Take two of your established characters and write a story in which their goals are contradictory.
Easier said than done.
It's kind of a ridiculous thing to have to admit, but plots are one of the things I have the hardest time with. Conflict is the bloody basis of fiction, but my imagination tends to balk when it comes to setting up the basic game — which is probably one of the reasons most of my short stories have been of the slice-of-life variety: the conflicts there can be emotional and so tacit rather than explicit.
But still a good idea, and something that's (sort of) missing from the fantasy I am ostensibly working on. That is, there actually is a bad guy there, but his motivations have been pretty-poorly thought out. And I think you might just have given me the necessary clue as to why he was such a damned unsatisfactory villain! (My heroine has something that he wants! D'oh! So obvious, now!)
Re: A writing excersize that may help you
Take two of your established characters and write a story in which their goals are contradictory.
Easier said than done.
It's kind of a ridiculous thing to have to admit, but plots are one of the things I have the hardest time with. Conflict is the bloody basis of fiction, but my imagination tends to balk when it comes to setting up the basic game — which is probably one of the reasons most of my short stories have been of the slice-of-life variety: the conflicts there can be emotional and so tacit rather than explicit.
But still a good idea, and something that's (sort of) missing from the fantasy I am ostensibly working on. That is, there actually is a bad guy there, but his motivations have been pretty-poorly thought out. And I think you might just have given me the necessary clue as to why he was such a damned unsatisfactory villain! (My heroine has something that he wants! D'oh! So obvious, now!)
Thankyouthankyouthankyou!