Wars and Witnesses

I've always had a lot of trouble writing conflict.  Not emotional conflict.  I can handle inter-personal drama, heartbreak, grief...I'm a terribly emotional person, so these things come naturally for me (*coughhack*).  When I say conflict, I mean...a real fight.  Physical combat.  Attacks from unseen enemies.

Wars.

Which of course is pretty ridiculous, since I'm writing about a war right now.  That's why my revisions are taking so long; I finished the first draft a LONG time ago.  Unfortunately, I put a lot of time into the characters, and not a lot into what was going on around them.  Hence, serious plotholes.  The bulk of what I'm having to fix is the darker side of the book- the pressure on those characters that causes 'stuff' to happen. 

I always worry about reasonableness.  Does it make sense for this to happen, in the way I've written it?  I've never been in a war, so I don't know how certain things affect the people around them.  I answer that by trying to write as a civilian, from civilian POV's when I'm able.  I know how I would feel of someone came into my city and burned it down around my ears.  I know how I would feel if my brother were dying and the only way to save his life was if I moved fast enough.  Panic, fear, determination, shock...those are all easy to write.

I suppose in the end, writing conflict isn't about the conflict itself.  A conflict is bigger than the action of an enemy ramming your gates.  A conflict is all bout the people inside of it, the ones fighting to get out...or in.