In the last post, we talked about all the cool drama stuff that happens before your main character solves a problem. You know, while she’s figuring out what to do.

At some point, though, she really does have to make a decision. She does have to try a solution.

But that doesn’t mean the excitement or drama has to stop there. Because we can come up with a new problem.

Consider this (we’ll go back to our girl-going-to-the-store story):

She needs to get the gum so she can use it to get her money out of the sewer. So…

She steals the gum (problem solved). But then…

The shop-keeper chases her out of the store and down the street! (NEW PROBLEM! VERY NEW PROBLEM! RUN!!)

So, it’s true that we try not to solve a problem too quickly, in order to make things more exciting.

But when we do solve the problem, we can always make more problems happen.

Think about Mulan. Whether you like the (animated) movie or no, it does give a really clear example of everything we’ve been talking about.

(I’m using the animated one because it’s the only one I’ve seen.)

Movie opens: Mulan has chores to do, but she is also late for an appointment with the matchmaker. Better run! (a little conflict, a little drama)

Things go terribly wrong with the matchmaker, who shames her. Her parents want her to be a perfect bride, the matchmaker says she will never be one, everyone is ashamed. (a little more conflict, a little more drama)

Her father is told he has to go to war. She doesn’t want him to go (because he will probably be killed), but no one can say no to the emperor’s decree (now we’re getting closer to serious conflict. Way more dramatic).

At each step of the way, some new conflict is thrown at her. And each of those problems give her something to do. They create drama.

And now think about all the other stuff that gets thrown at her:

She has to pass as a man among all the other soldiers.

She has to prove she is as capable as any of the others during training, especially to captain Li Shang.

She has to fight Shan Yu and the Hun army in the mountains.

She has to deal with being found out as a woman by everyone in her group.

She has to push through Li Shang’s (and everyone’s) sexism to convince them that the Huns are still going to attack.

She has to fight Shan Yu again.

So, for each of the conflicts, she has to try hard to get what she wants, even though the opposite force (whatever it is) is trying to stop her from doing that.

And that’s it. Your protagonist wants something. Some other force wants the opposite. Only one of them can win. And the more powerful the other force, the harder your character has to work to get what she wants. And that creates drama.

Well, it will create drama as long as she rises to the challenge. At any point she could say “I’m out. I give up.” But then we wouldn’t have a story any more. She would just be heading home to have breakfast.

Happy writing, young writer.