A good conflict needs to fit three criteria. First, it should be appropriate for the genre of your novel. If you have decided to write a mystery, than your central conflict shouldn’t be about the break up of a marriage. While the wife leaving could play a central role in the plot or even in the conflict, it should not be the center of the story since this doesn’t fit the conventions of mystery novels. However, you could have the wife leave her husband and then disappear completely. Maybe she left a note saying the marriage is over and the cops refuse to search for her since it seems obvious that she left by choice.

            The second criterion is that the crisis should radically disrupt the central character’s life in a negative way. Humans are by nature curious about emotional conflict. We can’t tear our eyes away from the car wreck on the side of the street or the neighbor’s screaming match on the front lawn.  Good conflict requires that two opposing forces crash against each other, the louder and harder the crash, the more difficult it will be for people to look away.  The readers also need to see that the main character has a lot at stake. If the conflict is too small, readers won’t care as much about how the conflict is resolved.

            The final criterion is that you must be intrigued with your plot idea. For readers to be interested, the writer should be deeply invested in the events that occur. You need to love your idea enough to stick with it for months.

            If your conflict fits these three criteria you are ready to move onto the next step.

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