A Powerful Lesson on Conflict in Storytelling

A lesson from Murder on The Orient Express

This post was written in collaboration with Ejiga Emmanuel.

As storytellers, we want our audience to feel strong emotions and gain new insights. We hope to share a new perspective with our audience while we take them on an emotional rollercoaster that leaves them feeling full of life after reading our story.

But not all stories do this. Some stories leave you with a sense of meh.

Sometimes, the characters are great but they don’t seem to rouse enough interest from us the audience. I used to think that this just came down to the characters not being interesting enough until I learned a powerful lesson on how to use conflict to create unforgettable emotional and insightful journeys into the human soul or in other words, great stories.

But first of all, what is conflict?

Conflict refers to the struggle between characters and the challenges they must overcome if they are to reach their goals. We generally classify conflict into three; internal, external, and philosophical. Many stories you read use external or internal conflict, sometimes properly, sometimes not.

Today, I’m going to walk you through one great lesson on conflict in storytelling that I picked up from the movie Murder on The Orient Express.

In Murder on the Orient Express; the protagonist starts out the story believing that people are either good or bad and no in-between. However, the murder happens and the protagonist(being a detective) starts solving the mystery using some past knowledge of the victim and a crime in which the victim was involved. He soon discovers that everyone on the train except him and the host was directly involved in the murder but only because the victim had committed a violent crime that directly affected their lives in a very negative way.

Now the dilemma for the protagonist is; there are a bunch of people who don’t seem bad but have done a very bad thing but that is in direct conflict with his beliefs; the in-between. He then puts it to the test by placing an empty gun in front of the culprits and asks them to shoot him so they can ensure their freedom as he would be unable to lie to the authorities and his sincerity would get them locked up for murder. After much hesitation, one of the culprits picks the gun and points it to her head, telling our protagonist to pin the crime on her so the rest could go free and have their lives back. She then pulls the trigger but it’s empty and she breaks down crying. That now confirms the disparity between his beliefs and this new experience.

What’s striking about this conflict is that it is multi-layered. It goes beyond external forces(the culprits) and internal forces(our hero’s difficulty in solving the case) and it becomes philosophical which increases its storytelling value because if characters are human, then they must have a worldview/philosophy and we the audience can relate to that. So when a conflict arises that validly challenges the character’s philosophy, that conflict most often challenges the philosophy of the audience and that makes for a far richer story experience.

Another striking thing about this conflict is that it blurs the line between good and evil. It forces the hero to question his sense of morality which forces the audience to do the same and that makes the story far more engaging. It holds a mirror to your soul and forces you to see the light and dark within human nature by making you empathize with the villain(s). By the end of the movie, you don’t agree with murder but you’ll most likely free the culprits because you understand their desire for revenge especially after seeing what they had gone through.

The less clear cut the line between good and evil, the more engaging the story, why? Because we humans are both good and bad and so if you make the line between those qualities too clear cut, you force the audience to pick a side; either good or bad which reduces the amount of emotional investment the audience can make.

As people, we can’t be entirely good or bad and so any story that forces us to choose between those values without making it a tough choice will suffer less and less emotional engagement from us the audience. However, when you blur the line between these two values a bit, your audience is better able to connect with the characters because it’s easier to see themselves in those characters especially the bad ones which is very important for the engagement level of your story.

Even if the difference between the good and bad in your story is radical, you have to connect it to the human experience and show us how their humanity has led them to this point, no matter how radical. That way even the most radical villain can earn the empathy and sympathy of the audience. Please note that it is very important that empathy for any character be earned. You can’t force the audience to relate with your characters and you risk alienating your audience if you force it.

Remember, all storytelling is aimed at people, even if your characters are aliens or cardboard boxes. And one sure thing people can recognize is conflict. If you intend to connect deeply with your audience, you have to create conflict situations that force your characters to act in the most human way possible thus revealing insights into human nature. A great writer once said that the best stories reveal human nature.

To act in the most human way possible doesn’t have to be complex, it simply means that your characters actions and reactions have to correlate with the human experience and the best way to do that is to show the underlying worldview driving your characters alongside the external and internal challenges that they face. That way, you give more context to their actions and inactions and more room for your audience to relate with your characters.

So, in summary, when you want to create powerful conflict, check to see that your conflict is:

• Multi-layered; encompassing internal, external, and philosophical/moral conflicts. This way, we get to connect more deeply with your characters through a deeper understanding of their motivations and why it matters to them(their philosophy). This, in turn, leads to a richer story experience for us the audience
• Humanity-based; this means that the more your conflict relates to the universal human experience whether good or bad, the more the audience can empathize with your characters.

So there you have it; a few lessons I gleaned from the wonderful Murder on The Orient Express. I hope you have a new insight that you can use to strengthen your storytelling abilities.

What other story lessons have you learned from movies you have seen? I’d like to hear your opinions in the comments.

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