Developing the Layers

Now that we have chosen a skeleton, the challenge is providing riveting obstacles between question and answer to keep the reader glued to the page. The reader knows from the outset that the hero will most likely survive. Your mission is to make them question the outcome anyway. We do this by utilizing the four layers of conflict.

We began with the premise of a meteor streaking toward earth, Dick as a conflicted scientist, his crumbling marriage to Sally, and Ted and Jane as coworkers who make his life miserable. We have selected the Disaster Thriller format. Let’s start crafting conflict.

LEVEL ONE: EXTERNAL CONFLICT

External conflicts test the protagonist’s courage, nerves, and determination.

They are high tension scenes that focus on the question of whether the overall story goal will be achieved. They include the main actions and reactions and turning points leading directly to, and including, the climax of the story.

External scenes show the characters caught up in the situation of your premise such as: boy meets girl, the volcano erupts, aliens invade the town, a body has been found, they are all forced to go to a wedding or reunion, or the wagon train heads out for the wild west. They do not address the subplots unless and until the subplot collides with the main plot at the climax.

They introduce the protagonist, the inciting event, the story goal, the prize for reaching the goal, and the cost for not reaching the story goal (stakes). They show him developing and attempting a plan of action for tackling the story problem. In the usual three-act structure, his first plan fails and he must come up with a second plan (the wrong solution). That plan fails and he must come up with the third plan (the right solution).

There have to be some positive moments where it looks like the protagonist is gaining ground. You could divide them equally: five scenes where he is making headway and five scenes where he is losing ground.

Once you’ve picked a skeleton and dressed it up, it is time to list your initial thoughts on events that will happen to trigger then escalate this external conflict: snags in the plan, unexpected discoveries, reversals, gains, and increasing levels of threat. Arrange them in an order that shows cause and effect and final resolution. The first scene should contain the inciting event. The final scene should contain the climax.

Continuing with our premise, we have come up with a list of scenes that introduce and eventually resolve the outer conflict: the imminent meteor strike.

External Conflict 1: Dick learns a meteor will strike.

External Conflict 2: He thinks of a way to stop it while it is still far away. He will nudge it with a satellite.

External Conflict 3: The satellite crashes into, but doesn’t change, the meteor's trajectory.

External Conflict 4: He comes up with plan to divert the meteor with a laser beam.

External Conflict 5: They can’t get the beam close enough from the ground.

External Conflict 6: They send the laser to the space station. The equipment breaks off and is lost in space.

External Conflict 7: They are back to the drawing board - all seems lost. They enter countdown mode.

External Conflict 8: Dick comes up with a final plan. It is do or die. They will nuke the meteor.

External Conflict 9: They rev up the shuttle loaded with a lethal payload to intercept the meteor and, despite last minute glitches, the shuttle takes off on a suicide mission.

External Conflict 10: Their plan succeeds and everyone lives, except the crew of the shuttle.

LEVEL TWO: ANTAGONIST CONFLICT

Antagonist Conflict scenes introduce us to the antagonist or antagonistic forces. This is your verbal camera focused on stage right.

These scenes test the protagonist’s and antagonist’s knowledge, ingenuity, and strength. They are battles of will and wit.

They develop how the protagonist and antagonist face off. These scenes zero in on the conflict between the two opposing characters. Other characters may be present, but the focus is on the direct confrontation between the antagonist and protagonist or the antagonist himself.

If you are following only the protagonist’s POV, these scenes are where the lead alien and the hero face off, the serial killer taunts the investigator, the brothers fight over the woman, the scientists clash over the best way to thwart the meteor, or the knight and the infidel cross swords.

If the verbal camera follows the antagonist, or these scenes are written from his point of view, they show him actively pursuing his goal and reveal his personal dilemma. They show him interacting with his henchmen or threatening secondary characters.

In Antagonist scenes, he argues his side of the thematic argument. All of these conflicts lead to the climactic confrontation with the protagonist. The final scene reveals the fate of the antagonist. This is true whether you are using a negative or positive antagonist.

If you are using antagonistic forces rather than a person, these scenes show the protagonist struggling against them. If the force is nature, these scenes show the protagonist being threatened by nature. If the force is society or a controlling power, these scenes show him working against them. If the force is family disapproval, and a specific member isn’t singled out as an antagonist, then these scenes show the protagonist trying to win them over or to break their hold over him.

Using our meteor strike premise, we choose Ted as the antagonist and list ten ideas for events that will happen to escalate the conflict between the protagonist and antagonist or antagonistic forces: snags in the plan, unexpected discoveries, reversals, gains, important information concealed or revealed, and increasing levels of threat . Arrange them in an order that will make the most impact. The first scene should introduce the antagonist or forces. The final scene should reveal the final disposition of the antagonist or vanquishing of the forces.

In this story, Ted is directly opposed to stopping the meteor. He has been so damaged by life that he thinks it is time for humanity to be destroyed. Since this is a Thriller, we will allow the verbal camera to follow Ted.

Antagonist Conflict 1: Ted learns there is a meteor headed toward earth. Finally, the world can be destroyed and he doesn’t have to lift a finger. All he has to do is sit back and watch the show.

Antagonist Conflict 2: Dick has come up with a plan. Ted vows to make sure it doesn’t work.

Antagonist Conflict 3: Ted is denied access to the equipment. He has something on one of the grounds crew, Bob, and uses that pressure to convince him to tamper with it. “But we’ll all die,” Bob says. “Do you want to die now or later?” Ted replies. Bob is a secondary character who plays a minimal role.

Antagonist Conflict 4: Ted confronts Dick. Why are you trying to stop the inevitable?

Antagonist Conflict 5: Dick has come up with a new plan. So Ted must tamper with the laser beam.

Antagonist Conflict 6: Ted calls Sally and tells her Dick and Jane are having an affair.

Antagonist Conflict 7: Dick confronts Ted. “You had something to do with this.” Ted replies, “You’ll never prove it and in a few days it won’t matter anyway.”

Antagonist Conflict 8: Ted must find a way to make certain the shuttle doesn’t take off.

Antagonist Conflict 9: Ted’s attempts to prevent take off fail.

Antagonist Conflict 10: Ted is led off in handcuffs.

Next: Interpersonal Conflict