i'm trying to come up with an external conflict for a slice of life-esque story about a boy and his shadow. (more specifically, the shadow takes on a life of its own and presents itself as a supernatural being; the story will mostly focus on the relationship between the two, as the shadow is a projection of the lead's insecurities and such.) i need an external conflict to keep the story going, since i doubt i can carry it based on that concept alone. it's just a completely normal high school setting, so i'm having trouble coming up with something that isn't horrendously cliche/inconsequential/boring. thanks!
Well, if the shadow is a supernatural being, then it stands to reason there'd be other supernatural beings, right? Maybe you can build an external conflict out of that.
Or maybe if the boy has insecurity issues or something, he's having other issues at school. Bullying?
I'd start with just expanding on what ideas/concepts you have and see if an external conflict blooms out of that.
If the hero is a teen with issues you can create a whole dynamic with bullies in school or some drama going on (it's a slice of life right ?) or maybe romance so you can have the reaction of the girl or the boy when he/she discovers the shadow. Also the shadow and the hero will need to help each other to overcome the external conflicts together and you"ll have a nice ending where the boy accepts his flaws and live with it.
the idea is very simple so I hope you'll be inspired by it and develop further your story. good luck !
What if you create conflict with people around the protagonist - maybe his family is abusive/unaccepting/unloving or his friends start to distance themselves because they don't understand his shadow, his insecurities, and refuse to help him. And in turn he has more inner turmoil from these outside conflicts.
