When was the last time you read a novel that was happy and cheerful from the first page to the last? Every character got along and everything went as planned? I am guessing that you have never read such a tedious piece of writing. To make a story captivate its readers, it has to have conflict and adversity and plenty of it. It is the conflict and how the characters respond to it that makes a good action, comedy or romance novel. The conflict and the response to it by the characters are the foundations for any good novel.

What are the different types of adversity you could use to create your story?

Displacement Adversity – Whenever you take a character out of their comfort zone and place them in a new environment or unfamiliar situation then they are faced with the adversity of displacement. This could be a family moving to a new area and trying to fit in, a child starting a new school and trying to make new friends. Displacement can even be in the form of time travel.

Physical Adversity - This is most prevalent in action or adventure novels. The protagonist is threatened with death or injury and he battles to prevent this happening either to himself or another character.

Deceptive Adversity – This is the preferred type of adversity that is used in comedy both on the big screen and in novels. This is where a character totally mishears or misunderstands another character. From that misunderstanding,  the character now has a distorted view of the situation and the other character.

Relationship Adversity – There are many types of relationships where you can use adversity. Whether it be between lovers, family or police detectives. Whatever the situation, the adversity is shared by the characters within the relationship and to overcome this adversity there must be a shared goal.The conflict comes when a character is either changed by the relationship or tries to fight against the relationship.

To truly develop a character through adversity you need to:

Know everything about your character's values and beliefs, and that means creating a character with a strong backstory. The more time you have spent creating a character, the more you will know about them, and therefore will instantly know how they will react to any given situation. Keep in mind that the character will behave and react differently towards a displacement adversity than they would to a relationship adversity.

Choose how your characters will change and how they’ll stay the same.

For a story to develop then the adversity or conflict will have to alter certain aspects of your character's viewpoint and personality. It is up to you which traits of their character will change and which will remain the same. But for any change to occur, there must be a convincing reason behind that change.

Remember, for that added touch of realism you can mix things up a little by having a character act out of character sometimes; this will add interest for the reader. For example, you can have a serial killer gushing over a baby in a pram.