Conflict—it’s a must-have ingredient in any novel, but one of the trickier aspects of writing to master. When the desire to write first blossomed in my heart, I was fairly certain that if I just “refreshed my memory about where to put the commas” I would be published in no time. I soon learned that while editors appreciate punctuation savvy, perfect sentence structure is not enough to create a good novel. Those well-crafted sentences must come together to produce the more abstract concepts of writing such as characterization, theme and conflict. If these are weak, a writer is bound to receive rejections rather than contracts.

Like many authors, my early attempts at fiction earned me a nice pile of rejection letters. Editors often praised me on my grammar and punctuation skills, but pointed out weak points in my plots. I quickly discovered I needed more conflict! Not the personal variety, but the fictional kind that makes my characters sweat. Conflict is the key to creating believable characters, developing a strong theme and writing an interesting story. Here are some tips that helped me strengthen my writing:

Set goals

Rousing conflict begins with strong goals. In real life everyone has an agenda or ambition. Likewise, realistic, interesting characters have needs and wants. They seek to fulfill a purpose or objective, and they cause the reader to root for them, celebrating each triumph and mourning each setback vicariously.

When evaluating the strength of your book’s conflict, begin by determining whether all the main characters have clearly defined goals. In addition, each character should have both internal and external goals. External goals can be identified as action goals and are usually related to plot points. Buying a house, capturing a criminal, rescuing a damsel in distress—these are external goals. Internal goals are based on a character’s emotional needs, such as earning respect, finding security or regaining a lost love.

As you plot, brainstorm ways to make your characters’ internal and external goals work against one another. For example, an ambitious young attorney is determined to earn a promotion and establish a name for himself in the legal world because he wants to feel respected. However, in order to win his latest case he must stoop to underhanded, dishonest tactics. Does he stick to his morals and refuse to act dishonestly at the cost of the coveted promotion and the respect he craves? Or does he disregard his principles, earning him the promotion but forfeiting his self-respect in the process? Neither option is 100 percent satisfactory.

This character cannot hope to attain both his external and internal goals, so he must make an impossible choice. In the midst of this difficult situation, the character has the opportunity to learn, grow and evolve as a person. By forcing this character into a conflict-filled situation and seeing how he reacts, you are developing characterization and establishing the foundation for your book’s theme.

Find motivation

Characters need a reason for behaving the way they do. People have pasts, and past experiences often influence their present lives. Give your characters a history. Write out some backstory, including information about each of your characters’ triumphs and tragedies then speculate how those experiences have shaped the characters’ present-day views.

Why does the young lawyer so desperately want respect? Was he the kid everyone on the playground bullied? Did his parents tell him he was worthless and would never amount to anything? Did he sit by his father’s deathbed and swear to make his dad proud? Create a life for your character and be sure to give him or her some heavy baggage to drag around. The more complex your character, the more interesting and convincing the story becomes for the reader.

When you have established some backstory, examine the plot from the individual perspective of each character and see how their unique perceptions differ. An event that seems unfair to one character might appear completely justified to another, depending on their personal views. As you write, allow their past experiences to determine their behaviors and influence their decisions. Conflict is sure to follow.

Create conflict

If your characters all share the same goals, then you can probably begin and end your story on the same page because without conflict, there is no story—at least not one that will keep readers turning pages. When one character’s goals and ambitions conflict with another character’s agenda, the story becomes interesting. Examine the goals and motivations you’ve established for each character and find ways to make them clash with one another.

Through business relationships, our young lawyer has met an attractive female private eye, and the two have developed a romantic connection. When he hires her to investigate his latest case, a sexual assault, she finds evidence that will cinch the case for the other side. Will he see it as a betrayal when she destroys his hopes of winning the case? Having been abandoned by her father, she harbors a deep fear of losing the men in her life, and considers hiding the evidence. The secrets begin to drive them apart.

This dilemma is convincing and compelling, but we can make our couple even more miserable if we try. Turn up the heat with blackmail or a bribe that pushes the lawyer to the breaking point. Reveal that the private investigator was a victim of a sexual crime much like the victim in this case. She was never able to prosecute her attacker and so seeing this woman vindicated takes on special significance. She simply can’t let it slide and must risk losing her man in order to free herself from the memories of her own attack. Suddenly, two people who were on the same side find themselves working against one another.

The more pressure you heap on your characters, the more compelling the story becomes. Twists and turns create nail-biting suspense that keeps readers turning pages long into the wee hours of the night. So place those characters in painful conflict and really make them squirm. It’s the write thing to do!

Recommended reading: Debra Dixon’s GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict