ten bad pages The craft of writing. Obtained via strikethrough.
A legal-pad cover: Give the Story a Problem. How to create conflict and make readers care. $7

Give the Story a Problem

A Ten Bad Pages Creative Writing Guide

$7

How to create conflict, raise the stakes, and make readers care what happens next.

Unless something makes those six pages matter, you’ve written a schedule, not a story.

So, your character wants something. Now what?

She wakes up, makes coffee, goes to class and has a pleasant conversation with her roommate. All perfectly believable, and you could write six pages about it. Unless something makes those pages matter, you’ve written a schedule, not a story.

Give the Story a Problem shows you how to give a scene a problem: a character who wants something, something in the way, and a reason to care how it turns out. No villain, fistfight or Thanksgiving-dinner confession required. One ordinary college scene runs through the guide as it picks up conflict, stakes and a problem that keeps getting worse.

It works with whatever your professor assigns. Follow your professor’s format, and your professor’s AI policy always wins.

What's inside

  • Find the problem

    Desire, obstacle and the question under the scene, and why a lot can happen without anything happening.

  • Raise the stakes

    Make the stakes visible and give the reader a reason to care, without raising the volume.

  • Make it worse

    Escalate through decisions, not coincidences, and build tension without a shouting match.

  • AI, honestly

    Make AI argue with your scene instead of inventing drama for it.

Look inside

  • The page that gives an ordinary scene a problem: the scene without one, then the same scene with conflict.
    A Lot Can Happen Without Anything Happening
  • The page on desire and obstacle, and how to make the choice difficult.
    Somebody Wants Something. Now Stop Them.
  • The page on kinds of conflict, and letting conflict leak into behavior instead of an argument.
    Conflict Doesn’t Mean Fighting
  • The page on escalation, with the three-decision chain exercise.
    Make the Problem Worse
  • The AI page: how to make AI argue with your scene instead of writing it.
    AI, If It Actually Helps
  • The one-page Conflict Cheat Sheet: desire, obstacle, stakes, choice, consequence, escalation, tension, scene turn and a one-minute diagnosis.
    The Conflict Cheat Sheet

Inside the guide

  • What conflict actually does to a scene
  • The same ordinary scene, with and without a problem
  • Desire, obstacle and making the choice difficult
  • Conflict that isn’t fighting, and how it leaks into behavior
  • Making the stakes visible
  • Escalation: the three-decision chain
  • Tension without a shouting match
  • Five questions for building a scene around a problem
  • Rescuing a boring scene
  • Making AI argue with your scene
  • The Conflict Cheat Sheet, one page to bring to class
  • Printable PDF, 14 pages

Purchase includes one printable PDF. It’s a guide, not a fillable workbook: the exercises go in your notebook or writing app.

Download right after checkout, and we email you the links too — they work for 30 days. Lose them? Email [email protected] and we'll send more. Not what you expected? Reply to your receipt within 30 days and we'll refund it.