Wanna Fight? Hammering Out Conflict in a Story.

A few years ago, in Deb Lucke’s Graphic Novel and Picture Book class, I was introduced to the concept of conflict in a story. As defined, the conflict is the problem that triggers the action in a story. For example, in Sendak’s famous Where the Wild Things Are, the conflict is between Max and his Mom although we don’t actually see the argument. However, there are also stories where the conflict is literally in the story. In Potter’s Peter Rabbit, Peter disobeys his mom and almost gets caught by Mr. McGregor.

At the time, I was a little stuck on my Mama Lucia and I instantly, drew:

 I regrouped. I listed both my characters attributes and asked myself what is each character’s deepest desire:

And, after many pages through my notebook, I discovered the power struggle between the siblings for their mother’s attention.  Also, I saw how one character’s “want” got in the way of the other character’s “want”. Got any conflicts up your sleeves? I want to hear some.

And where is this story now and what have I done with it? Well, that’s another entry!

A bientot.