How to Create Story Conflict

welcome to the fifth video in this series covering the fundamentals of screenwriting and storytelling if you'd like to watch the other videos you can find them linked in the description or on the end screen of this video now that i've given an understanding of the purpose of conflict this video will focus on how to create conflict for an overall story and an individual scene this video will take elements from my previous four videos how to structure your screenplay how to create characters how to create character arcs and the purpose of conflict if you haven't watched

those videos i recommend watching them and then coming back to this video let's begin like i explained in the purpose of conflict video characters are placed into conflict when their beliefs and philosophies compete with other characters who have differing beliefs and philosophies but once you have an understanding of who your characters are what they believe and what they want how do you create interesting continual conflict over the course of the screenplay when a character begins the story we need to understand who they are and what they are capable of the person your character is should

not be able to fight against the forces of antagonism at the climax they must go through lower levels of antagonism to change into someone who can take on the larger forces of antagonism when the climax comes someone who's never picked up a gun will not suddenly run into battle ready for anything in a moment's notice it's not believable it's not who the character is characters like people need time to actually change in his book story robert mckee talks about a concept called progressive complications mckee writes a story must not retreat to actions of lesser quality

or magnitude but move progressively forward to a final action beyond which the audience cannot imagine another so your character should face larger and larger conflict as they move through the story there's a couple defining elements of mckee's method of progressive complications number one create greater and greater conflict and number two create a succession of events that continually pass points of no return number one create greater and greater conflict as the character morphs and changes to rise to the challenge of the antagonistic forces the antagonistic forces must grow stronger and more intense to continually push the

main character towards deeper change human nature is fundamentally conservative mckee explains that your character will start with minimal effort in the beginning of the story when the minimal effort doesn't work and only creates a greater struggle between the antagonistic forces the character must act again this time in a stronger way the simplest way to look at this is to examine a character in act 1 act 2 and act 3 and see what actions they are taking at each point in 500 days of summer tom is just living his life casually looking for love we meet

him when he's working at a job he isn't passionate about as he coasts along through life tom meets summer and falls completely in love with her tom moves from coasting to being emotionally awakened by his relationship with summer summer is changing how tom sees the world tom goes into complete despair after summer is engaged to someone else his world has fundamentally shifted forever from his experience with summer and it takes him a long time to recover in uncut gems howard owes arnel a hundred thousand dollars howard works to collect this money while a few other

people he swindled try to get their money back howard's gambling addiction increases his problems instead of giving arno his money he tries to place a bet on an nba game which creates further chaos with arno leading to arno's men beating and stripping howard not only this but kevin garnett has taken howard's extremely valuable uncut opal and isn't bringing it back which causes even more problems for howard when kevin garnett finally buys the opal it seems like howard can tie up major lucenz by settling his debts but instead howard makes the biggest bet of his life

arno and his men hold howard out of the window demanding their money back howard traps them in his jewelry store so that his massive all or nothing bet can play out having a good time [Applause] split your story into sections this could be your acts or maybe your sequences and check to see if you are actually building larger and larger conflict or if your story stagnates on one level of conflict ask yourself how you can push your characters to take larger actions forcing your characters to take larger actions should both increase the level of conflict

and create change in your characters number two create a succession of events that continually pass points of no return mckee writes progression builds by drawing upon greater and greater capacities from characters demanding greater and greater willpower from them constantly passing points of no return in terms of the magnitude or quality of action it's not only about creating larger forces of antagonism it's also about not being able to turn back points of no return can be external such as howard placing a bet with the money he should have used to pay his debts or they can

be philosophical such as tom's view on love shifting as he continues his complicated relationship with summer in uncut gems howard continues to screw people over and make bets howard can't stop because he's addicted to sports betting every bet he makes and every time he swindles someone creates a larger point of no return that adds to the complete chaos of his situation howard's list of debtors continues to grow larger and larger and his bets grow as well when howard gets some money by pawning kevin garnett's ring he doesn't use it to pay arno he uses it

to make a bet this creates a point of no return and further angers arno howard makes a similar action but at a much larger scale at the end of the film in 500 days of summer the points of no return are both external and philosophical tom's relationship with summer continues to fundamentally shift his views on love and relationships once external events happen tom's beliefs are shifted creating a point of no return in the story the external events create external points of no return as well as shifts in tom's beliefs which create philosophical points of no

