Anatomy of Conflict
Course Information: Anatomy of Conflict is a craft-intensive writing course, grounded in John Truby’s book Anatomy of Story that teaches serious writers of all genres how to use character-driven conflict to look for hidden arcs, raise stakes, and propel plot. Whether you’re drafting, revising, or stuck in the middle, conflict is the tool that turns ideas into story.
- Hardcore Character Development: Writers will differentiate between the wants, needs, and desires of not only the protagonist, but secondary and tertiary characters, and how these intertwining moral and psychological issues affect plot development.
- Goal: A blueprint for a narrative that grips readers and refuses to let go, underpinning the inner conflicts between characters to create conflict throughout the narrative.
- Say Goodbye: No more flat scenes, the muddle in the middle, or unclear stakes. Many writers are told to “add more conflict” without being taught what that actually means on the page. The result is often noise instead of tension, or drama that doesn’t deepen character or advance plot.
- The Stakes: Conflict operates on multiple levels—internal, interpersonal, societal, and thematic—and that not all conflict is loud.
- Sometimes the most devastating moments are quiet ones. When conflict is purposeful, resolution feels earned. Whether your story ends in triumph, tragedy, or something in between, readers walk away satisfied because the journey made sense.
Description: Anatomy of Conflict is a craft-intensive writing course for serious writers of all genres who want to strengthen their storytelling by mastering the engine of narrative: conflict. Drawing on the principles in John Truby’s Anatomy of Story, the course focuses on creating dynamic, characterdriven conflict—clashing goals, values, and needs that naturally propel plot. Through practical exercises, discussion, and scaffolding, writers will learn how to build tension through relationships and raise stakes without relying solely on spectacle. By the end of the course, participants will have tools to craft purposeful scenes where conflict drives momentum and story grows organically from character.
Author Benefits/Takeaways—Participants will:
- Customize worksheets, culminating in a blueprint to improve, resurrect, or jumpstart your novel
- Learn how to align conflict with character motivation
- Diagnose weak or missing conflict in existing work
- Understand escalation and stakes without melodrama
- Apply conflict intentionally at the scene and arc level
- Revise with clarity instead of guesswork
- Leave with practical tools can be applied immediately to current projects
Instructor Bio: 
Patricia A. Jackson is a high school English and Creative Writing teacher whose fiction blends mythology, grit, and unapologetically Black heroism. Her debut novel, Forging a Nightmare (Angry Robot), features a Black-led cast of fallen angels, infernal warhorses, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. She has written extensively in the Star Wars universe, including Black Sands of Socorro (West End Games) and a story in A Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi (Random House/Penguin), and wrote the lead comic story in EC Comics: Catacombs of Torment #4. She is a co-author of Ban This!, a nonfiction book on book bans that earned a starred Kirkus review. When not writing, she games in Mass Effect or rides her horse, Sith Lord Indy.
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Amazon: Book info