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Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Conflict

"Unreasonable people make life so difficult." Nick Parker, Blind Fury.

Today began as any normal day. By mid-afternoon, all ---- broke loose.

That could be the opening sentence of any good book. Good books are, after all, about conflict. Main Character wants what she cannot have, for whatever reason. We want her to have it, and we root for her while she's getting it and boo the bad guys who try to stop her or take it away. That's a story.

It's different when it's your life.

I don't particularly like conflict. I'm a turtle. We don't do rocky. We do flat.

But God doesn't always give us flat. Flat makes us boring and soft.

Flat makes for soft, boring stories, too. Give your characters some big hurdle to overcome. Some impossible task to accomplish. Some completely unreasonable person to deal with. In stories, that's what we want.

In real life, that's what we get.

Frankly, I'd rather read it than live it.

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