How Much Conflict is Too Much? You Need to Be the Judge

You know, if you put all of this into a book...

Everything that's happened since New Year's Day....

And submitted it to an editor, they'd politely refuse to publish and remind you that your conflict was over-the-top and advise you to focus your story on a more realistic situation unless you're writing a dystopian novel, in which case, they're the wrong publisher anyway.

:)

When life throws more at you than a book allows, how do you pick and choose what goes into the book?

Carefully!

If you've ever read a book that just hammers a protagonist repeatedly and wanted to throw it across the room because the conflicts were conflicts-of-convenience rather than organic, that's kind of 2020 to a "T", isn't it? Enough already!

And Mother Nature can keep her stupid Murder Hornets to herself, thank you very much.

Picking and choosing what chaos, problems you're going to include in a contemporary or historical is clutch. You can have a classic family or town problem and all of its internal and external effect... crime, infidelity, divorce, death, illness, etc and show the ripple effect as it progresses outward, and then throw in a storm (pick one that fits the time of year) or a medical emergency (a train derailment, all hands on deck, a major crash on an interstate, food poisoning at a local wedding venue) or something major, and then the spillover of your major problem.... But if you pile it all on, creating a full-on quagmire of 2020 style problems, it borders on disbelief, even though we're living it.

Why?

Because it's so far beyond the norm that it might not connect with the reader.

Writing a novel is a lot like planning a wedding dinner, beginning with the appetizer:

Pick two:  Stuffed mushrooms, Shrimp-and-artichoke spread on Bagel Crisps, meat and cheese tray with crackers, lobster puffs, mini-quiches

Two many appetizers and the meal is wasted.

When you begin your novel, you don't necessarily have to have it all plotted out. But you do need to Aim For The End.

As you weave your story blanket, all threads need to progress across the grain and end up at the same place.

And that's the tangle of adding in too many conflicts. How can you do justice to the ongoing cause-and-effect if everything's in a knot?

I've seen good authors miss the boat on this and I see lots of new authors go both ways... way too much unrelated conflict and too little conflict, tied together with a loose structure of words/scenes bare of emotion.

Give yourself the fun of writing but don't be afraid to tackle into the deep subjects and then the willingness to edit like crazy to make it work, to tie those threads, and if 2020 pushes you to add too many toppings, either resist the urge...

Or possibly write the Next Big Thing. :)

Just be willing to do the work to make it shine from beginning to end.

Multi-published, bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne lives on a pumpkin farm in WNY that welcomes fairies and/or faeries to her gardens and trees so that children can look up-- or down-- and smile. :) With almost sixty published books to her credit, she's loving the opportunities she's been given and loves to encourage others to keep forging ahead. Don't give up! You can friend her on Facebook, email her at loganherne@gmail.com or visit her website ruthloganherne.com.