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nano_writersMost writers recognize that there are two types of conflict in their work: external and internal. Mary Connealy, an award-winning author of humorous novels that take place in the Wild West, says this:
Connealy continues:
And as to the relationship of one to the other? Peter Hill proposes that one complements the other when he writes:
Carol Clarke expands on this when she points out: “A convincing story has many conflicts built into it, layered and connected. The first layer is inside your characters.”
As an interesting exercise, the Nano Writer might check out Kathleen O'Reilly’s “Conflict Test”: six questions for the writer to consider while assessing the level of conflict in their story. Amusing is her advice for the “too nice” writer:
Nano Writer – are you too nice to your characters?
Defining your conflict is Step One in writing your novel. What it boils down to is: External Conflict is plot, Internal Conflict is characters.
Connealy continues:
External conflict is the easy one for me. External really is only one because it's the story—the plot—the mess you make that you have to clean up. It's what is obviously keeping the two characters apart. It's only one thing, not two. All you've got to remember is; make it insurmountable—the worse the better.
Internal is more complex. It's what shapes your character into a person who won't take a chance on love. There needs to be two of these because each character has his or her own, and those conflicts have nothing to do with each other, except it influences how they deal with each other. It has to do with emotions, fears, old memories, things you can't see that go on inside a person.
And as to the relationship of one to the other? Peter Hill proposes that one complements the other when he writes:
Internal conflict adds meaning and complexity to the external conflict, but it's the external conflict that forces a character to make internal choices and changes.
Carol Clarke expands on this when she points out: “A convincing story has many conflicts built into it, layered and connected. The first layer is inside your characters.”
A character's inner conflict is not just being in two minds about something, not just being torn between obvious incompatibles ("I want to be a priest, and yet I love her") but is about being in a new situation where old attitudes and habits war with and hinder the need for change.
As an interesting exercise, the Nano Writer might check out Kathleen O'Reilly’s “Conflict Test”: six questions for the writer to consider while assessing the level of conflict in their story. Amusing is her advice for the “too nice” writer:
0-4: You are too nice a person. Watch the evening news, go stand in line at the post office, or try to go through the express line at the grocery story with too many items. You must learn how to truly torment your characters properly.
Nano Writer – are you too nice to your characters?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-13 08:22 pm (UTC)*thinks about her characters...*
Not really, no. In mu current work in progress, out of five MCs, four are going to die (and the fifth is going to lose almost everything.) And before dying, they will have gone through hell, mentally, and in some cases physically.
As far as conflict is concerned, there are the external conflicts in the form of a big war and people not getting along but still trying in the name of duty, and the internal conflicts of my MCs doing and condoning behaviors that they know are morally wrong, or even evil, in the name of duty (and still wondering what that makes them.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-17 08:54 pm (UTC)Is this a story that you're developing for NaNoWriMo or something else?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-18 07:11 pm (UTC)It's a story I started a year and half ago. I'm toying with the idea of "cheating with NaNo" and working on it if it's still not finished.