Sep 1, 2026 · 1 hr 14 min · 13 segments
Will there be fisticuffs? Possibly! (Probably not). But join Bri and Mer anyway as they talk about conflict and how it goes far beyond the seven main categories you were taught in school. They…
Meredith HambrockHost
Brianna LabuskesHost
Um, I, I, when I first started thinking about this topic, it feels kind of daunting to me, 'cause I don't know if you guys had those, like, graphs in, like, middle or high school, whatever, don't @ me, I don't remember when I learned this, but, um, [laughs] at some point you learn it in, in school where it's, like, uh, the seven types of conflict, which is, like, man versus self and man versus technology and, like, all that sort of stuff.
It feels like, like, um, I don't know, like, trying to sort conflict that way doesn't make sense to me.
But, um, but then I started doing it as, like, a thought experiment on a walk, and I was trying to think of Casablanca, and I was like, well, it's like, I really wanted to write about the immigration crisis, so I guess I am, like, thinking about conflict, I just don't, like, sort it.
But for In Scene, I like to think about conflict as, like, a tool to communicate more clearly with the reader what you wanna say.
Um, and so, like, within the scenes you're, [laughs] so I guess my tips, I, I think I will slip into some prescriptive language, and I don't mean to.
Like, if any of this advice doesn't work for you, like, my, like, constant disclaimer is, like, just ignore it.
Um, but if I say, like, should or whatever, just, you know, just assume that I'm saying this is how I do it.
Um, but, like, I always feel like I need to know my characters really well and the purpose of the chapter that I'm writing really well.
And from knowing both of those and knowing what I want to communicate to the reader, that makes creating conflict super easy because, um, you are trying to megaphone to the reader [laughs] exactly what you wanna say.
And so, like, I was thinking of a couple examples, um, so, like in scene where it was like, I just have Olive and her grandmother, like, driving to a crime scene, and, like, Olive is like, "I'm not gonna dri- I, I'm not gonna drive.
She doesn't want me to drive 'cause I drive too fast." And then her grandmother also drives fast, and it, it just creates this moment of friction that reveals a lot about both their relationship and each of those characters.
Um, she's not gonna sit there and call [laughs] her a hypocrite, but she will tease her, and it's like when you create moments of friction, it just c- it creates an ability to build out your characters a lot easier.
I think it, conflict makes things easier because you can just, it's more subtle than, like, having pleasant interactions with everybody around them.
It's like you have to create friction so you can, like, show the characters.
Um, I was also thinking about an example of, like, so this is what I mean when I say, like, know your story, know your chapters, know your characters, is, like, if you think about, um- Bull- like a character is being bullied, okay in scene.
Now how they're going to react to being bullied is going to reveal so much about the stor- Like, the choice you have to make then is how are they gonna react to being bullied, right? And that's gonna reveal what you want to tell the audience.
And so if this is like a upmarket she comes back to her hometown, a, a changed, like, you know, a narrative character arc where she's changed and she's stronger now, and she's, like, coming back to her hometown and, like, confronting her bullies, maybe killing them, maybe it's a mystery.
Um, I, I, when I first started thinking about this topic, it feels kind of daunting to me, 'cause I don't know if you guys had those, like, graphs in, like, middle or high school, whatever, don't @ me, I don't remember when I learned this, but, um, [laughs] at some point you learn it in, in school where it's, like, uh, the seven types of conflict, which is, like, man versus self and man versus technology and, like, all that sort of stuff.
It feels like, like, um, I don't know, like, trying to sort conflict that way doesn't make sense to me.
But, um, but then I started doing it as, like, a thought experiment on a walk, and I was trying to think of Casablanca, and I was like, well, it's like, I really wanted to write about the immigration crisis, so I guess I am, like, thinking about conflict, I just don't, like, sort it.
But for In Scene, I like to think about conflict as, like, a tool to communicate more clearly with the reader what you wanna say.
Um, and so, like, within the scenes you're, [laughs] so I guess my tips, I, I think I will slip into some prescriptive language, and I don't mean to.
Like, if any of this advice doesn't work for you, like, my, like, constant disclaimer is, like, just ignore it.
Um, but if I say, like, should or whatever, just, you know, just assume that I'm saying this is how I do it.
Um, but, like, I always feel like I need to know my characters really well and the purpose of the chapter that I'm writing really well.
And from knowing both of those and knowing what I want to communicate to the reader, that makes creating conflict super easy because, um, you are trying to megaphone to the reader [laughs] exactly what you wanna say.
And so, like, I was thinking of a couple examples, um, so, like in scene where it was like, I just have Olive and her grandmother, like, driving to a crime scene, and, like, Olive is like, "I'm not gonna dri- I, I'm not gonna drive.
She doesn't want me to drive 'cause I drive too fast." And then her grandmother also drives fast, and it, it just creates this moment of friction that reveals a lot about both their relationship and each of those characters.
Um, she's not gonna sit there and call [laughs] her a hypocrite, but she will tease her, and it's like when you create moments of friction, it just c- it creates an ability to build out your characters a lot easier.
I think it, conflict makes things easier because you can just, it's more subtle than, like, having pleasant interactions with everybody around them.
It's like you have to create friction so you can, like, show the characters.
Um, I was also thinking about an example of, like, so this is what I mean when I say, like, know your story, know your chapters, know your characters, is, like, if you think about, um- Bull- like a character is being bullied, okay in scene.
Now how they're going to react to being bullied is going to reveal so much about the stor- Like, the choice you have to make then is how are they gonna react to being bullied, right? And that's gonna reveal what you want to tell the audience.
And so if this is like a upmarket she comes back to her hometown, a, a changed, like, you know, a narrative character arc where she's changed and she's stronger now, and she's, like, coming back to her hometown and, like, confronting her bullies, maybe killing them, maybe it's a mystery.
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