Fantasy fiction has a real affinity for the underground.
Dungeon exploration is a staple of fantasy role-playing games. Some of
the pivotal events in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place in
the depths of The Misty Mountains and Moria. In my fantasy novels The
Wizard's Ward and The Destined Queen, The Blood Moon Mines are a hated
symbol of oppression. One of the reasons deep places may hold such a
fascination for us is because they couple the threat of danger with the
lure of riches - precious metals, gems, buried treasure, hidden magical
artifacts. That creates an instant sense of conflict, which is pure gold
for the storyteller.
So grab your pickaxe and prepare to delve into the
layers of conflict for nuggets to enrich your fantasy fiction. As a map
for our exploration and a torch to light our way, let's use that beloved
fantasy film, Willow.
The Mother Lode
The central conflict of Willow is made crystal clear
even before any characters appear on screen or any action takes place. A
print narration surrounded by swirling mist tells the audience "It
is a time of dread…Seers have foretold the birth of a child who will
bring about the downfall of the powerful Queen Bavmorda. Seizing all
pregnant women in the realm, the evil queen vows to destroy the child
when it is born." Yikes! Less than two dozen words and the battle
lines are drawn. Not just good versus evil, but innocent, vulnerable
good versus powerful, ruthless evil. There can be no question whose side
the viewer will be on.
Central conflict is the storyteller's mother lode -
capable of grabbing and holding the sympathy of your audience. Dig it up
and get it out there fast so the reader knows what's at stake in your
story. A strong, clear central conflict can power your fantasy fiction,
providing goal, motivation, focus and urgency. Every word your
characters speak, every action they take will contribute in some way to
that over-arching struggle.
In Willow, the good characters are constantly trying to
protect the baby, their only hope for the future. Meanwhile Bavmorda and
her followers throw all their energy into destroying that tiny but
ominous threat to their power. The evil queen stalks into the dungeon to
seize the child but the midwife slips out of the castle with the baby
hidden in her basket. Later, dogs pursue and kill the midwife, who sends
the baby floating down-river to Willow Ufgood. That central conflict
plays out again and again throughout the film, with the risk constantly
rising. Even in scenes where it is not shown explicitly, the threat is
always lurking, keeping tension high.
Pay Dirt
Having all your good-guy comrades continually fighting
shoulder-to-shoulder against the similarly united baddies will take you
a long way as a storyteller. But it's rather simplistic and may begin to
bore your reader after a while. Also, it isn't the way things happen in
real life, where there can be almost as much hostility between allies as
there is between enemies. Because fantasy writers ask our audience to
suspend disbelief about big things like made-up worlds, magical beasts
and working enchantments, it is important for us to ground our imaginary
tales in the reality of human nature. That's where the one-to-one
conflict between characters comes in. It can sustain individual scenes -
holding them up the way that pole supported Sorsha's tent… until
Madmartigan knocked it down.
Speaking of Madmartigan- he and Willow go through most
of the film as very reluctant allies with many disagreements. Part of
that is rooted in their sharply different temperaments. Willow is a
cautious fellow whose priority is keeping the baby safe and comfortable.
Madmartigan is a gutsy risk-taker. Though they don't realize it in their
frequent arguments, each is learning from the other, slowly becoming a
perfectly balanced team. Of course, Madmartigan is in conflict with
almost everybody at the beginning of the film - Willow, Airk, the
brownies, the cuckolded husband in the tavern. But his heartiest spite
is saved for Bavmorda's daughter Sorsha. "I hate that woman."
She's not too keen on him, either. "One move jackass and you really
will be a woman!" But all that changes when the brownies get
careless with a dose of love potion…
Diamonds in the Rough
That brings us to another type of conflict that the
romance genre mines assiduously but is sometimes overlooked in fantasy
fiction - internal or intrapersonal conflict. This is the pull-haul
between opposing inclinations within a single character. Since the
evolution and resolution of this conflict leads to change and growth in
your characters, it is a precious gem well worth some extra deep
digging.
While pursuing his quest, Willow Ufgood constantly
battles his fear, his self-doubt and his desire to return home to his
beloved family. In Madmartigan, courage and a rough-hewn nobility
struggle against the urge to look out for number one. He's hit with an
extra dose of internal conflict when he begins to fall in love with his
enemy, Sorsha. As the film progresses, Sorsha is equally conflicted -
torn between her growing feelings for Madmartigan and loyalty to her
mother, Bavmorda. Whenever the forces of love, courage, confidence or
selflessness win a small battle for the hearts and wills of your
characters, those moments dazzle readers with the sparkle of well-cut
gems, foreshadowing and contributing to the ultimate triumph of good on
a grand scale.
Panning for Gold Dust
There are some subtle storytelling techniques that can
pay off rich dividends when it comes to your story conflict. One is to
give your characters opposing goals. This sparks instant conflict.
Sorsha wants to capture the baby. Willow and Madmartigan want to deliver
Elora to the safety of Tir Asleen. Until Sorsha is won over, this leads
to an escalating cycle of conflict.
Not all conflict needs to be within or between
characters. Often circumstances or nature can provide an obstacle the
characters must overcome. Willow's small size, in the land of much
bigger, stronger Daikini folk, often makes it a struggle for him to do
the things he must to protect Elora Danan. Early in the film,
Madmartigan must struggle to escape his cage at the crossroads.
If the writer is clever enough to give characters urgent
goals, then the very passage of time becomes a source of conflict. Time
may be running out for something crucial to be accomplished. Or the
clock on a bomb may be ticking, drawing ever nearer to the moment of
disaster. What's so magical about using time this way in your story is
that it can transform even passivity and inaction into conflict. Every
moment spent dithering or resting is a tiny victory for the opposition.
Ron Howard and George Lucas made brilliant use of time
conflict in Willow, especially near the end when Bavmorda must perform a
long, complicated ritual to destroy the baby. This gives Willow and the
others a chance to strike back, drawing out the moments of most intense
conflict when the fate of the story hangs in the balance and one small
Nelwyn must summon up all his hard-won courage and confidence to defeat
the forces of evil.
Fool's Gold
A word of caution - pointless bickering or
misunderstandings between characters is not true conflict, though the
unwary may have trouble telling the difference. Genuine conflict is
anything that stands in the way of the characters achieving their goals.
Did anybody besides me find the constant bickering between the brownies
Rool and Franjean got tiresome pretty quickly?
Start Digging!
Conflict can be a difficult element of storytelling for
writers to master. Didn't our mothers always tell us to play nice and
not torture younger siblings? Besides, we love our characters - we don't
want to frustrate them, hurt them or break their hearts. But conflict is
a must in commercial fiction, so get ready to channel your inner drill
sergeant and open a can of tough love on your characters. Only by
delving deep and hard in the conflict mines will they and you unearth
the ultimate treasure of success.
~ In the process of writing over a dozen award-winning
historical romances and two fantasy novels, Deborah Hale has done her
time in the conflict mines. Her debut fantasy for Luna books, The
Wizard's Ward, is being released in mass market format in July 05,
followed in August by its trade paperback sequel The Destined Queen. For
more tips on writing genre fiction, visit her website www.deborahhale.com.
