Can You Imagine a Good Story Without Conflict?

Imagine a story where the main character’s life is never altered. It could be a story where they never struggle for success, or where the dangers are never close. Would it be worth reading? I don’t know about you, but I’ve never read, or finished reading, a story like that. I think any good story has a character who grows through the events they face. The same thing happens with my life. Some experiences are fun, some exciting, and some are really tough.

It would be great if life were always easy. I’d love it if everything worked for me all the time, but that isn’t the case. Life is challenging at times. I remember some advice given to me years ago. It was simply that remembering everyone has struggles and problems they work through in secret can help with patience and kindness. For me, it’s easy to focus on my own difficulties. I know them well. They’re always with me. But when I take that counsel and try to be nicer and more patient, I find myself stepping away from the bog of my own problems. Helping others or at least being nice and patient makes a difference in how I see my own struggles and how I feel about those around me.

Also, I have noticed that I learn the most about myself and my capabilities as I go through tough times. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking to suffer, or wade through terrors. But those rough experiences make the good times sweeter. I try to remember that as I write my stories. I don’t want to completely ruin my main characters. They must have good things happen. They need to see some good in the midst of the struggles. That’s what I love about writing stories. I can place characters in the middle of tough situations and work out various ways for them to work through it. In a strange way, it helps me be calmer through my stress at work, and it gives me an escape. Even if my day job stress never ends, those few hours a day when I write are some good amid the struggles.

Dissonance, my sequel to Resonance, went live on Amazon Kindle and as a paperback on September 3, 2021. In that book, time travel is tearing the world apart, and only those that sense the resonance can feel the changes. Wyatt, Brooke, Aldan, Jeremy, and Avery, have to determine who to trust as they look for the source of the changes. It is a sequel to Resonance, which is my best performing book on Amazon, so far.

My epic fantasy titled, A Map, a Mage, and a Sacrifice, was a fun book to write. It is set in a world with limited technology, but where sacrifice is a necessary element to magical power. The greater the pain and suffering, the greater the magical power generated. The few mages in power use voluntary sacrifice of the citizens to generate power they use to protect and defend the empire. But their rule may be coming to a close.

If you’re looking for a science fiction story, try my book The Promise of Dust, which takes place in a cloud city floating in the atmosphere of Venus. Or Progenitor’s Legacy: Deceit, which takes place many years in the future on a tidally locked world that orbits a red dwarf and has been reached by humanity in their search for the alien progenitors who seeded the galaxy with nano machines.

If a young adult science fiction is more to your liking, check out my series This New Earth, that starts with Demons of a Dead World and Secrets of a Dead World.

If you are looking for a young adult fantasy, check out my book The Threads Unbound.