38: Fear and Desire, Keys to Conflict

If you're struggling to invent conflict for your

novel, go back to the drawing board and revisit your

character's fears. You need to know the wants and needs for

every primary and important secondary character. This

knowledge will give you lots of ideas for your plot, tools, tips

and more on this episode of writing pursuits, let's get to

it. Welcome to the writing pursuits podcast where authors

like you discuss writing craft, author, life and book marketing

strategies. I'm your host Kathrese. McKee. I own writing

pursuits and write and produce the weekly newsletter writing

pursuits tips for authors. In addition, I am a speculative

fiction author, writing procedures for authors who drink

too much coffee, endure judgemental looks from their

furry writing companions and struggle for words. If you are a

writer seeking encouragement, information and inspiration,

this podcast is for you. Let's get to it. Hey, writing

pursuits, authors. Welcome

back to the podcast. To those of you who are new, I want to

extend a special welcome. My name is Kathrese McKee, and I'm

glad you're here. Please leave a comment a star rating and follow

the show to help others find writing pursuits. I've been laid

up with back problems lately. So I've spent a lot of time binging

dramas on my iPad as a way to ignore the pain Don't worry, I'm

under a doctor's care we have a plan. Normally, I don't like

shows that alternate between the present and the past. I was flat

on my back with nothing else to do. So I gave Quantico a second

chance. I'm glad I spent the time because the show is a good

example of using characters desires and fears to drive a

story forward and to generate twists and turns for the plot.

fears and desires drive conflict. For those who have

never seen the series Quantico is about a class of recruits

going through FBI training, it centers on Alex a young woman

with a few secrets in her past secrets she desires to leave in

the past. In fact, all of the recruits who live on her Hall

have secrets and they all fear exposure. These are the

characters who get tangled up in the drama surrounding Alex,

their individual fears drive the conflict in every episode.

Figuring out your character's tears and deepest needs and

desires is a key to characterization and generating

conflict for your plot. Know your character's fears, even if

they don't make it into the plot. If you are struggling to

invent conflict for your novel, go back to the drawing board and

revisit your character's fears. You need to know the wants and

needs for every primary and secondary, important character.

This knowledge will give you lots of ideas for your plot.

This reminds me of when I was a little kid, like maybe four or

five years old. My father was earning and an engineering

degree at New Mexico State University. And my family lived

in a cottage located in married college housing. And we

frequently took advantage of the universities magnificent Oh, the

only problem was, I had a deep seated fear of drowning. I don't

know where it came from. It just has always been there. I've been

afraid of the water. I could climb down into the pool using

the steps and wander around in the shallow end. But jumping off

the side of the pool at the deep end was not. I mean, not at all

what I wanted to do. But my dad had been part of the diving team

back in his high school days, and he was determined to help me

overcome my fear. So he would spend an eternity standing in

the pool, kindly encouraging me to jump in where he would be

right there to catch me. Keep in mind, my younger sister, then

two or three years old, had no problem launching herself into

the deep end cannon ball. In fact, she would jump in and

climb out three or four times while I hesitated on the edge. I

hated getting shown up like that. But the fear remained. So

if you were to develop a character similar to me for your

novel, you would be passing up an opportunity for conflict and

drama and character growth. If you didn't make your character

with the water phobia face her deepest fear head on know what

is at stake for your characters. Hand in hand with your

characters fears are the stakes they face. What are the stakes,

put some sort of death on the line and conflict becomes easier

to come by death can be physical, social, political,

emotional, or mental. Everyone you know has one or more things

at stake. Let's break that down. If your character's chief fear

is losing their mom, that's an emotional state when her mom

passes away, your character will experience a metaphorical

emotional death. deep grief takes a toll or start with

internal conflict if you're having trouble what does the

character want and why can't they have it? Or why do they

believe They can't have it. Not every story needs huge universe

shattering conflict. Conflict doesn't have to be big it boils

down to opposing views, priorities, beliefs, wants and

needs. I don't mean to say that conflict isn't important, but it

can be comprised of multiple building conflicts. However,

regardless of the scope of a conflict, the stakes for your

main character need to rise Do you need a handy way to examine

fears here are three tools that you can use to generate ideas

about fears Maslow's hierarchy of needs is perhaps the easiest

place to start when you are figuring out your character's

motivations. However, the hierarchy is not conclusive, and

many people think it can be improved. In case you're not

familiar with the hierarchy. Maslow theorized that humans but

most basic needs are the foundation, things like food,

shelter, water, and protection from the elements. The hierarchy

is depicted as a pyramid with physiological needs at the base.

