What is Conflict in a Story? Definition and Examples

Writers often discover that once conflict weakens, the story loses direction. Understanding conflict allows you to create stronger narratives and shape characters with clarity.

What Is Conflict in a Story?

Conflict is the struggle between what a character wants and what prevents them from achieving it. This struggle can be external, such as a rival, a storm, or a system of power. It can also be internal, such as fear, doubt, or a moral dilemma. Conflict creates movement, raises stakes, and defines choices.

Without conflict, a story lacks tension. Even carefully written prose cannot hold attention if nothing interrupts the characters’ paths. Conflict ensures that each scene carries weight and contributes to the whole.

What Is the Most Common Type of Conflict in a Story?

Writers encounter many types of conflict in literature, but some appear more frequently than others. The most common is character vs. character, the direct clash between individuals with opposing goals. This type drives both large-scale battles and small personal disagreements.

Other important types include:

• Character vs. Self: A protagonist struggles with indecision, guilt, or conflicting values.
• Character vs. Society: A character challenges laws, traditions, or cultural expectations.
• Character vs. Nature: A character attempts to survive against storms, wilderness, or disease.
• Character vs. Fate or the Supernatural: A character confronts prophecy, divine will, or forces beyond human control.

Writers often combine these conflicts. A single story may include both personal rivalries and deep internal struggles.

Definition of Conflict in a Story

Here is a precise definition to keep in mind: conflict in a story is the opposition between forces, internal or external, that propels the plot and reveals character.

This definition of conflict in a story highlights two outcomes. First, conflict drives action. Second, conflict shapes the character by revealing how they respond.

What Is Conflict in a Story – Example

Here are some samples to make the principle clear, where each one demonstrates how conflict creates forward motion and depth:

• External Conflict: In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo must carry the Ring while resisting external threats and the Ring’s own influence.
• Internal Conflict: In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa’s composed exterior contrasts with her private questions about meaning and satisfaction.
• Societal Conflict: In The Hate U Give, Starr balances community loyalty against systemic injustice and school expectations.
• Moral Conflict: In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov struggles to reconcile his crime with his conscience.

Why Is Conflict Important in Stories?

Conflict provides direction and focus. When readers sense tension, they stay invested. Conflict also prevents characters from appearing static by forcing them to make choices. Through conflict, a story achieves:

• Suspense – Readers anticipate outcomes.
• Character depth – Choices under pressure reveal values.
• Theme – Obstacles highlight the central ideas of the work.
• Momentum – The plot develops through resistance and response.

What Are the Different Types of Conflict in a Story?

Conflict is often divided into internal and external forms. Internal conflict occurs within the character, involving thought, feeling, or belief. External conflict arises from outside forces, such as other characters, social systems or natural challenges. The most effective narratives often combine the two, connecting external events to internal struggles.

Internal Conflict

Character vs. Self: The character wrestles with fears, desires, beliefs, or ethical questions. This form works well for stories that emphasise transformation or self-discovery.

External Conflict

• Character vs. Character: Rivalries or opposition between individuals.
• Character vs. Society: A protagonist challenges systems of power, tradition, or cultural norms.
• Character vs. Nature: Struggles against natural forces, such as survival in the wilderness.
• Character vs. Technology: Confrontations with machines, artificial intelligence, or unintended consequences of human invention.
• Character vs. Supernatural: Encounters with prophecies, curses, or otherworldly forces.
• Character vs. Fate: Resistance to destiny or predetermined outcomes.

These categories are flexible. Writers may adapt or blend them depending on the needs of the story.

How Does Conflict Drive Plot and Character?

Conflict shapes the plot by introducing obstacles that require decisions. Each challenge forces the character to act, which moves the narrative forward. Conflict also heightens stakes because readers understand what may be lost or gained. It also defines character – responses to difficulty reveal priorities, fears, and strengths.

The Purpose of Conflict in Storytelling

Conflict clarifies meaning and is not only about action. By observing how characters respond to pressure, readers gain insight into the story’s themes. Conflict also generates empathy, since readers relate to struggles. Unique conflicts, whether philosophical or personal, distinguish one story from another.

Conflict can also exist between ideas. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch stands against prejudice, representing integrity in the face of systemic injustice. These conflicts extend beyond the plot, encouraging reflection long after the story ends.

Historical Perspectives on Conflict

Ancient myths sometimes focused on harmony or cycles of explanation rather than opposition. Aristotle’s Poetics emphasised conflict as central to drama, shaping Western traditions of storytelling. In contemporary writing, alternatives such as the Japanese form Kishōtenketsu show that conflict is not the only structure, though it remains dominant in most popular fiction.

Narratives influenced by Kishōtenketsu do not rely on confrontation. Instead, they progress through introduction, development, twist, and reconciliation. The focus lies on contrast and discovery rather than struggle. This reminds writers that while conflict is common, it is not the only way to structure a story.

Writers’ Room Tips: Creating Conflict

Here are some practical ways to introduce conflict into your draft:

1. Define what your character wants and what prevents them from achieving it.
2. Layer obstacles rather than relying on a single challenge.
3. Use contrasts in goals, values, or perceptions to generate tension.
4. Increase stakes as the story develops.
5. Balance internal conflict with external events for complexity.

Conflict is most effective when it grows naturally out of character motivation definition and desire.

Conflict gives shape to narrative by forcing change. Whether you are exploring survival against nature, a clash of beliefs, or a quiet personal struggle, conflict provides the structure that keeps readers attentive. When drafting, revising, or experimenting with character creation ideas, remember that the story gains strength each time your characters encounter meaningful resistance.