As an author who writes Christian novels, you no doubt review each of your stories to ensure they have clearly developed elements, such as theme, plot, characters and settings. Readers’ satisfaction might be low if you have failed to develop one or more of these elements in a story. They will be left with feelings of disappointment and “wanting more.” Authors can also use five literary conflicts to improve the quality of their stories.
In fact, a novel might feature more than one of the five literary conflicts we’re going to discuss in this blog post. Your primary goal is to craft a conflict in a meaningful way. To be effective, you must convey your character’s core values, mindset and internal, as well as external struggles.
Which of these 5 literary conflicts might be a good fit for your next story?
You can incorporate any of the five literary conflicts included in the following list into a Christian fiction book:
- Man versus self
- Man versus man
- Man versus the elements
- Man versus beast
- Man versus supernatural
Inexperienced authors may want to develop their skills by using timed writing exercises focused on each of these five literary conflicts. Set a timer and write a scene that demonstrates a specific conflict. Use characters you have already created for a work in progress, or you can improvise.
Helpful tips for creating effective struggles in a Christian novel
There are several ways to intensify literary conflicts to make a story more interesting and exciting for readers. Give these ideas a try:
- Create a conflict that challenges a protagonist’s beliefs or value system.
- Place a protagonist in a situation where he or she must choose between personal desires and moral codes.
- Uses details to describe a character’s internal and external conditions so that readers can relate to the situation and “feel” the character’s emotions.
- The higher the stakes, the more exciting the story—make sure there’s a lot to lose.
Literary conflicts are useful tools to bring out the true colors of a story’s characters, especially the protagonist and antagonist. In some stories, one converts to the other, meaning a character who was a “bad guy” to start becomes a hero or vice versa.
Moral dilemmas, danger and more
There’s a wide range of options from which to build upon to create literary conflicts, including physical fights, arguments, storms or earthquakes, blizzards, etc., crisis of faith, unjust laws and more. What will you use to entertain your readers in your next Christian fiction story?
