How To Write A Screenplay With Enough Conflict To Fill 110 Pages

If you write a screenplay that lacks conflict, it will be boring. And no one will ever tell you it’s boring. They will either 1) ignore you (most likely when dealing with professionals in the business who do this for a living) or 2) tell you it was a nice read and you really have something here and to update them as the project moves forward. Both of these are bad.

Your writing cannot be boring. Life is boring enough. Writing must be packed full of so much conflict, action, pain, and suffering that your lead character barely makes it out alive (physically or emotionally).

Don’t be boring - write conflict instead.

Drama Is Conflict. And Conflict Isn’t Boring.

Drama is conflict. As Syd Field repeats at every opportunity in his book Screenplay:

“All drama is conflict. Without conflict, you have no action; without action, you have no character; without character, you have no story; and without story, you have no screenplay.”

Conflict must be present in every layer of your screenplay - from the premise to each scene and every beat. Anytime your character gets something they want without someone or something standing in their way, it’s boring. There should not be a dull, easy moment in your screenplay. Here’s Field again:

“Conflict, struggle, overcoming obstacles, both inside and outside, are the primary ingredients in all drama— in comedy, too. It is the writer’s responsibility to generate enough conflict to keep the reader, or the audience, interested. The job of the screenwriter is to keep the reader turning pages.”

Everything your character wants should be difficult and painful to get. Conflict is drama.

The Problem With Most Scripts Is Not Enough Conflict.

Even scripts that are written by professionals often don’t have enough conflict. Erik Bork, author of The Idea: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage or Fiction, sees this problem in many of the screenplays he reads:

“The top two most common issues are lack of ‘conflict’ or problems (otherwise known as ‘story’). Often, there’s not a big enough overall problem to rest a whole movie on. ‘Not being punishing enough’ is the most common overall weakness I’ve seen in the hundreds of scripts that I’ve read… Things are just not ‘problematic’ enough in terms of what they’re facing.”

Writers are often too nice to their main characters. The best movies put their characters in the worst possible situation and then punish them for 110 pages. And all of that punishment starts at the level of the premise.

Write Conflict Into Your Premise.

Every layer of your script needs to have conflict. And the first layer is the premise itself - what your movie is about. The best premises have a built-in conflict between the character and the world they are thrust into.

The film Tootsie (screenplay by Larry Gelbart, Murray Schisgal and Don McGuire) is a great example of this. Michael Dorsey is a womanizer without any respect for women. And what does he need to do to save his career? Become a woman! That’s tremendous conflict at the premise level. (For a full analysis of why Tootsie works so well, check out Jill Chamberlain’s book, The Nutshell Technique).

Training Day (written by David Ayer) is another one that comes to mind. Jake Hoyt wants to be a good cop. And on the first day of his new assignment in the LAPD narcotics unit, he’s paired with the most crooked cop on the force. That’s conflict.

Writing a good premise is critical for setting up a story with enough conflict to fill 110 pages. Here’s John Truby from his book, Anatomy of Story:

“Nine out of ten writers fail at the premise… To figure out the central conflict, ask yourself ‘Who fights whom over what?’ and answer the question in one succinct line.”

Conflict must be at the heart of any premise. If it’s not, it’s probably going to be boring.

Write Conflict Into Your Characters.

Your characters all have their own desires. And every action they take is in the hope of achieving that desire. Conflict comes from those who stand in the way of your lead character getting what they want.

If you have characters who always agree with each other, then you’re wasting a great opportunity for conflict. Here’s Robert McKee talking about this in his book, Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting:

“If two characters in your cast share the same attitude and react in kind to whatever occurs, you must either collapse the two into one, or expel one from the story. When characters react the same, you minimize opportunities for conflict. Instead, the writer’s strategy must be to maximize these opportunities.”

Lew Hunter has a great trick for making sure your characters are always in conflict. He tells you to think of your entire screenplay as one long argument:

“Let your characters argue. Let each line challenge the next. Don’t let anybody agree with anybody else. As soon as there is agreement there is boredom… Consensus and agreement have an important place in life but not in art… Writers are well advised to view their entire screenplay from start to finish as one extensive argument.”

To make this work, you must know exactly what each character wants in every scene. If your characters don’t have wants, you have a big problem. Here’s John Yorke explaining this in his book, Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story:

“If a character doesn’t want something, they’re passive. And if they’re passive, they’re effectively dead. Without a desire to animate the protagonist, the writer has no hope of bringing the character alive, no hope of telling a story and the work will almost always be boring.”

Your character’s want is the driving force of the story. And everything that’s in their way - other characters, emotional issues, confidence problems, physical obstacles - is what generates conflict. It’s only in the final moments of your screenplay that your character actually gets the thing they want so badly. And even then, it’s often what they thought they wanted.

Write Conflict And Be Worthy Of An Audience.

Writing a screenplay that works is fucking hard. It can take years of focused effort, and even then there is no guarantee that it’s going to work (most don’t).

But if you put everything you have into it, making sure each moment is packed with conflict, you can be worthy of an audience. And that’s what it’s all about. As Richard Walter writes in his book Essentials of Screenwriting:

“Be worthy of an audience. The good movie is that which merits the time, attention, and consideration of a collected group of people. Write a movie that from beginning to end is not boring and people will queue up around the block; they will stand in line outdoors for hours in rotten weather for the opportunity to trade their dollars for the privilege of spending approximately a hundred minutes with a writer’s projected fantasy. Principle 6: Screenwriting’s one unbreakable rule: Don’t be boring.”

So pack your stories full of conflict. Have the entire film be one extensive argument as your lead character battles tooth and nail to get what they want. And don’t be boring.

Thanks for reading.

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ARTICLE SOURCES

Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, by John Truby

Essentials of Screenwriting: The Art, Craft, And Business of Film and Television Writing, by Richard Walter

The Idea: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage or Fiction, By Erik Bork

Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story, by John Yorke

Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434: The Industry's Premier Teacher Reveals the Secrets of the Successful Screenplay, By Lew Hunter

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, By Syd Field

Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting, By Robert McKee