Key takeaways
Conflict is the struggle at the center of a story. Without it, there is no plot, because nothing is at stake.
Teachers usually sort conflict into internal (inside a character) and external (between a character and something outside them).
The common types are character vs character, self, nature, society, technology, supernatural and fate. Many stories combine two or more.
Examples here are original, so you can see the pattern without needing to know a particular book.
Ask a writer what makes a story work and the answer is usually the same: someone wants something and something stands in the way. That something is the conflict.
Conflict is what keeps readers turning pages, and it is a standard topic in school literature classes. This guide explains the main types of conflict, with a definition, a story pattern and an original example for each. It then shows how conflict drives a plot and gives you a short exercise to try.
What Is Conflict in a Story?
Conflict is a struggle between opposing forces. It gives a character a goal, an obstacle and a reason to act. A story without conflict is a description: nothing is at risk, nothing changes, and there is nothing for the reader to wonder about.
Teachers usually divide conflict in two:
- Internal conflict happens inside a character: a decision, a fear, a feeling.
- External conflict happens between a character and something outside them: another person, nature, a system, a machine.
Many stories use both. A character may fight a storm (external) while fighting their own fear (internal).
The Seven Common Types
| Type | The struggle | Typical question |
|---|---|---|
| Character vs character | Two people want incompatible things | Who wins, and at what cost? |
| Character vs self | A person fights their own doubts or desires | Will they change? |
| Character vs nature | A person faces the natural world | Can they survive? |
| Character vs society | A person opposes rules, customs or a system | Will they conform or rebel? |
| Character vs technology | A person faces a machine or an invention | Who controls whom? |
| Character vs supernatural | A person faces ghosts, magic or monsters | Can they overcome what they do not understand? |
| Character vs fate | A person struggles against what seems destined | Can a destiny be changed? |
1. Character vs character
Two characters have goals that cannot both be met. It is the easiest conflict to recognize, because it often plays out in dialogue and action.
Pattern: a rivalry, an argument, a chase, a competition.
Original example: Two sisters both want to run their late father's bakery. One wants to modernize it, and the other wants to keep every recipe exactly as it was. Each plan makes the other's impossible, and each scene sharpens the quarrel.
2. Character vs self
The enemy is inside. A character fights fear, guilt, pride, doubt or a hard choice.
Pattern: a character knows what is right and struggles to do it, or wants something they know is bad for them.
Original example: A pianist has been offered a solo concert, and she is terrified of failing in public. The story is her private debate: practice or hide, say yes or say no, trust her years of work or listen to her fear.
3. Character vs nature
The character faces weather, wilderness, animals or disease. Nature is not evil, just powerful and indifferent.
Pattern: survival stories, journeys, storms, deserts, mountains.
Original example: A fishing crew's boat loses power in a winter storm. Every decision, such as what to throw overboard and when to risk the radio, is a battle with the sea.
4. Character vs society
The character confronts the rules, expectations or injustices of their community or government.
Pattern: a person who refuses to follow a rule, challenges tradition or exposes a wrong.
Original example: A teenager in a town where everyone follows the same career path from birth wants to become an artist. Her family, school and neighbors all pressure her to fall in line.
5. Character vs technology
The character faces a machine, a program or an invention, often one that was meant to help.
Pattern: a tool that gets out of control, a system that replaces people, a question of who is really in charge.
Original example: A small-town librarian discovers that the new automated catalog is quietly deleting books it judges unpopular. She has to decide whether to fight the system or work around it.
6. Character vs supernatural
The character confronts something outside normal rules: ghosts, magic, monsters, gods.
Pattern: haunted houses, curses, enchanted objects, fantasy quests.
Original example: A family moves into an old farmhouse where the lights flicker in a pattern that spells the name of a child nobody remembers. The father insists it is nothing, and the daughter begins to investigate.
7. Character vs fate
The character wrestles with something that seems destined, such as a prophecy, a family curse or a path that has been laid out for them.
Pattern: a character who tries to escape or fulfill a destiny.
Original example: A boy is told he will become the village healer, as every first child in his family has. He wants to be a sailor. The story asks whether a path chosen for you can be turned down.
How Conflict Drives Plot
A plot is a chain of attempts to resolve a conflict. A simple model:
- Setup: the character and their world, with a want.
- Inciting incident: something disrupts the world and the conflict starts.
- Rising action: attempts and setbacks make it harder.
- Climax: the conflict peaks and the character makes a decisive choice.
- Resolution: the consequences show what has changed.
The stronger the conflict, the more the reader cares about each step. If you want to practice building one, the free plot generator can sketch a structure you can reshape, and the plot twist generator can suggest a turn when the middle sags.
Combining Conflicts
Most good stories mix types. A survival story (nature) is often also a story about courage (self) and trust (another character). A rebellion (society) may include a rivalry between two people on the same side (character vs character).
To see this in practice, take a story you know and list every conflict it contains. You will often find three or four.
Short Exercise: Find and Write the Conflict
- Pick a character and give them one clear goal.
- Pick a type of conflict from the list, and write one sentence about what stands in the way.
- Raise the stakes. Write one sentence about what they lose if they fail.
- Add a second conflict of a different type.
- Write the first paragraph of a scene in which the conflict is clear.
For example: "Goal: win the school science fair. Obstacle (nature): the experiment keeps failing in the cold garage. Stakes: this is the family's last chance to afford the trip. Second conflict (self): she is afraid to ask for help."
How to Tell if Your Conflict Is Working
- The character wants something specific.
- The obstacle is real, not easily removed.
- The stakes matter, to the character and to the reader.
- Each scene changes something.
- There is a cost to choosing. Good conflict forces choices.
If a scene has no conflict, ask what the character wants in it and what stops them, and add that.
Get Help Writing Your Story
If you are drafting a story and want a character or a premise to test, the free story character generator and story prompt generator are free to use, and you can build from whatever they give you. For craft, see our guides to how to write dialogue and how to write a short story, and our story writing page.
What This Guide Cannot Do
Categories are a teaching tool, and real stories do not always fit neatly. Different teachers and textbooks use slightly different lists, for example adding "character vs group" or splitting society into several types, so use whichever your class uses. The examples here are original and simplified, so they are not summaries of any particular book.
