Conflict in Storytelling -- The Three Pillars: Plot, Setting, Character

NOTE: The following is a personal interpretation of a lecture given by Brandon Sanderson, which is available on Youtube. 

A story well told usually has conflict, and conflict involves at least one of the three pillars: plot, setting, and character, often all three. And even within each pillar, there are variations.

Photo by Robert Stemler on Unsplash

However, it basically boils down to: what does the main character want? (and) Why can't s/he have it? 

Plot vs Character -- the plot push the character one way, while character wants to go a different way. The struggle is conflict. 

EX: In Star Wars (Ep 4) Luke wanted to stay and help uncle Owen, but when uncle and aunt are killed by stormtroopers looking for the two droids, Luke was forced to go with Ben Kenobi. 

EX: Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit. Bilbo wants to stay home, but the plot needs him to go on an adventure...

Setting vs Character -- setting, i.e. societal norms, forces character to behave one way, while character really want to behave a different way. 

Character vs Character -- either protagonist vs antagonist, or main character vs him/herself (or against his/her own limiting beliefs). 

• Protagonist vs antagonist -- Luke vs Vader, of course
• Character vs him/herself
  
  Original Godfather, Michael Corleone tried to distance himself from the criminal activities of his family, at least early on, as he struggles to balance his loyalty to his family vs. his reluctance to join a criminal enterprise.
  
  Lion King, Simba was happy to live in exile, and avoid the trauma and bloodshed. But when Nala stumbled into him and realized he wasn't dead, she told him what had happened since Scars' rule, and now Simba is torn between going back and resume his rightful place as the head of the pride, or stay out there and leave them to their fate while he can live happy and "free". 

Best conflict layers on multiple conflicts, as each of them affects other conflicts as well, and amplify the negative effects and/or raises the stakes. 

While You Were Sleeping, Lucy has a one-way crush on a handsome commuter Peter Callaghan. When Peter was robbed and pushed onto the tracks, Lucy saved him, and ended up in the hospital, where he was comatose, and she was mistaken for Peter's fiancee, and was readily adopted by the big Callaghan family. And it was there, Lucy met Peter's brother, Jack, and they fell for each other. But how can they become a happy couple when the entire family was expecting she and Peter to be together? And what happens when Ashley (Peter's real GF) shows up? 

NOTE: Lucy has a self-limiting belief, a lie, even, that she's in love with Peter, which prevents her from falling for Jack completely, This ties in with the ("it made sense at the time") necessity of maintaining the lie toward the rest of the Callaghans, with a lot of post hoc justification (and rom-com / sit-com excuses, like "mom has a heart condition, don't upset her with more bad news"). That is multiple levels of conflict, internal AND external, as she had to maintain different levels of lie against different people. 

One more level: Lucy had a broken home, and she really wanted to belong to a big family, so when the Callaghans adopted her, she did not want to tell them the truth. 

Even Jack has an internal conflict: he wants to make his own furniture, not to take over the family business, but he can't make himself speak up against the family patriarch. 

Both Lucy and Jack needed to work on getting rid of their own lies to themselves, to achieve HEA (happily ever after).