One of the biggest concepts in character development has to be the idea of internal conflict and the portrayal of internal conflict in a story. Internal conflict gives the main character more depth, relatability, and allows for the potential to create more subplots in a story. It impacts the way the story progresses and the way a character arc plays out. So, for today’s post, we’ll be talking about how to develop internal conflicts for your character and how to ensure that they can be added to your narrative without feeling overbearing or forced.
What are Internal Conflicts?
Before we really get into the nitty gritty details, we should establish a definition and understanding of what internal conflicts really are. For the most part, the idea of internal conflict is a struggle that occurs within a character at the psychological level.
Oftentimes, internal conflicts arise within a character because they are struggling against things that contradict their desires, values, morals, ethics, motivations, etc… This leads to a clash within the mind of the character as they grapple against their wants and what is necessary.
For instance, a character might feel guilt over the idea of hurting someone, but at the same time, they feel it had to be done due to the circumstances of the story. Something like this would be considered an internal conflict.
How is Internal Conflict Different From External Conflict?
Internal conflicts are quite different from external conflicts because external conflicts are exclusively a character struggling against an outside force. This could include nature, other characters, or society.
Internal conflicts can be spurred on from external sources, but the internal conflict involves the character’s own personal struggles against their own self while an external conflict involves the character’s struggle against something separate from themself.
How Internal Conflicts Manifest in Stories
Moral Dilemmas
Moral dilemmas are what happens when a character is forced to choose between different courses of action, either of which is potentially going beyond a character’s morals and ethics. The conflict is meant to challenge the values of the character and is meant to reveal more about their disposition and their true self.
A character’s choice in a moment of a moral dilemma reveals to the reader what that character is willing to do, what lengths the character is willing to go to, and how these situations will affect the way a character arc plays out across the length of a story.
Identity Crises
An identity crisis is what happens when a character finds himself questioning who he is, what he stands for, or where he belongs in the world. This idea of the identity crisis is often included in stories where there are themes like self-discovery or the story revolves around the character’s identity in some way, shape, or form. It is an important internal conflict that can really impact how a character interacts with the narrative and main conflict of the story.
Mental Health/Psychological Issues
Psychological issues and mental health problems are related to things like anxiety, depression, trauma, personality disorders, etc… These sorts of internal conflicts can create an interesting device for a narrative because it showcases something that impacts the character at a brain-chemical level. Personality disorders also allow for you to get a chance to create something like an unreliable narrator because you are basically skewing the perception of the world around the character through the lenses of the character.
For my series, The Fallen Age Saga, main character Blide Stevens is a diagnosed psychopath which means that he perceives things very differently than others and he believes himself to be entirely correct in his actions. It provides an interesting way to showcase internal struggles.
Emotional Struggles
Emotional struggles are when a character has to fight against their feelings in order to do what’s necessary or the other way around. These sorts of emotions and feelings include love, hate, fear, jealousy, envy, etc… These often form around character relationships and can lead to an interesting interpretation of how a character acts and what motivates them to do what they do.
There are other ways for internal struggles to exist in a story, but for the most part, you can identify these really easily in most books.
How to Create Internal Conflicts in a Story
The Backstory is Important
One important thing to know about your character so you can form proper internal conflicts is the backstory of the character. The character’s backstory includes things like trauma, loss, key developmental moments, the upbringing and more. These sorts of things can help shape the way a character behaves in the future and in the present day of the story.
For example, a character who experienced betrayal in the past may find himself struggling to interact with and trust others, fearing a do-over of the past.
Creating internal conflicts using the backstory is something that you should definitely consider. You want to identify what the key events are in the character’s life, how these events shaped them then and now, and how those events affect their behavior in certain situations.
Correlate the Internal Conflicts with the Character’s Goals
Another way you can create an interesting internal conflict is by creating a sort of correlation between the internal conflict and the goals of the character, especially when the character’s personal self clashes with the goals.
You want to basically define what the primary goal/motivation of the character is, what obstacles exist that hinder the goal from being achieved, and what the character must decide between in order to achieve this goal and if it contradicts their personal worldviews.
Personal Contradictions
Another great way of creating internal conflicts is to create contradictions in the character’s mindset. For instance, maybe the character is very independent and is considered a self-starter, but inside their mind, they cannot handle the idea of being lonely or abandoned. These sorts of opposing pieces of the character’s mindset are interesting ways of creating tension and internal conflicts.
