Perhaps you have heard the expression that content is king. I disagree, I believe that conflict is king. Within those first ten pages you have to establish characters who will be in natural conflict with each other. Unnatural conflict is this is page 8 and this is where character one argues with character 5 for no reason other than there is suppose to be conflict in the script somewhere.
Natural conflict comes from character traits. Their world view as it conflicts with the world view of others. Their personality is at natural odds with those around them. I will use 2 characters from a series of films that almost all of you have seen at least one of whether you were willing or not. We are going to pluck two characters from the Harry Potter universe (I could use the Star Trek Universe) to illustrate how to create conflict naturally.
Now entering the ring an attractive young mud blood, Hermione.
Stumbling in, late as usual, is the red headed terror himself, Ron.
Yes I know that they become a couple. Hey opposites attract. These two are made to produce conflict. This conflict does not come from the writer as much as it does from who they are. Ron is all emotion and feeling. Hermione is all reason and logic. Early one she looks at him as being a silly unprepared block head. He looks at her as a bookworm who does not feel much of anything and has no concept of how to have fun.
When ever they have a problem she tackles it with reason and logic while Ron gets caught up in doubt, fear and a hundred other emotions. They will forever rub each other the wrong way and not because they do not like each other, (they grow to love each other) but simply because they do not see the world the same way at all. Without the third character of Harry, who is mostly instinct, to balance them out they would have never been able to progress much past hello.
Conflict between your heroes will come naturally if you keep this in mind. Conflict between heroes and villains will be intense if you have a hero who is all emotion and instinct going up against a villain who is as coldly logical and remorseless as a plague.
Whether it is Bond going up against Doctor No or it is Van Helsing doing battle with a soulless vampire who looks at innocent people in the same way he would look upon chest pieces conflict comes from being opposites.
Your first and I hope only exercise that I am going to suggest is that you list your top character and in a word describe their primary approach to any situation. If these characters share a lot of scenes together make them opposites. If they are best friends or husband and wife or brother and sister or father and son. These opposing traits can get you through the roughest parts of your scripts. They will find ways to push the story forward even where you are lost.
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