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6 Ways To Resolve A Dispute For Your Characters

You're in the middle of telling your story. Your main protagonist and another character embroiled in a heated dispute. Only, you're stuck. You have no clue how your characters are going to resolve this dispute. But, you are determined that this dispute should be resolved no matter what - it must be done amicably and the resolution permanent.

Here are six ways you can help your character.

1. Get your character to define the conflict objectively. By all means, start with the characters taking a subjective approach but conclude with an element of objectivity.

2. Make sure that in the end, the prevailing attitude is on of cooperation rather than competition. It should be the case of "It's your and me against the problem," and not "It's not you against me."

3. Get the warring characters to ask, the question, "What did you do?" rather than, "What happened?" It always helps as this then facilitates self-justifying versions - it will make your character elicit facts, not opinions.

4. Show the scenario where the characters are made to actively listen rather than passively hearing.

5. Make sure the setting you choose to get your characters to resolve the dispute is 'neutral' territory.

6. At the end, make sure the characters have all developed the skill of forgiving each other. Forgiveness looks forward, vengeance looks backward.

Aneeta Sundararaj is the editor-in-chief of 'How To Tell A Great Story' (http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com ). If you would like to know more about how to tell a great story, by all means, do visit http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com