You want to think about the character’s traits, how these traits could conflict with each other, and what the contradictions might do for the character over the course of the story.
Relationships
Oftentimes, internal conflicts can be sparked by problems and situations one encounters in a relationship. A character may find hidden fears and insecurities brought out through interactions with another person. A character might also find herself torn between two people she cares about, struggling at figuring out who to side with in the long run of the story.
How to Balance the Internal with the Plot
Connect to the Themes
Internal conflicts can have more of an impact on the story if they connect with the thematic elements of the story. One way you can ensure this happens is by identifying what the core themes are in your book, seeing how the internal conflict fits with those themes, and showcasing a sort of interaction between the themes and the internal conflicts.
If you want to learn how to develop themes for your book, check out this post!
Propel the Plot Forward
Internal conflicts can have action around them that may impact the overall plot of the story. The character’s choices being made can provide grounds for internal conflicts and this can help to propel the plot of the story forward.
You want to show how some decisions have changed the story, either by creating twists or complications in the plot that arise from the character’s actions or by having the plot’s next major point happen as a result of that particular decision.
In addition to this, you want to ensure that the character’s overall arc is impacted well by their decisions. An arc exists to show a character’s journey from the beginning to the end of the story and it would be unrealistic to never have anything done as a result of any internal conflicts.
If you want to learn how to write a character arc, then check out this post!
Create Moments of Tension
Tension is something that is really great to add to a story because it helps to enhance the suspense and the action that is happening and it makes the book feel more complete. Alongside your narrative, moments of tension can really highlight the impact that you want major plot points to have.
Internal conflicts can lead to moments of tension in the story and can create some suspense for the reader regarding what will happen next. The stakes are raised significantly higher when a situation like this occurs and the character is essentially forced to come to terms with something difficult.
Things to Avoid
Too Much Internal Conflict is Bad
It’s good to have internal conflict in a story and it makes sense that a character is going to struggle with something to some extent. However, where this becomes an issue is when the character is overloaded with too much internal conflict.
What happens at this point is that the internal conflict will feel overbearing and the rest of the story will not feel like it has that many stakes to it in the long run. Furthermore, you want to focus on a few key conflicts that will be the most relevant to the character arc and the themes of the story.
You basically need to prioritize what the internal conflict will be the most impactful in and you also want to show to the readers that the character has a variety of issues he or she will be contending with.
Vagueness
Another issue that some stories have is making the internal conflict too vague or very nonspecific to the point where a reader might not realize that this situation is an internal conflict. You want to ensure that the reader can identify clearly what the main character’s internal conflict is and you want to show this through examples. Do not outright tell the reader what the internal conflict is and do not outright just say to the reader “the character has x as an internal conflict.”
Show, don’t tell is not always the best way to write, but ultimately, it has merit in this situation. Showcasing to the reader the internal conflicts by putting them through certain situations allows for the reader to really get the full picture of the internal conflicts and it prevents said conflicts from being too vague.
Things to Try
If you want to figure out how to come up with internal conflicts for your characters, but you’re still feeling a bit lost, here are some exercises and things that you can do to try and jog your brain a bit regarding this topic:
Character Interviews
One thing that I have heard other writers use is the idea of a character interview. This is basically where you pretend that you are speaking to your character and are asking him some specific questions that will reveal things about the character’s backstory and life and thus allow you to logically come up with a proper set of internal conflicts to include in your story.
Character Profiles
The next thing that you want to do is to create a character profile. This is basically a single sheet where you are explaining the basic, most prominent details about your character. It includes things like their parents, their interests and hobbies, their name, etc… This can help you put your character into context and from there, you can actually think about what type of character you are interacting with in a story.
If you want to learn how to create a character profile, then check out this post!
Conclusion
Internal conflicts are very important when it comes to writing any story, especially stories where things are character-driven. In a story where characters are prominently displayed, the idea of internal conflict is impactful. Almost all people will struggle with some type of internal conflict at some point in their lives and having a character who struggles like this makes them much more relatable and interesting. Furthermore, including internal conflicts allows you as the writer to actually broaden your story and make it feel more interesting and complete for your readers.
Before you head on out, be sure to check out my series, The Fallen Age Saga, and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter so you get updates on all my latest books, WIPs, posts and more!