Writing Tips

Characters and their Conflicts (Mainly Intrigue)

There are many ways to write plot and conflict, and some ways just work better for some than others. For me, I mainly let the characters do the scheming, based on their own motivations, understandings and intimacies. This might seem a little overwhealming at first, but it's still far less than writing out their entire, likely not that interesting background story.

If nothing else, I hope this can be a fun little thought experiment for you.

Using understanding, goals and intimacies, is a direct way of making a tangible weaknesses for a character, that people can use against the character to either manipulate and possibly to force their hand. Once you know who knows of these weaknesses, the conflicts can deepen and become increasingly severe.

This method probably works better for stories with intrigue and multiple characters, where there is more conflict between multiple characters.

Why like this?

I remember how, in many of my earlier stories, everyone but the 1-2 main characters were just events to throw at the main character to get a certain outcome, and the world around the conflict were just passive onlookers.

In time I realized that I found that kind of world, and plot, boring. Not always boring enough to not read it, but it felt like all other characters were like toys in a box to grab when bored and toss away when no longer necessary.

As it is right now, I prefer a slightly more organic world, where the side-characters start to affect the plot and interactions on their own.

As I'm already a go-with-the-flow sort of writer, this was quite easy to implement, and a lot of the plot I've written was constructed this way.

What does a character need?

To me a new character needs the following:
- Their concept
- Their voice/feel (how they speak & bodylanguage)
- Understanding
- Goals
- Intimacies

The last three are what I use to define their conflicts, and are only used if I want a character to be able to have conflicts with people. Let's go through them:

Understanding is how a character views the world, and how much they know. Misunderstandings, fights and disagreements happen because people don't view things the same way, or don't know the same things. If a mother didn't know her son was sneaking out to feed a stay kitten he wasn't allowed to keep, then she might think he was sneaking out to do bad things. The endless discussions on what are right and wrong also fit under here.

Goals are both life goals, and immediate goals. For example: Alice wants to embroider a scarf before Sunday. It's an immediate goal, and it means she will be unlikely to accept requests during this time, if it takes her away from this. This also means that if she's the primary mediator between two hotheads, then those two might fly at each other. If they do she'll be unhappy with them, or she might push the responsibility onto someone else. Immediate goals are of course scalable to the person's amount of influence. A King's life goal to make his county safe, might spawn minor goals such as making sure overpowered soldiers don't ally with the enemy, or to use those soldiers to get more territory because the amount of people is inflating.

Intimacies are feelings about people and concepts  both positive and negative. You can think of them in 3 levels:
-Minor
-Medium
-Major

The three levels can be described as such:
- If Alice has a minor intimacy for Jack then she would put down her project to fetch him somewhere in town, or the town next to it if he asked.
- If Alice has a medium intimacy then she might put it down and fetch him across the country
- If Alice has a major intimacy for him, then she might give her life for him.

This can also be for ideologies, countries and concepts. When you see people fight wars, burn themselves or lay on the road to block traffic you'd see it as these intimacies coming into play.

In addition, intimacies makes to give specific points you can refer to later, on how to make a character more or less agreeable to offers and suggestions. If someone can truly help with something someone wants to give their life for, then they're far more prone to accept than if that thing wasn't mentioned.

Character Example:
Name: Jesmaine
Concept: Naive heroine that wants everyone to be happy and doesn't get that her ML loves her unless he does an under moonlight confession.
Feel: Less confident, at times nervous and desperate.
Understanding: Locked in the beliefs of the game.
Goal: to make peace between the two countries by marrying heroine to prince and not get married to Lionel.
Intimacy:
Medium negative for her fiancé (driven by understanding)
Medium positive for Helena

There are more intimacies, but those are her core feelings. However, her goals and her understanding continuously creates conflict, as those around her want something else.

Use Example:
Gilbert:
Concept: Raised to kill with a smile Yandere.
Goal: Keep country prosperous
Major Intimacy: Prince
Medium Intimacy: work

The prince's fiancé Lily does something that makes him think she will not make the country prosper.

(New) Immediate goal: Get Lily replaced.

She does something that makes him fond of her, but not change her suitability.

(New small -> medium intimacy: Lily)
(Revised) long-term goal: get her replaced, but keep her safe.

Lily goes directly against the prince.

His loyalty to the prince is a larger intimacy than to her, so he picks sides, although unhappy.

This is the decisions of a side character, which is reacting to the main character. On his own he decides these things, and interferes based on these preferences.

Final Note

If the plot needs to rely on scheming against each other, then it probably needs side-actors on each side to shift the power balance back and forth. Introduce the side-characters bit by bit as they get relevant, and show what part of them makes them either fiercely loyal, or on the verge of tipping.