Takes Two To Tangle

Yesterday evening was Write Night, and I brought the exercise. Kay Grimnes suggested I post it here.

1. List 3- 4 of your protagonist’s friends, family or followers.

2. List 2-3 reasons why your protagonist might quarrel with each.

3. Zero in on one of these scenarios.
a. Who started the fight?
b. How do things change if the other character starts the fight?
c. Why is the fight important? (stakes)
d. What does each character have to lose?
e. Are there hidden reasons for the fight? (Are the characters fighting about something trivial because they can’t/won’t verbalize the critical stuff?)
f. If so, how can you, as a writer, communicate the hidden, important stuff?

4. Write a scene describing the build up to the quarrel or fight. (The build up to a blow up may occur over many scenes, choose one.)

5. Write a scene describing the quarrel or fight.

6. Repeat 4 and 5 with:
a. The other character starting it, or
b. A major change in intensity (a quarrel becomes a fist fight or one character refuses to rise and stalks off in a huff, or laughs etc.) or
c. A different cause resulting in the same quarrel.