>>7817724
You need to understand what conflict really entails: it's a dramatic battle of interests. Conflict doesn't emerge abritrarily, it's a total organic extension of the contradictory nature of the subjective human psyche and personality. Take for instance just a man. This man needs to be interesting. He is cynical about life, dark in his outlook but positive in his reaction. He wishes to be kind to others but is sharply critical. He jogs and smokes. He wants to be a happy banker, but his problems are only emotional. He's an atheist, but craves the certainty of a religion. He is in despair, his inner conflict is rich and it's from that vitality that the I interest of his character and plot spring forth.

Now introduce a woman. She is lonely but scared of rejection. She is lazy but rich. Beautiful to others; self-conscious of her "wide" nose. She has no job, did a charity gig but despised it. Non-smoker, fatist and habitual cocaine user.

Woman and man meet. They want something from each other at each others expense. They do not want to give up what the other wants. The contradictions deepen, the reader, drugged up on the empathy of the two peoples, seeks a resolution.

This is what interest is, to me at least: the revealation and subduing of paradox, a thing we hate and admire. The best teacher of what exactly entails what interest be more intersting is, sadly, life experience. This is not the only way to shape a good narrative, but a good way to shape it regardless.

>>7817749
>Not OP
This is really good advice. Thank you.

>>7817944
Thanks for thanking me. If your unsure of co contradict ions, look at yourself and your family. We're made of them.

You're going to be objectively shitty for a real long time, and you'll always be shitty because our critical abilities always exceed our skill

I'd you really want to do this, then you won't care about that and just keep at it. Don't be afraid to submit utter shit to lit journals, if you start getting accepted that's how you know you're doing something right

>>7817724
I also trained in poetry (English degree with a writing emphasis). Pick up Donald Maass' Writing the Breakout Novel. It's much better than the many books that focus on the three act structure. Lajos Egri is also really good.

From what I've read so far, James Scott bell's book on conflict looks decent

You become a good writer by writing a lot.

example of bad writing:

Ruby's rouged lips parted slowly to reveal a wet and slippery tongue. How many times had that pink monster spat it's acid at poor Henry, undressing and debasing him with acrid language and sardonic intonation.

example of bad writing:

"Henry!" Ruby cried out.
"Where is it that you go, you poor man."
"Always inside your head and silent, if you have any dreams they must be fleeting or maybe as absent as you are."
Henry, a mountain of emotion, dissected his eggs stone-faced and unflinching.
"And must you make that face at me every morning? Never trust a man with thin lips, but did I listen? If only you had equal thrift with money as you do with words, and a fool I was to marry you."

example of bad writing:

Henry and Ruby had been married eleven childless years. Ruby had increased in persistent annoyance and physical stature and Henry had diminished in defiant independence, and physical affections. They were both more alone together than apart, the silence between their words becoming deafening sorrow.

example of bad writing:

"Tuesday." replied Henry.
"And what time on Tuesday?" asked Ruby.
"Noon."
"They always say noon so they can bill you for their break hour. And they don't arrive on time, not once. Their noon is really afternoon, and stretches to the whole day and the next if they can weasel it out of you. It's always the same, never a day's work for a fair pay. Then there's a problem or a delay in ordering a part or some excuse, it's extortion and robbery. Not like it used to be, before when you had real people doing a job they took pride in. Pride used to mean something, dignity too. Even poor people had their dignity."
Henry sat and chewed his breakfast as Ruby's rambling dropped to a whisper. One skipping stone splashing briefly then sinking to the bottom. Of the dark and cold lake.


Which of the above was interesting to read? I would say none of it, and that's why it's terrible writing. If you don't have anything to say, it's just depressing and empty. So make sure you have something to say first, then how you write it becomes almost irrelevant, if it's interesting your message can carry.

>>7819026
But that is entirely subjective, because what is interesting to one person would be boring to another who is more experienced with it.

More accurately it's just bad prose. Way too theatrical and melodramatic, no one talks like this, yet it's clearly meant to be prose and not verse. The only thing I could consider passable is that last section where the girl talks about billing, because it has some semblance of truth to it, but not when spoken in that way.

>>7817724
>I can pull off poetry
no you can't

>>7819206
but anon those are all excerpts from Joyce...