I did a conflict workshop earlier this month. Here is the testimonial I got back from one of the participants.
I came, I saw, I learned, I had a little fun.
I attended the 9 Bridges Conflict Workshop led by Diane XXXXX on December 14 of 2019. The
format was informal and accessible, with a flexible structure that accommodated our group’s questions,
digressions, and attempts at sidetracking our host. I’d say that most of length of the workshop consisted of
lecture and discussion, but time was also allotted for interactive exercises that illustrated the concepts
being addressed. Topics ranged from the definitions and concepts of literary conflict to practical
implementations and stages of conflict as a narrative progresses.
In particular, I’d like to highlight the exercises we engaged in surrounding the aforementioned
stages of conflict. Using a Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then prompt, we generated a rudimentary story
and conflict outline which we then broke down using the Dramatica Table of Story Elements. I’ll admit to
being skeptical, in general, of the utility or instructional value of attempting to break down/tear
apart/analyze/impose structure onto art, of which prose fiction is a subset. However, that said, I was
damn-near shocked at how well the D.T.S.E. helped clarify the stages of conflict present in the plot
outlines our group generated. I think the aforementioned analytical practices may have greater utility than
I’d previously thought—thank you, Diane.
So anyway, at the end of the workshop, I felt that I’d both learned something and enjoyed doing
it. And I can’t ask for more than that.
