than those without one.
What’s the fun in a woman who goes through the motion of schooling, marriage and rearing kids vs the woman who treads away from society’s expectation to create her own million dollar company?
The hero who has to fight the evil plan of the aliens to save the world from getting hit by a meteor...
The athlete who rises to win the Olympic marathon while battling cancer...
The bad guy who fights his inner self to change himself for the better...
The good guy who can no longer be the good guy seeing the injustice around him...
‘Rags to riches’ vs ‘riches to riches’ – which one do you like?
I could go on and on...but you get my drift.
So the name of the game is CONFLICT and whoever uses it could make their story much more powerful.
Do you vibe with this idea or not? Let me know.
See you in another useful blog. Soon.
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