(Thanks to BK Jackson for her thoughts on this topic. I needed a post for today.)
When is it too much? If I’m reading a Robert Liparulo novel, there’s always a huge amount of conflict. The master of pacing in his early thrillers and in his Young Adult Dreamhouse Kings Series, conflict rules and reigns on page after page. The pages can’t turn fast enough. Even with proper chapter breaks, it’s difficult to stop turning those pages. So. Robert knows all about conflict and how to keep it sharp and fresh.
Reading a Lisa Samson novel presents a different kind of address to conflict. It can be subtle, sometimes slow-moving, other times overt, and in its own way a quiet life-and-death literary treatise of pain, struggle, and growth. Not atypical of literary novels but never less than real and honest in the department of the human psyche and its varied emotional and spiritual makeup.
The “must have conflict on every page” instruction grinds on me. Another “rule” that exceeds sensibility and needs translation. When you use this premise for a romance what you get are doofus characters pretending they don’t like each other when it’s blatantly obvious they want to rip each other’s clothes off. Exaggeration, okay? But, hey, that kind of conflict results in shallow characters playing junior high school games with each other and makes me, as both a writer and a reader, want to shred pages of said books. Frankly, it’s insulting. Apparently there are several readers who enjoy being insulted with this kind of behavior. It’s exceedingly difficult to pull off this stuff in the content of romantic fiction because it’s so disingenuous—especially after the back cover copy reveals the storyline with the hint-hint, wink-wink suggestion or question.
Your approach to conflict in story might prove quite revealing in your genre and author tastes. Your thoughts on this are welcome . . .
Father, you know the conflicts of the ages. It all began with sin. Help us to honor you with the way we write, the way we depict the struggle. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Would appreciate your continued prayers for those mentioned yesterday. My brother is facing possible heart surgery. He’s stable but needs prayer. Thank you all. May the Lord richly bless you for lifting up the needs of others.