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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48569
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

I'm a conflict and character writer. For me, the two naturally go together.

If I wanted to start with the conflict, I would start by asking what terrible threat is hanging over Sir Nathaniel? It doesn't have to be something that threatens him specifically. It could be a threat to someone who he cares about or who he feels he should protect.

Then you figure out what prevents him from fixing the problem. Maybe some character flaw that he will have to overcome. The problem might be that he is dying of cold and hunger because the person who brings him food has stopped coming, but he has sworn to guard the magic garden and never step foot outside of it until someone comes to take his place. Or maybe he is forced to watch as village after village of people is slaughtered, and he knows that he could stop it if he chose to overthrow his brother and take his place on the throne but he swore to his mother on her deathbed that he would always support his brother, and besides, they were rebels anyway and isn't it right that rebels should be punished? The throne should be respected, always.

You could also begin with his character. Is he a knightly, noble character who feels that he should protect weak? The conflict might that there are a group of innocent people who need to be protected.

Then you throw up some resistance. Something that prevents him from just charging in and saving them all right away. Maybe the oppressing force is too powerful, and he will need to admit that he can't do it by himself and ask for help. Or maybe the person oppressing them is Sir Nathaniel's sworn lord! What can he do? He may have to rebel against his lord. Or he may find a way to be true to both his oath and his heart, by finding a way to help the people without disobeying his orders.

Sometimes I like to take a character's greatest strength and make it his weakness. If Sir Nathaniel is a truly courageous person and he always must be brave, what happens when his bravery leads to disaster? What if there is a dragon who comes every year to get tribute from a group of poor farmers. They are terrified that if they don't feed it cows every year it will attack them. Sir Nathaniel, who is not afraid to pit his sword against the dragon, attacks it as it swoops down to pick up a cow. There is a terrible battle; he wounds the dragon and it flies off.

But Sir Nathaniel didn't realize that the dragon only demanded cows during a time when she couldn't hunt for herself, while she is hatching her eggs, and at other times she hunted predators in the forest around the village, and kept other dragons away. Now that she is wounded, she must either abandon her eggs or starve. Suddenly, he must face the fact that he has caused ill when he felt he was doing good.

Original score: 2