Every writer knows that one of the core components of a story is some kind of conflict. Your protagonist has to want something, and some array of forces has to stand between them and their goal. Sometimes it’s I want to destroy the One Ring but all these Nazgûl and Orcs are in the way, sometimes it’s I love this person but they’re married, but the general idea is that life is disappointment and there’s your story.
That’s what I would define as Macro Conflict. It’s big enough to hang your story off of, and it’s broad enough to invite all sorts of interpretation and give the writer (i.e., you) plenty of room to work in.
Sometimes, coming up with a story and a Macro Conflict is easy. You wake up, and the story is in your head, complete and ready to go—you just need to know how to get in there. How to find your way into the story in the first place. This is where Micro Conflict can be useful.
Go Small
Getting started can be a challenge, because we often see novels and other stories in terms of the big picture, the big twists or the overall atmosphere you want to create. Sometimes finding the right way to just begin is difficult and you wind up writing several iterations of the beginning. One approach is to take your main character and give them a Micro Conflict. That’s pretty much what it sounds like: A short-term goal, with short-term barriers.
It’s an easy way to get things moving. It doesn’t have to have anything to do with the overall plot—just take your main character(s) and give them a goal, something to strive for. It can be very simple and very basic, it can be representative of their usual adventures or something you never return to. Just give them a goal and put some barriers between them and it. It’s that simple—like plotting a novel writ small. You get to explore your universe and characters, tell a self-contained story, and boom—you’re in your novel.
Or you could write 50,000 words describing your main character’s morning routine, including 15,000 words in which they stare at themselves in the mirror. Your call.