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Fiction is a common art form in which authors use words as the basic raw material to express their views on the world.
It is not easy to write a good novel, in addition to setting the type, background, and structure, you must also consider how to express the theme and how to resonate with the reader. The most important element in the novel is the characters.
Characters are at the heart of the story, and it takes many conditions to create a successful character, such as: the character must have action, have the desire to achieve, have a strong motivation, and have shortcomings to make the character more real and the reader empathetic.
In order to maintain the reader's interest and let the reader follow the footsteps of the characters and go all the way down the plot point, it is necessary to make the middle of the large section full of tense plots and let the characters' mentality change.
The best way to do this is to design the "personal conflict" of the main characters, shape the characters through the conflict, and drive the plot through the characters' choices in the conflict.
In his story theory, Robert McKee defines the world of the characters as a series of concentric circles centered on the true perception, dividing "personal conflict" into three levels: inner conflict, personal conflict, and personal external conflict.
The three dimensions of "personal conflict" in The Story
This article will borrow this theory, taking O Henry's classic short story "The Last Leaf" as an example, to analyze the three levels of the character Jonsey's "personal conflict", and thus obtain the basic principles of conflict design in novel creation.
The first level of "personal conflict" is the conflict that comes from the character's heart, which is the character's self and "the conflicts that arise from the natural elements of his mind, body, and emotions." This is the closest confrontational force to oneself in the character world.
Jonesy was unfortunately infected when pneumonia was raging, and "the chance of survival is only 10%." She "barely moved, lying on a painted iron bed, staring only through the tiny Dutch window glass at the monotonous side walls of the brick house next door." ”
The doctor said that whether Johany survived was entirely dependent on her own sense of survival. Jonesy faced her pneumonia, but she had negative emotions.
She stared out the window at the nearly withered ivy, wanting to die with the last fallen leaf. In the face of his friend Su's concern, he only coldly refused, and only wanted to die. At this time, the emotional value in Jonsey's heart is all negative.
After a night of wind and rain, Jonsey thought that the next morning all the ivy leaves would fall, but the last leaf was still hanging on the rattan, which made Jonsi think of living one more day.
Another day passed, the leaves were still there, and Jonsey's conviction to die began to waver. She wanted to eat and began to focus on things other than ivy: "Give me a mirror first, add me a few pillows, I want to sit up and watch you cook soup." ”
Sticking to the ivy leaves changed Jonsey's thoughts and emotions, and she even began planning to "find a day to go to the Bay of Naples to sketch."
By this point, Jonesy's inner emotional value had turned positive. With the belief in survival, Jonesy was soon out of danger.
At the level of inner conflict, the antagonistic force of the character Johansie is his own idea of "seeking death".
The author puts the characters in a dangerous situation from the beginning, makes the confrontation force and the character power equal, gives the possibility of death and recovery 50%, and creates a state of tension.
This also makes the story more tense, so that the emotional value of the characters is reasonably shifted between the positive and negative poles.
The second level of conflict is personal conflict, which comes from more intimate relationships than the character's regular social roles, such as: the character's parents, children, close friends, etc.
In The Last Leaf, Jonesy's personal conflict is with her friend Sue.
After Jonesy fell, the doctor called Sue into the hallway and told her that Jonsey had only a 10% chance of surviving. Sue "ran into the studio and cried wet a Japanese napkin."
Sue decides to prop up her friend, and she sits in Johansie's room, illustrating with her. But she found that Jonsey counted down with the ivy leaves that kept falling outside the window, and decided to die with the last leaf.
After Jonesy refused to eat, Sue finally couldn't help it and ran to cry to the poor painter Bellman downstairs.
Sue despairs of her friend Johansie's illness and fears that she will drift away like a leaf. At this time, Sue's emotional value is also negative.
The next day, the last leaf was still hanging from the ivy, but that didn't make Sue feel better. Johansie no longer responds to Sue's words, which makes Sue even more desperate, feeling that Jonsey "loosens the bonds with friendship and the world one by one."
But when Jonesy began to survive because of the last leaf, Sue also saw hope. Sue's emotional value is transformed at the climax of the novel, as Johansi changes.
Sue's behavior changed from being called to the hallway by the doctor to "following the doctor into the hallway", her hands "trembling", hearing the good news that Joansey was out of danger.
Although the portrayal of Sue occupies a large part of the space, her actions and emotional values always change with the changes of Johansi.
Johanssie is the center of "personal conflict", through Johansey's own efforts to resolve the crisis, thus driving Sue's emotional transformation, which makes the spotlight always on Johansey's body, so that Sue's role will not be noisy.
The third level of extrapersonal conflict refers to "all sources of opposing forces beyond the individual", for example:
Other individuals, environments, societies, etc. in the character world. For Jonesy, her personal external conflict comes from two sources: pneumonia and the environment.
Pneumonia is a conflict that directly knocks out Johansey, and the author likens it to a "fist-pounding, aggressive old bastard."
The value of pneumonia was negative, and it raged, reducing Johansi's survival rate to 10% and losing her sense of survival.
This negative value runs through most of the novel, and it is not until Jonsey defeats pneumonia with the encouragement of the last leaf that its value turns positive.
The environment is a conflict that destroys Johanssie's spirit, and the "cold wind of late autumn" directly destroys the leaves that represent Johansi's desire to survive.
The author arranges the story in the cold November, in a mossy cheap neighborhood "deserted and desolate yard", adding to the negative environment.
After Jonesy had the idea of dying with the "poor and tired leaves", the environmental level was still placed in ice rain and cold wind, and it became more and more turbulent and cold.
With no chance of winning, Jonsey survived the perilous period by leaning on the leaves that Bellman had painted on the wall.
Whether it was pneumonia or circumstances, their power far exceeded that of Johansie, and this arrangement made her lose her chances of winning in the conflict from the beginning.
The difficult road to survival magnifies Johansie's counterweight, and when she overcomes all kinds of difficulties to win in the conflict, the character is also more plump.
In the novel "The Last Leaf", although the design of time, place and characters is very simple, the author creates three levels of conflict at the same time, making simple design complicated.
The author gives the ability to resist more powerfully than the characters, so that the characters can produce more profound changes in the process of getting out of the predicament. At the beginning of the novel, all levels of conflict are negative.
As the plot develops, the characters gain a new understanding at the climax of the story, learn to see the world with new eyes, and the emotional values at all levels also turn positive.
In the process of novel writing, in order to make the characters more three-dimensional, three levels of conflict can be introduced at the same time, so that the characters have a fundamental change with the plot points.
The emotional values of the three levels of conflict must also swing between positive and negative, and cannot stay in the middle state.
So, when creating conflict, find out the worst or best thing that can happen to the character, and then transform it into the best or worst thing.
As Rob Termicky put it:
"Instead of playing a hopscotch game between time, space, and characters, it's better to restrain yourself from setting up a reasonably defined cast of characters and worlds, and focusing on creating a rich and complex story."