The significance of plot without conflict
In the West, plot is commonly thought to revolve around conflict: a confrontation between two or more elements, in which one ultimately dominates the other. The standard three- and five-act plot structures—which permeate Western media—have conflict written into their very foundations. A “problem” appears near the end of the first act; and, in the second act, the conflict generated by this problem takes center stage. Conflict is used to create reader involvement even by many post-modern writers, whose work otherwise defies traditional structure.The necessity of conflict is preached as a kind of dogma by contemporary writers’ workshops and Internet “guides” to writing. A plot without conflict is considered dull; some even go so far as to call it impossible. This has influenced not only fiction, but writing in general—arguably even philosophy. Yet, is there any truth to this belief? Does plot necessarily hinge on conflict? No. Such claims are a product of the West’s insularity. For countless centuries, Chinese and Japanese writers have used a plot structure that does not have conflict “built in”, so to speak. Rather, it relies on exposition and contrast to generate interest. This structure is known as kishōtenketsu.
Kishōtenketsu contains four acts: introduction, development, twist and reconciliation. The basics of the story—characters, setting, etc.—are established in the first act and developed in the second. No major changes occur until the third act, in which a new, often surprising element is introduced. The third act is the core of the plot, and it may be thought of as a kind of structural non sequitur. The fourth act draws a conclusion from the contrast between the first two “straight” acts and the disconnected third, thereby reconciling them into a coherent whole. Kishōtenketsu is probably best known to Westerners as the structure of Japanese yonkoma (four-panel) manga; and, with this in mind, our artist has kindly provided a simple comic to illustrate the concept.
I'm just trying to think of a western novel or short story that doesn't have any conflict in it as the main plot theme, and it's really hard to think of anything at all, beyond Barney the Dinosaur - and there's even the occasional conflict in that!
Actually, not quite true. L.M. Montgomery's books are often written in self-contained chapters because she wrote quite a few of them to be published as short stories in periodicals. And occasionally, a self-contained chapter will have no conflict whatsoever in it. It will be a description of a beautiful day had by a group of friends, a pastoral scene, that sort of thing.
But by no means could she be considered to be a writer who normally engaged in non-conflict plots - overarching plots had conflict, and so did the vast majority of her mini plots and short stories. And occasionally even in the short story about a group of friends having a nice summer day with a picnic at the pond together that I'm thinking of, there were little mini-plots that had slight conflict-resolution themes, such as the girls having a naming contest to see whose name for a pond would become the one they would use, and they drew straws to declare the winner.
It's hard to think of any plots that don't involve conflict of some kind! It would be a neat kind of challenge, to try to write short stories with an interesting plot but no conflict.
OK just to play devil's advocate this beautiful holiday morning, here's a quote from Charlie Kaufman's masterpiece, Adaptation:
Every time I see this thread in the list it jumps out as
The significance of pot without conflict... and that's all I have to say on the subject(s)