Conflict & resolution

Resolution

The end of the story

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.

Sometimes there is no resolution

Let's try writing a couple of examples.

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