Often, I find myself reading indie books and hoping all of the characters will die in a violent and painful car crash.
Why?
Because I am bored.
It took me awhile to pin down what was problematic about these books. Was it weak characterization? Slow pacing? Horrid grammar? Lackluster description?
Finally, it came to me.
The number one reason I might want all of your characters to die in a fiery ball of flaming and twisted metal?
Lack of conflict.
Definition of conflict
Conflict means to come into collision or disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition.
It also means to fight.
Your characters can fight anything. Their hoarding addiction. Rabid dogs. Stick waving villagers. The little old lady at the grocery store. Their mother. The mustachioed villain.
It doesn’t matter, but your characters need to struggle against something, otherwise your novel will turn into a meandering snooze fest that I will be forced to say bad things about.
Lack of conflict is the prevailing flaw in indie books
Without much professional editing it is easy for indie authors to indulge and pamper their characters—lovingly created, these characters are endlessly catered to. Like cherished pets, nothing much bad happens to them, they don’t get out much, and a little mindless yapping gets them what they want.
They really don’t struggle. At all.
Yawn.
No struggle equals lack of conflict and without conflict there is no drama or anticipation or suspense or tension or any of those other things that make a book interesting and good and fun to read.
Your reader has to be unsure of the outcome or else why would they care enough to turn another page?
Ideas for creating conflict*
Good conflict is the direct result of meaningful action taken to resolve a situation. Your character might not always be successful with his actions, but he should try to resolve the conflict to the best of his ability.
In order for a conflict to be believable, your character needs a worthy opponent, even if his opponent is himself. Without opposition, challenge and obstacles to goals, there is no story and resolution is easy.
Where’s the fun in that?
So…
-Your character has to want something really, really bad. (Desire)
-Someone or something has to get in the way of what they want. (Opponent)
-The opponent shouldn’t be easy to defeat and should create roadblocks to thwart your character at every opportunity. (Obstacles)
-Your character eventually defeats the opponent, achieves their goal, and experiences some sort of personal change as result. Alternately, you character may not defeat their opponent or achieve the goal but still be changed by the outcome. Change is the important factor here. (Resolution)
And everyone lives happily ever after.
And no one makes snoring noises when they see a copy of your book.
And I won’t be forced to write negative reviews.
See? We all win.
*For the record, I don’t think all indie books are boring. Implying all indie books are boring made for a better title. Who wants to read a post titled ‘3 out of 5 indie books are boring’? Or ‘A few Indie books I read recently were boring’. So I exaggerated. Probably a lot. A more apt (but less exciting) title for this post would be “Why conflict is important”.
*This passage brought to you by some other website that I forgot to bookmark. Sorry, other writer. Feel free to claim this tip if it belongs to you.
Seeing as there a number of indie writers around WP, it’s good that you included that disclaimer, or someone might take offense, haha. The thing is, sometimes the points you mentioned apply to traditionally published books too; I’ve come across several books where characters have it way too easy and Mary Sues scream at me from all the pages. I only end up finishing those out of my OCD.
When it comes to me, well.. I’m told to cut my characters some slack.
I know… I keep waiting for the howls of protest regarding the title of this post. But I agree with you, traditionally published books can occasionally be guilty of this. But because of this blog I don’t have the time to read anything but indie books so the indie authors get to take the brunt of my ire regarding lack of conflict in fiction writing (sorry, indie writers). I think employing a good editor (not the copy kind) would be a huge help for working out some of these issues. As for you, it sounds like you have the opposite problem and might need an editor to tell you to stop torturing your poor characters to death.
Oh I’m not worried there. My fiancé (incidentally an editor) always manages to keep me in check and stops me from doing too much damage!
I am so jealous that you have an editor fiancé.Not fair!
Yeah, I definitely think it applies to traditionally published authors. I find the flaws in those books (like When in Doubt, Add Butter, which I reviewed recently) unconscionable because those books went through a professional editor and then cost more than ten dollars for an ebook! I read a mixture of traditionally published and self-published books, and I’ve found great ones and terrible ones in each category.
Hmmm – interesting. Made me gulp a bit too – is there enough conflict in my book? To be honest, I’m so close to the thing right now, I couldn’t objectively tell, you but I think so. I certainly hope so anyway!
Well, I can’t speak to the conflict aspect but I know the cover looks great! Hopefully, you have some good beta readers to give you some perspective on the book.
I’m so glad that I stumbled upon your blog. I love all the smart, sassy things you have to say. You certainly tell it like it is.
And, you saved me from buying John Locke’s marketing book.