Conflict: Roadblocks to your Character’s Happy Ending

Janet here. Writers of romance know the importance of keeping our heroes and heroines together and attracted. Yet we must not let them fall in love until they resolve the conflict between them and earn their happily-ever-after (HEA) ending.

Story is conflict. Conflict forces characters to act, to withdraw. Conflict stems from important goals and serious issues that keep the hero and heroine from falling in love. I’ll use my novel The Bounty Hunter’s Redemption to show how I came up with the conflict for widowed mother Carly and bounty hunter Nate.

But first let’s look at what conflict isn’t.  

Conflict isn’t arguments. Our characters may argue—even argue about the conflict between them—but the conflict will still remain because the cause of that conflict is something a mere argument won’t resolve. If conflict doesn’t take the entire book to resolve, the issues between them are not strong enough.

Conflict can’t be resolved by a conversation. An example of a conversation conflict is when the heroine sees the hero with a woman and believes he’s cheating on her. If she asked, instead of refusing his calls, she would learn the woman is his cousin.

Conflict isn’t external problems or trouble they just encounter. Loads of stories have the characters fighting evildoers or fleeing for their lives. That’s big-time trouble that may delay, but won’t prevent the hero and heroine from falling in love.

So what is conflict and how do we writers create book-length roadblocks to a happy ending?

We give characters strong external (tangible) and internal (intangible) goals and motivations, which creates conflict.  

Let’s look at widow Carly Richards’s External GMC:

External Goal: To run and expand her seamstress business.

Motivation: She must care for herself and her son Henry.

Conflict: Her dead husband gambled away the deed to the shop.

Now look at Nate Sergeant’s External GMC: Yes, he has two.

External Goals: To ensure that his widowed sister Anna gets the shop her dead husband won in a poker game. Once he does, he can pursue outlaw Shifty Stogsdill.

Motivation: If something happens to him while he’s trying to capture Stogsdill, his disabled sister needs a way to provide for herself.  

Conflict: The former shop owner won’t give it up. He must forgo pursuing the outlaw to stay in town until the judge arrives.

Ownership of the shop is a huge obstacle to Carly and Nate falling in love. When the hero and heroine both want the same thing, we call that plot trope “Two dogs, one bone.” Both characters don’t have to want the same thing. In fact, they often don’t. In fact here is a list of tropes for you to consider. Whatever the characters want, the pursuit of their goals should create conflict.

If the shop was the sole conflict between these two, the story would get tiresome. I broadened the conflict by adding elements to the plot that either stem from or complicate the external conflict. 

In honor of Seekerville’s Ninth Birthday party, I’ll share nine of many plot elements I used to increase conflict between and within the characters:

1. Nate killed Carly’s husband in self-defense, proof to Carly that Nate is a violent man like her dead husband.
2. Nate gets a job repairing the livery behind Carly’s shop. His proximity upsets Carly and gives Nate a sense of belonging in the community that’s a conflict for his bounty hunter existence.
3.  A big bridal order Carly can’t handle alone forces her to hire Anna.
4. Nate accuses Carly of hiring Anna to try to convince her to give up the shop.
5. Henry visits Nate at the livery. Alarmed about Nate’s influence, Carly confronts Nate.  
6. Nate asks Carly to teach him how to keep the livery books in exchange for teaching Henry to ride, something her son desperately wants, but she suspects will further cement Henry’s growing admiration for the bounty hunter.
7. Carly’s growing affection for Anna is in conflict with her desire to keep her shop.
8. Nate suspects Carly’s customer is the girlfriend of outlaw Shifty Stogsdill, adding more conflict between them.
9. Nate conceives a plan to lure Stogsdill to town. Carly is furious, believing that will put her son’s safety at risk.

The romance isn’t the plot, but when the hero and heroine are in conflict, their feelings of attraction and admiration—their budding romance—complicate the plot. Faith can also be a conflict within and between the characters as it is in this story.

Now let’s look at their Internal GMC. The internal goals often stem from the scars or wounds of their past. The reason we give characters a painful back story.

Carly’s Internal GMC:

Internal Goal: To paint a pretty picture of the past for her young son.

Motivation: To protect him from life’s ugliness.

Conflict: Her son isn’t fooled and her lack of openness is damaging their relationship.

Nate’s Internal GMC:

Internal Goal: To make up for his youthful negligence that resulted in Anna’s handicap.

Motivation: He can't undo his sister’s injury, but he can make things easier for her and lessen his guilt. 

Conflict: Doing the right thing for his sister means harming another woman and her child.

Carly and Nate’s GMCs create conflict between them and within them, but an overriding conflict exists even after the external and internal issues are settled that still blocks them from giving and receiving love.

The overriding conflict that keeps the characters from falling in love stems from their fears. Before the characters can have their HEA ending, they must grow and change by facing and overcoming their fears.

Let’s go back to Carly and Nate’s external conflict. Though both have strong motivations for wanting the seamstress shop, they could find a way to work out the shop ownership, if not for their fears. Even the circuit judge saw they cared for each other and suggested they get married and end the conflict over ownership. But until they overcome their fears, the shop ownership is an excuse to continue holding each other at arm’s length.

Carly’s fear: She blames herself for not realizing her husband was a bad guy before she married him. She is afraid to trust her judgment and risk exposing her son to another poor choice. Additionally, her father’s harshness and her husband’s cruelty have skewed her self-image, making her believe no good man would want her.

Nate’s fear: Nate’s job as a bounty hunter is an excuse for why he can’t settle down. His underlying problem with giving his heart is his fear of failing Carly, as he feels he failed his sister and his murdered fiancée.

These fears can be so deeply hidden inside the characters that they aren’t aware of them. Carly’s fear stems from the lie she believes about herself. Nate’s fear stems from the load of guilt he carries. The lies and guilt may have no root in reality, but they’re very real to our characters, so real that their fears keep them stuck, unable to give their hearts.

People—real and fictional—resist change. The reason we writers don’t allow our characters to change voluntarily. So how did I get these two out of this vicious cycle of fear?

I used the plot.

The plot forces the characters to face and deal with their fears.    

In the climactic scene with the outlaw Stogsdill, Nate and Carly face and overcome death. Afterward Nate understands the outcome wasn’t so much his actions, as it was God’s intervention. He turns his life over to God and finally realizes human beings do fail, but with God’s help, he can be a good husband and father. Carly sees that Nate not is he a good man, he loves her so much he was willing to die to protect her and Henry. 

Later that evening, the lack of honesty between Henry and Carly is resolved and Carly tucks her son into bed. Nate comes to the house to see if Henry got home safely and to tell Carly of his return to faith. Carly confronts Nate, asking if he intends to give up bounty hunting, the last roadblock between them. No longer afraid of failing those he loves, Nate slips off his gun belt and proposes. Henry awakes and is ecstatic that Nate will be the dad he prayed for. With all the conflict resolved and both of them changed, Carly and Nate have earned their happy ending.

Janet Dean grew up in a family who cherished the past and had a strong creative streak. Her father recounted fascinating stories, like his father before him. The tales they told instilled in Janet a love of history and the desire to write. Today Janet spins stories for Love Inspired Historical. She is a two-time Golden Heart finalist, a Genesis and a Carol finalist. Her novels are Golden Quill, Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, Booksellers Best and Inspirational Readers Choice Award finalists. 

With all this talk of conflict, I brought comfort food for breakfast. Help yourself to oatmeal, grits, scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls drizzled with frosting. Grab coffee or tea and a plate and let’s chat. 

If you have tips on creating conflict, please share.

What is more difficult for you, external or internal conflict?

What movies do you think of with strong conflict between the hero and heroine?

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