I need help coming up with the main conflict!

Writing Desk Archive
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Alright! So I’m working on making a parody type story for Episode where it starts out with a typical cliche storyline, then it suddenly switches to following a completely different character not associated with the cliche.

I wanted her story to be parallel to my own, because I wanted to represent my own issues. Not completely tho. But you’ll see what parts of myself I put into it.
So her name is Alice and her story centers around this strange/bizarre family she has that she’s constantly trying to escape. I want to present this world through surrealist elements. It’s hard to explain exactly. So she has this strange family she’s trying to escape, so she goes to a normal Highschool. But this Highschool is where her world intermingles with the cliche because the Highschool contains the cliche characters. So basically she’s navigating the “normal” and the “strange” all at once and trying to find where she lies and an in between.
She doesn’t fit in with the cliche but she also feels like she doesn’t completely fit in at home.

She also discovers a desire to teach English (gee wonder where I got that from!) and I wanted to present this by having another reality (possibly through dreams) where she is training to be a teacher.

Now I know this is straight up insane but this is the only way I can describe it lol. But I’m struggling with what the conflict would be. I guess that internal and external struggle with the cliche and the strange. But I guess I don’t know how to present it really. And make it interesting, especially since this is going on Episode lol. I know it’s not the best platform but I wanted to put something on there that represented my self and my struggles and was different than most things on there.

I’m also having trouble coming up with flaws that the MC (Alice) could have. That’s really important for me because what a lot of Episode stories do is that they don’t give their characters flaws (and I’m talking trending stories here, not anything that anyone on here has written) and rely on external conflict. I want a good mix of both.

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Conflict…there should be four.

Alice in real world:

  1. Inner struggle: Why does she want to escape her family? Why does she feel different from them? What happens if she DOES get what she wants and has to live alone in order to do it? Would she be lonely? Would she miss her family?
  2. Outer struggle: High school is hell, whether that’s a cliche or not, it’s true. Teens are trying to grasp who they are while trying not to draw bad attention to themselves or be seen as different.

Alice in Teacher arc:

  1. Inner struggle: What’s the one biggest fear that a person trying to escape from family has as an adult? Easy- Becoming anything like her family. What if this is happening, her acting and reacting like her family members as an adult? What if she’s turning out to be one of the worst teachers because of it?
  2. Outer struggle: Instead of being a teenager struggling to grasp with her identity, she now has to babysit several teenagers struggling to grasp their identities. What does she do for the students that are struggling the most? Are they being bullied right before her eyes? What does she do about the bullies? What if the bullies need her help more than the kids that are being bullied (example: domestic abuse at home)?
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Thank you! This is certainly giving me more ideas!

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