Writing Conflict: Are your characters struggling enough?

Welcome back to Write Better Right Now. I've been talking about conflict and I came across this definition from Studio Binder: “Conflict in a story is a struggle between opposing forces. Characters must act to confront those forces and there is where conflict is born. If there is nothing to overcome, there is no story.”

So if conflict is story, a good question to ask is, Are your characters struggling enough?

Now that's going to depend on the type of story you're writing, the length, the genre, the target age range. In The Hunger Games, it's about teenagers who are forced to fight to the death in a dystopian future world – a constant life or death struggle.

Sarah, Plain and Tall is a middle grade novel for somewhat younger kids. It's set during the late 19th century when a widowed farmer writes away for a mail order bride. Sarah comes to visit for a trial period to see if she fits in with the family. There is some physical action, like a storm that requires the family to take shelter in …