return summer's kissing tom is an example of an external point of no return and it also enforces tom's belief that summer is the one when summer tells tom things that she had never told to anyone else this creates a point of no return because tom believes that he is truly special in summer's eyes i guess i'm not just anybody so how do you actually build your story so that characters actually pass points of no return want and cost if you're writing a narrative drama and you want to keep conflict and tension moving forward then you

must build your story in a way that each scene creates the scene that comes after each scene builds upon the scene before and each sequence forces your character into new situations where they can no longer turn back whether externally internally or philosophically so how do you do this remember how i talked about how characters have wants characters have larger ones that span the entire story and they also have smaller ones in each scene but this is only half of what keeps a story moving forward to keep your story moving forward everything that your character wants

should come at a cost let's take a look at some of the wants and costs in 500 days of summer and uncut gems so that we can see how the stories use this want and cost cycle to continue to push the conflict forward in 500 days of summer tom wants to find the love of his life and tom thinks he gets what he wants he finds summer tom begins to fall hopelessly in love with summer but this comes at a cost summer reveals that she doesn't believe in love and doesn't want to be in a

serious relationship i like casual i take it slow tom tries to move past this and just focuses on getting closer and closer to summer because his want remains to be with her but he cannot do this forever the brewing conflict eventually explodes and they part ways tom don't go you're still my best friend an interesting note about the structure of 500 days of summer is that the film uses jumps in time to help create this cycle of want and cost in the beginning everything in the relationship seems great there aren't any major conflicts the screenwriter

solved this problem by jumping forward in time to see what has changed after tom and summer part ways so in one scene we see a happy moment in their relationship followed by a jump forward in time where tom is alone this helps the scene-by-scene flow of the story stay interesting and engaging if all we saw was happy scene after happy scene with zero cost the film would feel boring and uneventful we need to see the costs that take place in the future so that each happy scene becomes more meaningful simply put because there are times

where there are no short-term costs of the relationship the writers show us the long-term costs to give us this important want and cost flow in uncut gems howard gets what he wants when he gets the money to make a bet he lets kevin garnett keep his uncut opal and he pawns garnett's ring to make a 40 000 bet on an nba game but arno follows howard howard was supposed to pay arno back with this money arno sees where howard placed the bet and stops it meaning howard cannot pay arno back and did not win big

like he thought he did what you stopped the bet what do you think [ __ ] you stopped the bat congratulations auto you [ __ ] ourselves howard now knows the best way to pay arno back is to sell the uncut opal at the auction howard gets what he wants when he gets the opal back from kevin garnett which means he can give it to the auction but the auction won't sell it for a million dollars like howard thinks it's worth this means howard may not get the money he needs to settle his debts so

howard goes to jack up the price to get the money he wants but he pushes too far and fails he's stuck with no money and the stone howard gets what he wants when kevin garnett comes and buys a stone from him now howard will be able to settle his debt with arno but this isn't what he really wants what he really wants is to make a bet because of his bet arno's men hold howard out of a window demanding their money uncut gems may seem chaotic when viewing it but when breaking it down its conflict

and cycle of one and cost become very clear howard continuously sabotages himself because every time he gets what he wants his desire to bet win and swindle others costs him hopefully you can see that these costs create new situations for the character and also create a point of no return the character must sacrifice something to get what they want therefore placing them in a new situation one in which they cannot turn back you might also notice that when looking at dan harmon's story circle at points five and six a character gets what they want and

then pays for it this is an example of this concept of want and cost and this is why you can use the story circle to write individual scenes as well as full screenplays because the concept of want and cost are clear now you may be asking an important question right now why does a want have to come at a cost this idea isn't simply hey here's a fun way to write a screenplay it's deeper than that when i say cost i'm saying that the character must pay or suffer in some way for the actions that

they take and the choices that they make just like actual people do every day without suffering your characters aren't forced to change without suffering your characters do not have to confront what they believe and without suffering your characters are not forced to act costs force your characters to suffer and through that we get to see who they really are what they really want and what they really believe in just like people characters who don't suffer may not truly know what they believe if a character or person never confronts what they believe through their actions and

decisions they will not grow and in the case of your story it will stall and become boring this is also what makes us care about the character's wants if what they want doesn't cost them anything then it isn't engaging when a character's want costs them something we can see how serious they are about what they want and we get a clearer sense of how strongly they hold their particular beliefs so once you have an understanding of story conflict where it comes from and how to progressively build it we need to focus on one last element

