Story Writing in Animation Film – Conflict With Self

This article is the continued from series of articles –Story Writing For Animation. You can go through previous articles by clicking here

“ He started  out doing better in life as he grew up… but he didn’t understand why he is doing , whatever he is doing at that time; he was confused and helpless . He was dragged in thoughts , sometimes he delved into his past and present. Finally he done something terrible he wouldn’t even believe that he could do such thing .. After that at each and every step he found himself guilty. .  still at some times he rebel against himself try to justify himself to him and others.  It became worst when people started hating and avoiding him… He locked himself in a room far away from town in the forest and he never came back again.. people think that his ghost is in forest … but they will never understand that he still cant forgive himself though he is dead …now he cries for help .. he would never understand that actually he is the only one who can help himself ! He never learned to deal with himself , others and situations!!!”

Hi guys , im back ! Here in this session we are going to learn the Types of Conflict and how they are articulated in story.

So when you look at the story its discouraging (I guess), but I thought it would be great way to  learn basics of Conflict.

There are 3 types of conflicts and they are

1. Conflict with self
2. Conflict with others
3. Conflict with situations

Though I started with negative story that doesn’t have happy ending and all , (sorry for that ) I wanna remind you that Conflict is not always negative . Sir Edd Hookes calls it ‘Negotiations’

Negations implies conflict,

Obstacle,

Opposing needs

But it  suggest search for a positive resolution. (And that’s what matters)

1. Conflict with self :

When character come against his own values and has to do something against  his values in order to satisfy his wants (that he cant avoid ) and has to sacrifice something important that’s internal , and has to make decision is called as Conflict with Self.

In my story the character is confused and doesn’t know what he is doing..

After doing  something wrong his mind rebels sometimes .. he tries to justify is the conflict with himself.

When this Conflict Resolves something Dramatic and important happens , character changes drastically , a complete change .

When a warrior sacrifices some internal for his duty he becomes more and more stiff .

Sometimes this conflict leads to rebel against bad things , against the huge empire though  the character knows he is the only one who is rebelling evil .. He doesn’t care.

So bottom line is that this conflicts leads to STRONG ACTION.

Mostly this conflict is the effect of other two conflicts , sounds complicated but I will explain it in next article.

In Ratatouille when Remy has to make decision to be wid family or to be with his new human friend …

When in Toy Story Woody has to decide between old friends and new place , new friends …

When in Beauty and Beast, Beast  has to choose between his life and freedom of the one he is in love with though she doesn’t know that he is in love with her…

In Alladin when Gennie has to choose between his freedom and help a friend Alladin , or

for Alladin his promise to Gennie and to save his love …

And there are many legendary scenes and important decisions , many self Conflicts

But all ended in positive resolution at the end !

They were so much important ….

I will tell  you the best example with my favorite superhero (I love him so much)

Spiderman … when you see the series he has lots of going on internal and lots of internal conflicts and lots of sacrifices ….

I will never forget the words

“ With  great power comes great responsibility!”

And Peter always sacrifices something important …

Important points :

1. Self conflict occurs when character has to do something against his own values and mostly has to sacrifice something internal (love, passion etc.)
2. Self Conflict is the critical decision stage for character.
3. Self Conflict produces some powerful action by Character
4. Mostly it ends in positive solution but not always.
5. It adds more drama to story and holds audience strongly.
6. After this sometimes audience start caring the character more and more and notice each and every action , decision carefully 😉
7. This is last and most important

Whenever there is self conflict , and decision has to be made audience unconsciously try to put them in place of character , try to make decision … believe me audience always fail to make decision because our characters make biggest sacrifice , suffer lot.

And bam ! audience starts caring for character more and more. Try to feel his emotions (that’s what we want , Audience Involvement)

In next article we will see about other two Types of Conflict.

(When I will start Series about Character, you will get more and more clear picture about this conflict part )

For All Animation Story Writing Lessons click here