Plot vs Pant: Conflict Templates

This is the second installment of my quest for plotting using the BREAK INTO FICTION book.

Last week, I talked about Character Templates and this week, I’m focusing on Conflict Templates. If you’re following along in the book, this is chapter two.  Conflict is what drives your characters and your story. If you don’t have conflict, then you don’t have much of a story. According to the book, the key to conflict is motivation. Characters need it to achieve their story goal. The conflict is what gets in the way of them achieving that goal.

These conflict templates build on the character templates. You’ll continue to flesh out your characters with these templates and maybe learn a little more about them as you go along. For me, once I got feedback from my CP on the first set and I did the freewriting session, I started to understand who my main character’s really were. I then took that and worked on the questions on the conflict templates.

Answering the questions helped me realize what the story was about and who the villains were. Well, sort of. I know that the villains are going to do, but I’m not entirely sure WHO those villains are yet. 😉 The questions forced me to dig deep into the characters to figure out what made them tick. Some things about the story really clicked for me as I worked on the templates. I still have more freewriting to do, though, as I try to figure who these people are, what’s driving them, and what their external conflict is. It’s really a fun process.

If you’re using BREAK INTO FICTION to plot, what did you learn by filling in the conflict templates? Did you have a lightbulb moment? Do you feel like you’re characters and you’re story is on the right track?

Next week: Power Openings