Generalizing things, life does not go smoothly. Both stronger and seemingly equal beings fight for domination and smaller ones fight for survival. In intelligent beings, these are not the only fights that take place.
In storytelling, these struggles are categorised into conflicts. While each good story is probably based on one of the most popular type of conflicts, some stories might even combine these conflicts or skip from one to another several times.
While usually a human is involved in each story, the term “Human” can be exchanged for the term “Being” such as an animal, extraterrestrial or whatever the main protagonist might be. The most popular and accepted types of conflicts are the following (not in order):
- Human vs. self
The struggle of a person with its own character flaws, mistakes, doubts or prejudices. - Human vs. human
Usually the conflict between a protagonist and an antagonist or two opposing teams. - Human vs. society
The struggle of an individual or a group to confront injustices, institutions, traditions, or laws between a specific maybe corrupted society. - Human vs. environment
Protagonist faces the elements of the nature or any environment the protagonist exists in. - Human vs. technology (machine)
The human or the team of humanity struggling to stop a menace of unemotional but intelligent machinery that targets a specific person, group or all humanity. - Human vs. supernatural
The fight of an individual or group for domination or survival against an unknown, metaphysical, extraterrestrial or generally incomprehensible entity. - Human vs. God(s)/fate
The story of a person trapped in inevitable destiny with seemingly no free will or freedom, until satisfying the final goal or the wish of a divine entity.