scene conflict a big mistake writers make is that they get to a scene and they try to artificially inject conflict into it they try to give the scene some sort of purpose without really knowing why it needs to be in the story rather than trying to inject conflict into a specific scene you should focus on creating your characters and their goals in a way that creates conflict organically when you place the characters into the particular scene once you know your characters and have an idea of how the scene might move the story forward we can

start looking at scene objective and super objective scene objective and super objective are elements of a scene that robert mckee talks about in story the scene objective is the character's specific goal for this specific scene the super objective is the character's overall goal and reason for doing what they are doing the super objective is usually the underlying reason that the character wants the scene objective in the scene where kevin garnett comes to buy the opal howard's super objective is to settle his debt even though that isn't truly important to him it is what he's trying

to do externally throughout the film the scene objective starts with howard wanting to sell the stone to settle his debt but it changes that's [ __ ] bad on this let's bet on this [ __ ] howard is going to place a bet and send us into the crazy climax of the film in the scene where tom talks with summer and mackenzie at the bar tom's super objective is to find love his scene objective is to simply get to know summer better the scene is turned when summer reveals that she does not believe in love

which is confusing and disheartening to tom and turns the story what well you don't believe that do you it's love it's not santa claus not every scene needs to coincide with the larger external want but each scene should coincide with some sort of major want whether that's external internal or philosophical for example in this scene in uncut gems howard tells his wife that he wants to stay together i'm thanking you just give me another shot this has nothing to do with the major external goal of settling his debts but it is what howard wants in

this moment on an emotional and internal level therefore the scene can continue to inform on who howard is as a person someone who cannot control his constant chaos and is constantly moved by his emotions and feelings in a particular moment another way of looking at the same idea is john truby's explanation of how a scene should be structured trouby writes the beginning of the scene should frame what the whole scene is about the scene should then funnel down to a single point with the most important word or line of dialogue stated last the scene objective

or endpoint is the purpose for the scene's existence in the story a new piece of information is learned an action is taken a choice is made etc let's go back to those two scenes first uncut gems the beginning of the scene should frame what the whole scene is about kevin garnett expresses his frustration about howard constantly playing games with him but nonetheless he is here to buy the opal howard's scene objective is to sell the opal so that he can finish his super objective settle his major debts especially with arno then funneled down howard gives

garnett the opal arno and his men come to the jewelry store to collect on their money kevin asked how much howard paid for the opal and howard tells him kevin thinks howard swindled the ethiopian miners but howard says that this is his arena and how he plays the game just like kevin does howard checks to see how the casinos are betting on the game that garnett is about to play howard explains that this is how he plays the game this is his court all right all the [ __ ] hard work i do all the

[ __ ] ass kicking and the dues i pay you're not gonna score on the big one on game seven [ __ ] these people right that's how you feel i know you do so look to a single point let's [ __ ] bet on this let's bet on this [ __ ] howard doesn't just bet because he's addicted he bets because it's the thrill of winning proving people wrong and playing in his own arena now 500 days of summer the beginning of the scene should frame what the whole scene is about tom sits with

summer and mckenzie at the bar tom wants to get to know summer better then funnel down mackenzie asks if summer has a boyfriend and summer talks about her views on relationships tom finds out that summer has drastically different views on love okay but wait wait what happens if you fall in love what does that word even mean i've been in relationships and i don't think i've ever seen it this confuses tom and makes him wonder whether or not summer is the one to a single point there's no such thing as love it's fantasy summer fundamentally

disagrees with tom's view on love and their different beliefs will create constant turmoil in their complicated relationship each scene should have a specific objective that also places it into the overall story by bringing the scene to a single point usually an action or new information the story is turned and shoved forward if you're struggling with a scene that feels slow boring or out of place refer back to these ideas what is the super objective how does this scene serve the character's larger goals and what is the scene objective what does the character or characters want

in this scene that pushes them towards what they want it's important to be clear and be able to understand why a scene is in the story if you can't clearly articulate why a particular scene is in your story you may need to remove it okay i covered a lot in a short time so let me condense this for you as you go to write your next screenplay number one start with characters and their deeply held beliefs number two challenge those deeply held beliefs with other characters who believe differently number three start small and grow larger

let the conflict rise and force your characters to change number four understand the purpose of the scene bring the scene to a specific point how does it drive the larger story forward so far i've given you a lot of the core of storytelling so now it's time to take a look at one of the most overlooked and difficult elements of good writing exposition in the next video i'll be talking about exposition its function and how to incorporate it into your screenplay so be sure to check out the other videos in this series by clicking the

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