The next higher layer of the pyramid is a human's need for

safety and security. Maslow believed that food and water are

more important to humans, then safety and security, we are

willing to risk our safety to obtain our physiological needs

above safety and security becomes a layer for belonging

and love. The next smaller layer is our need for esteem. And

above that comes a pinnacle of self actualization, which is

described as achieving one's fullest potential. Think of the

Olympic sprinter breaking all the records and winning the gold

medal that is really reaching their fullest potential as a

sprinter. So that would be your self actualization. According to

Maslow, the lower more basic needs must be met before human

turns our attention to the higher needs, and I kind of

disagree. In general, it's true. The Pyramid Chart used for

Maslow's hierarchy provides a handy reference and prompt the

Keep in mind that a person can sacrifice survival for a higher

calling, throwing it out the window and service of self

actualization. Fears are often our strongest source of

motivation. And each of the needs on the hierarchy can be

rephrased as a fear, fear of starvation, fear of a slow

painful death due to lack of shelter, fear of violence and

violation when you lack safety, fear of being loved and liked

and alone. Fear of losing all self respect when you can't meet

your own expectations, fear of living a life that isn't worth

remembering. The two other tools that I'm going to mention are

the Enneagram and the Myers Briggs tests. Enneagram and

Myers Briggs are also useful tools for characterization

according to trinity.com. The Enneagram is a system of

Personality Typing, that describes patterns and how

people interpret the world and manage their emotions. The Myers

Briggs results are similar than one similar to the ones from

Enneagram. At least for me they are many people prefer one

system over the other, but both are useful for characterization.

According to the Myers Briggs site. The purpose of the Myers

Briggs Type Indicator MBTI personality in Victoria is to

make the theory of Psychological Types described by CG Jung,

understandable and useful in people's lives. The essence of

the theory is that much seemingly random variation in

the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent. Being

due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use

their perception and judgment. Recently, I took an Enneagram

test, I landed on five wing four, also known as the

philosopher, spending too much time around other people

stresses me out. I fear being overwhelmed, or seemingly or

seeming incompetent, or being unable to express myself and

thus earning criticism from others. Predictably, then, I

spend a lot of time and energy learning new skills, trying to

understand the world around me, reflecting thinking and trying

to earn the appreciation of others by helping them learn to

I tend to be overly sensitive, and to focus on the stuff going

on inside my head. Wow, that is too much information and hits

too close to home. This means I tend to overthink and view

topics as an academic exercise instead of plunging in and

learning as I go. This is handy information for me to know about

myself, so I can break free of the more self destructive

features of being a philosopher. So I push myself to get my hands

dirty, and stop hesitating at the edge of the pool before I

jump in. Maybe you've taken a Myers Briggs test, and if you

have that's great. I land squarely on it. J, the architect

or the scientist, often i NT j's are just not the nicest people.

Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are all considered

to be INTJ J's

female INTJ is or perhaps the rarest personality group. And

this group includes folks like Jane Austen, Angela, Lance

Berry, Hillary Clinton, Jodie Foster and Hedy Lamarr. Okay, I

can handle that the females seem nicer than the males. Just as a

general observation according to the Myers Briggs website in the

shownotes, i NT J's have original minds and great drive

for implementing their ideas and achieving their goals. They

quickly see patterns in external events and develop long range.

Explanatory perspectives, when committed, organize a job and

carry it through skeptical and independent have high standards

of competence and performance for themselves and others. In

other words, they make great supervillains. But the fear is

variety. JS from Myers Briggs, are about the same as the ones

indicated by the Enneagram the fear of being incompetent, the

fear of being wrong, the fear of misunderstanding, something

important, and so on. Enough about me, I'm just trying to

provide an example. Run your main characters through the

Enneagram or the Myers Briggs test. Check out Maslow's

hierarchy of needs. Figure out your character's motivations and

needs and fears these tools will have you come up with a conflict

and plot points if you have problems, or run into a wall or

draw blank. Many authors struggle to come up with

realistic compelling conflict for their plots. And we all know

that we can't afford to write a snoozer novel full of peace and

harmony. readers want to see a character strive to overcome

hardships to grow and to conquer their fears. The question of the

week is, how have you used your characters theories to drive

your plot? Or what is your favorite example of a

character's fears? Driving a plot? Leave your answer right

proceeds.com forward slash podcast forward slash 38. That's

all I have for today. Until next time, keep writing. Thank you

for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please

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links mentioned in today's episode are in the show notes at

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