Writing Richer Conflicts: Beyond Good vs. Evil

American popular entertainment has been largely stuck in one way of creating and resolving conflict: there’s a hero and a villain, and the hero defeats the villain in the end. The solution to conflict is to identify the bad people and get rid of them. When every story goes this way, this kind of thinking can bleed into the real world and make it harder for us to find solutions that people with different perspectives can agree on. You can probably think of some examples in the world today.
As a writer, you have the tools to offer people other ways of resolving conflicts.
In this workshop, we’ll explore the traditions of tragedy, comedy, and melodrama as models of conflict and resolution. We'll practice how to use them as primary colors on your palette to create stories that humanize all sides of a conflict.
This will also give you a broader range of stories you can tell. It will allow you to create surprising endings that defy expectations, but still feel resolved. It will help you get unstuck when you don't know where a story should go. And if people tell you your stories don't have enough conflict, this workshop will give you a menu of ways to ratchet up the tension without losing compassion for any of your characters.