Conflict & resolution

The end of conflict is often end of a story:

• The invading army is defeated and control of the country is reclaimed by its inhabitants.
• The teenager escapes the arranged marriage and creates an independent life.
• The evil ruler is deposed and a benevolent ruler is put in their place.
• The teenager fighting for survival in the wilderness is rescued and taken home.

You probably have an intuition for these kind of endings, because it is such a common pattern.

There are many ways conflict can be resolved, for example:

• Conflicts can have competitive, win-lose-draw type resolutions, e.g. the local populace defeat the invading army; the orphaned assassin kills the cruel warlord.
• They can have co-operative, everybody-wins type resolutions, e.g. the competing characters stop fighting and go into business together. 
• They can have personal growth, here's-what-I-learned type resolutions, e.g. the stranded teenager learns to survive in the wilderness; the displaced child returns how wiser and more mature.

Often stories will use all of these types of resolution in combination.

Let's try writing a couple of examples.