Film Courage: How does a writer create conflict?
Naomi Beaty, Writer, Screenwriting Teacher and Consultant: Conflict is created by two opposing forces. If we’re talking about the main conflict in a story, that’s the protagonist trying to pursue their goal and then whatever main force of opposition is getting in their way. It can manifest in a lot of different ways but it’s whatever that main thing is that’s stopping the protagonist or not allowing them to easily and quickly achieve that goal. Let’s say with Hustle movie [Netflix] which we’ve talked about earlier with the Adam Sandler [character] it’s a pretty clear idea of what that conflict is. But if you look at let’s say Forrest Gump [1994] an older version of a movie, it’s not actually that clear. There’s many things he’s encountering and that’s another reason that I would call Forrest Gump an advanced craft story because it’s pretty non-traditional. You have one guy and I don’t know that I would say he has a very clear end point that he’s working toward, it’s a little bit episodic. We’re watching him go through history, different notable points in history and accidentally showing up in the right place at the wrong time or whatever. That’s one of those stories that I think would be a difficult one for a newer writer to try to make work because if you don’t have that standard framework of character pursuing a goal to give you that spine and that main conflict to rely on, then you have to use other tools in your toolkit to create enough conflict and enough engagement to keep us invested, to keep us engaged in the story and not checking out and turning it off. I think Forrest Gump does that…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
Naomi Beaty is a writer, screenwriting teacher, consultant and owner of WRITE+CO., along with the author of LOGLINE SHORTCUTS: Unlock Your Story And Pitch Your Screenplay In One Simple Sentence and THE SCREENPLAY OUTLINE WORKBOOK: A step-by-step guide to brainstorm ideas, structure your story, and prepare to write your best screenplay.
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