Ever sit down to watch a movie and feel like nothing is actually happening, even though stuff is blowing up every five minutes? That's usually because the conflict types in a story are totally out of whack. You need friction. Without it, you just have a bunch of people standing around or doing chores. Boring.
Drama is basically just a fancy word for "somebody wants something and someone else is saying no." But there’s a whole lot of nuance in how that "no" happens. Honestly, most people think conflict is just a fistfight. It's not. It’s the internal rot, the uncaring universe, and the guy in the cubicle next to you who won’t stop humming.
The Internal War: Person vs. Self
This is the big one. It’s the stuff that keeps you up at 3:00 AM. In literary circles, we call it "internal conflict," and it’s arguably the most important of all conflict types in a story. If your protagonist doesn't have an internal struggle, they’re basically a cardboard cutout.
Think about Hamlet. Shakespeare didn't just write a play about a prince who wanted to kill his uncle. He wrote about a guy who was terrified of his own shadow and couldn't decide if life was even worth the hassle. That "To be or not to be" speech? That is the gold standard of Person vs. Self. It's the brain eating itself.
You’ve likely seen this in modern stuff too. Take Breaking Bad. Walter White’s biggest enemy wasn't the DEA or the cartel. It was his own massive, bruised ego. He kept telling himself he was doing it for his family, but deep down, he knew he just liked being the "danger." When a character's greatest obstacle is their own conscience or fear, the audience can't look away. It feels real because we all have those internal arguments every single day.
Person vs. Person: The Classic Clash
This is the bread and butter of Hollywood. It’s Batman vs. Joker. It’s Elizabeth Bennet vs. Mr. Darcy (before they realized they were obsessed with each other). It’s simple, direct, and effective.
But here is where writers mess up: they make the antagonist "evil" just for the sake of being evil. That’s lazy. The best Person vs. Person conflicts happen when two people have goals that are mutually exclusive. They can't both win.
Look at Les Misérables. Inspector Javert isn't a "bad guy" in the way a cartoon villain is. He’s a man obsessed with the law. Jean Valjean is a man obsessed with mercy. They are both "right" in their own heads. That's what makes their pursuit so gut-wrenching. You aren't just rooting for a winner; you're watching two worldviews collide.
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The Weight of Society: Person vs. Society
Sometimes the "villain" isn't a person at all. It’s the system. It’s the rules, the traditions, or the government that tells the protagonist they don't belong.
You see this a lot in dystopian fiction like The Hunger Games or 1984. Katniss Everdeen isn't just fighting President Snow; she’s fighting a societal structure that demands children kill each other for TV ratings. The conflict is baked into the world itself.
It doesn't always have to be a big, scary government, though. In The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton shows how high-society manners and gossip can be just as deadly as a firing squad. If you break the unwritten rules of your social circle, you're dead—socially, at least. That’s a massive source of tension that keeps readers turning pages because it feels so claustrophobic.
Man vs. Nature: The Indifferent Universe
Nature doesn't care about you. It doesn't hate you, but it won't move out of your way either. This is the core of conflict types in a story where the environment is the primary antagonist.
Jack London was the king of this. In his short story To Build a Fire, the "villain" is just the cold. It’s seventy-five degrees below zero in the Yukon, and the protagonist’s survival depends entirely on his ability to strike a match. There’s no moral lesson to be learned from the snow. It’s just physics.
- The Martian by Andy Weir: Mark Watney vs. the literal lack of oxygen on Mars.
- Jaws: It’s just a shark being a shark, but the humans are in its way.
- The Old Man and the Sea: Santiago’s struggle with the marlin is a respect-filled battle against the natural world.
These stories work because they strip away human ego. You can't reason with a hurricane. You can't bargain with a grizzly bear. You just have to endure.
Person vs. Technology: The Ghost in the Machine
We’re living this one right now, aren't we? As AI and tech become more pervasive, this conflict type has moved from sci-fi niches to the mainstream.
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It’s not always The Terminator or The Matrix. Sometimes it’s more subtle. Think about Black Mirror. Most of those episodes aren't about killer robots; they’re about how a specific piece of technology—like a grain that records every memory—destroys human relationships.
The conflict arises when the tools we created to make life easier end up making life impossible. Mary Shelley basically invented this with Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein uses "modern" science to create life, and then the technology (the Monster) ruins his entire existence. It’s a cautionary tale that still resonates because we’re still terrified of what we might accidentally build.
The Supernatural and Fate: Person vs. The Unknown
Then you’ve got the spooky stuff. Gods, ghosts, and destiny.
In ancient Greek tragedies, like Oedipus Rex, the conflict is against Fate itself. Oedipus tries everything to avoid his prophecy, but every move he makes just brings him closer to fulfilling it. You can't run from the script.
In modern horror, like The Shining, the conflict is with the supernatural forces of the Overlook Hotel. But notice how King (and Kubrick) blend this with internal conflict. The ghosts can only get to Jack Torrance because he’s already struggling with his own demons. The best supernatural stories use the "ghosts" as a metaphor for the character's actual trauma.
Why You Need to Mix Your Conflicts
Rarely does a good story stick to just one. If you only have Person vs. Nature, it can get a bit repetitive. But if you have a character lost in the woods (Nature) while they are also grieving a lost child (Self) and being pursued by a bounty hunter (Person)? Now you’ve got a story.
Take The Godfather.
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- Person vs. Society: The Corleone family operates outside the law of the United States.
- Person vs. Person: Michael vs. the other Five Families.
- Person vs. Self: Michael’s slow descent from a war hero who wanted nothing to do with the family business to a cold-blooded killer.
The internal conflict is what makes the external violence matter. If Michael didn't care about his soul, we wouldn't care about the hits he orders.
Practical Steps for Fixing Your Story's Conflict
If your draft feels a little flat, it's probably because the stakes are too one-dimensional. You need to layer these conflict types in a story to give the plot some meat.
First, look at your protagonist's main goal. If they want to win a race, the Person vs. Person conflict is obvious—they have to beat the other runners. But how can you add a Person vs. Self layer? Maybe they’re terrified of failing because their father was a champion runner.
Next, throw in some Person vs. Society. Maybe the race is rigged by a corrupt athletic board. Now your character isn't just running for a trophy; they’re running for justice. See how that gets more interesting?
Check your "inciting incident." This is the moment the conflict starts. If that moment doesn't force the character to make a choice between two bad options, it’s not strong enough. True conflict isn't choosing between good and bad; it's choosing between two things that both hurt.
Lastly, make sure the conflict escalates. If the struggle is the same in Chapter 2 as it is in Chapter 10, the reader is going to bail. The pressure needs to turn up. If they were fighting a person, now they’re fighting a person during a blizzard. If they were fighting their own fear, now that fear is causing them to lose their job.
Keep the pressure high, keep the obstacles varied, and don't let your characters off the hook too easily. That’s how you write something people actually want to read.