One Tool to Create Conflict and Drama in Your Writing

Newsletter | September 28, 2026

You’ve got one tool to add a sense of conflict or drama to your writing. Make scenes. That’s it. That’s the tool. You’re going to get conflict in your fiction, nonfiction, or poetry by putting two — forces, people, feelings, desires, longings, losses, figures — in a confined space with opposing, incompatible needs.

And, when the stakes are high — say, the characters are flawed and, say further, the question is a moral one or a dilemma — then the conflict writes itself. Now, read over your latest writing. Are you working in scenes? Are the stakes of the drama foremost — as in, does the drama get going in the first sentence? And, most important, are you keeping the needs of your characters distinct?