Can Bridging Conflict Work When the Answer is Known?
The title is a little vague, so allow me to explain my question in depth here. If someone can think of a better way to phrase the title, feel free to edit it.
First off, my definition of Bridging Conflict:
Bridging Conflict is a minor conflict - usually a question the reader asks himself - that tides the reader over until the novel has introduced what is necessary for the main conflict to arrive (be that setting, characters, stakes, etc.).
This is how I understand Bridging Conflict. My question is: can it still serve its purpose (to act as a substitute main conflict) if the answer to the question it asks is already known?
For example, suppose I'm writing a novel about a zombie apocalypse (don't worry, this just an example). The Bridging Conflict could easily be why everyone is frightened, why there are extra security measures, why all the cities are surrounded by gates, so on and so forth. So far so good. The Bridging Conflict is the question the reader is asking himself: why are these things happening?
What happens if the title of the book makes it plain that it is about zombies? Then the reader can easily answer the question of the Bridging Conflict. "Why are these things happening? Zombies."
Nonetheless, if you do not actually mention zombies within the book itself, at least until the main conflict arrives, there is still an element of suspense and fear of the unknown, because the characters within the novel don't know the answer.
Are these elements enough to override what the reader can infer from the title? Will the Bridging Conflict still work, or will the reader ultimately become frustrated that the characters don't know what's going on, while he does (assuming the Bridging Conflict lasted that long)?
1 answer
Just because the reader knows the reason for the Bridging Conflict doesn't mean the characters will be able to overcome it.
In your example, even if the reader knows all the extra security measures are because of the Zombie Apocalypse, that doesn't mean that the zombies won't break through the security measures. In fact, it lends some extra tension. The reader may not wonder why the city is gated, but may now wonder if the zombies will break through the gate before the heroine has a chance to create the cure.
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