I like to think of what happens to characters in good novels
and stories as knots --- things keep knotting up. And by the end of the story
--- readers see an unknotting of sorts. Not what they expect, not the easy
answers you get on T.V., not wash and wear philosophies but a reproduction of
believable emotional experiences. ~ Terry McMillan
***
This week we’re learning the technique of utilizing conflict
in a story. I think the above writer, Terry McMillan, has said it much better.
It’s like tying your words in knots and placing the knots in the hands of your
readers and letting them slowly do the unraveling of sorts until they walk away
with an emotional experience for having read your words.
Conflict in a story? Sure you can call it that, but I like
the knot theory much better. Conflict sounds so aggressive and can be. Do we
want to write an aggressive scene or a scene that has your stomach in knots as
you turn page after page? I’m leaning towards the knots, myself.
For conflict to be effectual, you need the inverted check
mark is what I’ve been taught. You need to slowly build up the scene, place a
few knots in the rope, or tension, as the scene grows and mounts the highest
mountain.
Instead of having your character jump off the other side of
the mountain, you need to bring your reader down slowly as if releasing the
pressure out of a tire. It doesn’t deflate immediately; it slowly comes to a
flat. But wait a second now, you don’t want your ending to be flat, you want
vibrant life to be in the ending, so don’t deflate your tire completely. Give
your reader an emotional release.
This is why I like the knot theory more than I appreciate
the conflict. Sure you can give the reader an enormous amount of conflict but
giving them knots is like handing them a fully inflated tire, and releasing the
pressure slowly so that your reader is gripping their stomach in anticipation,
the knot has been built and you’re slowly releasing them. By not allowing the
tire to go completely flat you’re saving room for the completion of the heartache
in the tale, the happily ever after, so to speak.
All in all your reader is what counts. If you can tug at
THEIR heartstrings, bind them up in knots, and give them a welcomed conclusion
by untying the knots, I think you’ve achieved your goal in your story.
Chapter by chapter should have elevated the heart rate so
that they continue reading each and every word, dangling by a thread; they are
waiting for you, the writer, to make them feel as though their visit to your
world of words was worth every thread.
Giving them conflict, you might be giving them aggression.
Giving them knots, you’re filling your work with the drama that carries the
story. Remember that as you’re building your characters and story. Drama is
GOOD; it is a writer’s best friend!
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