This week’s video offers two lessons you can learn from the complicated story conflict in Toy Story to improve your own writing.
Video Transcript:
Conflict, conflict, conflict! It’s like this mantra among fiction writers, right? And we all nod our heads in agreement, because we all know story conflict is integral to good storytelling. But even though all humans totally get conflict on its most obvious level—altercation—understanding its uses and implementation in a story is sometimes a little harder to get our heads around.
Today, I’m going to use a fabulous object lesson about good story conflict that we can learn from Pixar’s seminal work Toy Story.
Toy Story (1995), Walt Disney Pictures.
Story Conflict Lesson #1: Conflict Is About Obstacles, Not Altercations
This lesson is two-fold, and I’m just going to come straight out and tell you the first one. Lesson #1 is simply this: story conflict isn’t actually about character altercations. Story conflict is nothing more or less than the meeting of your character’s goal with an obstacle that gets in the way of that goal. The character is at Point A, the goal is at Point B—and the obstacle (the conflict)? Right in the middle.
Story Conflict Lesson #2: Conflict Needs to Be Compounded
So for our example, I want you to remember the scene in Toy Story’s Third Act in which the evil neighbor kid Sid has strapped Buzz to a rocket and taken him out to the yard to blow him up—leaving Woody locked in the bedroom.
Saving Buzz is the goal, and the locked door is an obstacle creating conflict. Pretty simple, right? And this conflict leads Woody to concocting a whole plan that begins with unlocking the door.
Toy Story (1995), Walt Disney Pictures.
Now let’s say overcoming that first bit of conflict and achieving that first goal was the end the of the scene. Nothing wrong with that; it is well structured. But complications are the stuff of good fiction and good conflict. And so we should certainly not be surprised that master storytellers such as those as Pixar didn’t stop there.
What’s waiting for Woody on the other side of that door once he finally gets it unlocked? Scud the psycho bull terrier—another, even more dangerous obstacle!
Toy Story (1995), Walt Disney Pictures.
Just like that, the conflict is upped, and the story is able to keep right on rolling. And that is Lesson #2.
Wordplayers, tell me your opinion! How could you compound the story conflict in your latest scene by adding another obstacle between your character and his goal? Tell me in the comments!
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About K.M. Weiland | @KMWeiland
Glad you enjoyed the graphics!
Sometimes while writing, I just feel like things keep happening the way they were planned and even the conflict is somewhat predictable. The plot happens like it’s supposed to and the characters are all accommodating. Every now and then I realize that life doesn’t always go as planned and stuff gets messy. You’re late for a meeting, coffee spills on your slacks, you trip and fall when you least expect it. I feel like some of the best story obstacles (like the dog later in the movie chasing after the moving van) really come out of the blue.
Exactly. Structure–including scene structure–can sometimes create kind of a safety net. We’ve got this checklist: Goal? Check. Conflict? Check. But if it’s as simple as that in every scene, it can still get monotonous. We have to keep hitting our characters as hard as we can as often as we can.
Wow, I never thought of conflict this way before. And it makes perfect sense. Love it!
Thanks for reading!
Yea, Toy Story! It was fun seeing that scene replay in my head as you gave the lessons about conflict. That was one of the many things I loved about reading Creativity, Inc. was having such beloved films replay through my minds’ eye. Cool graphics, by the way.
It was Creativity, Inc. that inspired my re-watch of the entire Pixar canon. Enjoying it immensely. So your gift keeps on giving!
I love it. Thanks for telling me that. Happy Pixar/Disney watching! 🙂
Vundabar.
Brilliant post, K.M. I think I just watched my entire story structure pop into place. Love when I read something that spawns an epiphany. Keep up the fantastic work!
That’s just it. The story, though, in its rough draft, is boring because I can’t seem to get enough conflict into it. Everything is going too smoothly in spite of what little obstacle there is. I think I’ll have to re-outline the whole story and do a “do over” or something like that.
One of my favorite techniques is writing a list of “the ten worst things that could happen” the the protagonist. Dig deep to find the character’s specific weak spots and figure out how to hit him right there where it hurts the most.
Once again, a very helpful article! Thank you for the continued inspiration to push beyond a good storyline to craft a great one.
Great to hear it was useful!
Just as a separate endeavour, trying to deflect two planets off of another planet is “beyond human limitations”.. and then there’s the added problem of the Earth Representative!
Purposefully, is this person making him wait? Or, is it just coincidence, that he’s “still” waiting?
The story between the Earth Representative and Croyan is precisely what makes The Representative ingenious.
Layers of conflict are always a good thing.
This came at exactly the right time for an edit I’m working on. Funny how it’s the simple things that are so easily overlooked.
The simple solutions are usually the answers to our most complex story problems!
So true! Going back to the basics of storytelling can be a huge, huge eye-opener when you’re stuck with a complicated project.
Definitely. If we’re stuck on something, chances are the answer is something foundational.
Great post! I love the visuals!
Conflict can be difficult to do well, because I think a lot of writers are overwhelmed with it. This is a great way to break it down and show how simple it really is.
I think we can get hung up on the terminology. We hear “conflict” and we think arguments and nuclear warheads going off. But in themselves, those things don’t actually drive the plot. It’s the inherent relationship between the character’s goal and whatever’s blocking it that moves the plot.
Much enjoyed. Thank you.
You’re welcome! Thanks for stopping by.