Ten-Finger Exercises

Conflict, and resolution?

I got some helpful feedback on a story today, and I realized I've been forgetting about some basic points: conflict and resolution. Oops. So, to try out the idea I had the other day of putting different story elements on index cards and dealing out a plot, I tried to make some lists.

Here's the list of conflicts I made:
FIGHT
DEATH
DIVORCE
LOSES JOB
ATTACKED
ACCIDENT
THEFT
HOAX
FIRE

All well and good, but how can you resolve those things in the space of a short story?
I need some help making a better list.


As for reality, I avoided some conflict at work today, but have felt the effects of it all day long. One of our new patients, not mine though, believes in reincarnation. Since he's dying, his daughters, who are Christians, are very concerned about it because it doesn't fit in with their beliefs. The other chaplain said last week that she wasn't trying to change his faith, but today she talked about reading scripture to him to do just that, to "prove" that Christianity had no room in it for New Age beliefs.

That makes me angry. First of all, we're there to help with spiritual concerns, not religious ones. (His daughters' pastor is already doing his part at that!) Spiritual concerns mean the values and beliefs that bring meaning to his life. Regardless of whether the chaplain thinks he will or will not "be saved" with that "mistaken" belief, she doesn't have the right to try to convert him, even if the daughters want her to.

Second, and here too I may run into some opposition from readers, I don't think it makes any difference what he believes will happen after he dies. If it's really iimportant to him to think he'll be able to communicate with his wife even after death, what does that hurt? Why would it be a good thing to take away his hope?

(You'll realize right away that I don't believe it's up to us to "save" people, to get them to say "the right" words or believe "the right" things. I really, truly believe that, whatever salvation may be, it comes to us from the grace of God alone. Both St. Paul and Martin Luther have made the same point, so it's not heretical or anything.)

If I were trying to write a story about this situation, the conflict would be between the father and the daughters, and would be resolved if he gave in. Or even if he didn't, right?

The conflict I know about, between me and the other chaplain, will not really occur because I won't tell her I think she doesn't know her job. Asking her what scripture she read to him and why undoubtedly gave her a hint of my opinion-- even though I was asking because I wanted to understand what she was thinking. I hadn't drawn a conclusion about it at the time.

Even if a fictional character were to say, "What the heck did you think you were doing?" I don't know how the conflict would be resolved in the story.

Apart from this scenario, when I re-read stories I've written, I can't always identify the conflict. Sometimes that reads to me like something is missing, and sometimes it doesn't.

Any comments? I'd really like some help on this.