Lights, Camera, Action! -- Conflict in Storytelling

Whew! Week 1 just wrapped at Gateway. We had great opening classes and very powerful services each night. Where am I going with this, and what does it have to do with reading and writing? Well, in Rev. Jerry Jones' sermon, he indicated that contrast is often used in Scripture for emphasis. This sparked my interest because that day in class we had studied specific psalms from a literary standpoint, and one student had brought out that there was a lot of contrasted imagery and contrasted themes.

Connection

If biblical contrast helps emphasize meaning, perhaps contrast in fiction can help stress meaning and themes? I'm thinking of contrast in terms of multi-dimensional characters with seeming contradictions. I'm also thinking of convoluted action sequences in stories, since we know that conflict is a chief ingredient for a story.

My Dilemma

Having just put together 18 short stories over the summer (an all-out race by July's end--too much... never again), I talked candidly with one of my editors about what is the biggest challenge to me: creating believable conflict and action that can be resolved in 1500 words, and yet not to tidily. We walk such a tightrope in creating conflict that feels realistic and yet satisfying the reader with resolution to it in a way that doesn't feel contrived.

Many think of O.Henry when they think of an author who mastered the rise and fall of action adeptly in the short story genre.

Practical Solutions
I'm blatantly stealing my friend's advice here, but I've thrown in a few ideas of my own, so I don't think I'll get fined:

1. When brainstorming an action sequence, picture the characters in it and ask yourself if it feels real. Just imagining a cool plot twist isn't sufficient if you can't picture it working for your characters.

2. Draw a map of a house, road, area, so you can plot out the specifics of the action and keep it grounded in a realistic way. Faulkner jumps to mind with his mythical Yoknapatawpha County, which he mapped and then used in most of his work.





3. Walk yourself through the plot sequence and do a critical review to ask if it feels real.

4. Get a friend (or several) to read your work (ouch) and honestly tell you if the action is too contrived or the plot to easily wrapped up.


Your Turn
The above ideas are my guardrails for next time around. What do you think? What works and what doesn't? What am I missing?