Finding conflict

My screenplay has been on the back burner for quite some time. I knew the inner conflict wasn’t working quite right, but I had no idea how to fix it, so I moved on to other things and let it sit. The last few days, I’ve been thinking more about it. Yesterday, I had an epiphany. The conflict was actually already there in the story. I was trying to force a conflict onto the story that, while it had elements of this conflict, didn’t quite fit, especially when it came to the climax. That fizzing, electric feeling of “Yes, this is right!” is a wonderful thing!

I may be getting better at spotting conflict, too. A short story I’ve been in the midsts of revising has been limping along. I knew it needed “something,” but at first I wasn’t sure what. After a crack at the re-writing that added some description (the bane of my existence) but only made the character’s co-worker seem like an idiot and didn’t really fix the problem, I got another lightning bolt, and again, it was something that was present in the story, but I just didn’t realize it. Now that I know it’s there, I can bring it out, tone down her partner’s stereotypes, and possibly actually finish this thing.