Adding conflict in your manuscript is the key ingredient to keeping readers involved. No matter what genre you write, this is critical. Sometimes, though, you get stuck and just don’t know what to do next. So, just for grins I’ve thrown together a list of suggestions. These aren’t necessarily geared toward any specific genre and with variation could be used in any fiction piece. This isn’t very complex or wordy and you can expand as you feel appropriate.

Here are eight ways to add conflict to a manuscript when you’re just not sure what to do:

1. A long lost relative shows up and wants to get to know your hero (or heroine) after a prolonged absence. This is always good, mainly because the motive for showing up is unknown and you can build on that to add to the tension.

2. Use the same scenario with a long lost boyfriend or girlfriend –especially in a romance. This can throw all sorts of confusion into the mix.

3. Make the character have a car problem in the worst of places, on the way to the airport, in the middle of nowhere, or in the middle of a dangerous city slum. Then have something completely bizarre and scary occur at the same time.

4. Make the person find out that who he/she thought was his/her identity is all fake. It’s been fabricated. You decide why, how, and by whom.

5. Do that in reverse –make the character discover that their significant other, or maybe parent(s), isn’t who they appear to be –has a false identity. The character has to find out why they’ve built the false persona and do so without being discovered. The rest can be whatever you want it (money driven, inheritance driven, murder, relationship sabotage, hiding a secret past, etc.)

6. A character becomes suddenly and unexpectedly ill. Reasons point to threats on the person.

7. The person has a wonderful talent that normally inspires them and is their source of income, but suddenly he/she cannot focus. Can’t do anything with it. Something is interfering and he/she must get past it to be able to use the talent again.

8. Have one of the subcharacters do something completely against their moral and ethical values as known by the main character. Something so unexpected that it seriously affects their relationship or safety. The main character has to discover what drove the person to do such an act. If you make the stakes life threatening (to them, their relationship, their career, or other) that adds intensity. You can develop this in a lot of ways.

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That’s eight ideas to start with. Use them as you please, you’ll find them in modified versions in all sorts of books. If you have another idea, feel free to share it by posting here. Oh, and don’t be afraid of sharing. All really good ideas can be rewritten in so many ways that hoarding them just doesn’t make sense. Have a great day!