Welcome to this month’s Craft Chat on CHARACTERISATION. This is a big subject. There's no way we could cover every facet of it, but we'll cover a few. We're splitting it into two parts, this month and next. This month, Rachel and I will cover Building a Character and Conflict.
As before, the discussion thread will be open for FIVE DAYS from when we post the Chat. Let us know your thoughts and experiences. If you disagree with anything, that’s fine. Tell us why. We love hearing from you. All opinions are welcome and valid additions to our learning. Keep it civil.
Rachel (RK Capps), Galadriel, Ed, Kay (Ancora Imparo)
CHARACTER
There are so many choices to make when building characters. Carol Rose (our Litopian who wrote these Craft Chats before, and author of over 100 titles, 95 published) said:
“This sounds like a lot of work…
It is. But it’s also essential work if you’re to have three-dimensional, believable, consistent characters who evoke emotion in your readers. If you’re to have a place where your story is set that comes alive for those readers.”
When you create a character, you are creating a fictional human being. And when we interact with other human beings, we judge them, whether that judgement is conscious or unconscious. As writers, we should try and take advantage of this facet of human behaviour.
Recently, I watched The Tinder Swindler on Netflix. The victims made a judgement call on this con artist. He dressed in designer clothes. He seemed to fly all over Europe on business. His social media checked out, i.e. photos in designer clothes all over Europe. He even had a website that proclaimed he was in the diamond business. When he met these victims for the first time, he’d fly them in his private jet. He even flew one victim with a woman and child on board who he claimed was an ex with his son. All of this enabled them to make a judgement on him. He’s wealthy, generous (taking the victims on the plane), tolerant (he interacts with his ex), and nurturing (he still interacts with his son).
But people have secrets, and these are something we need to build into the fictional characters we create. This guy’s secret was that he used the money of the women he conned to fund his lavish lifestyle. Every judgement the victims made about this guy was incorrect. Talk about an insidious secret.
Perhaps we don’t want to create such an unlikeable character. But we can learn from an actual human being how to build our fictional characters so they do feel like a human being. Through their actions (showing, not telling), we can build their traits i.e. generous, tolerant, nurturing and them temper them with some kind of secret.
People become, in our minds, what we see them do.
This is the strongest, most irresistible form of characterization. What did we know about Indiana Jones at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark? He was a taciturn guy with a wry smile who took an artifact out of an ancient underground temple. When he was left to die, he figured out a way to escape. When a huge boulder rolled toward him, he didn’t freeze — he ran like a madman to get away. None of this required any explanation. Within ten minutes of the beginning of the movie, we knew that Indiana Jones was resourceful, greedy, clever, brave, intense; that he had a sense of humor and didn’t take himself too seriously; that he was determined to survive against all odds. Nobody had to tell us — we saw it.
Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint (p. 6). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
And after we’ve started to build our character, we need then to ask ‘what are their motives?’ A motive is an additional way for the reader to judge our characters. The character who acts out of greed or a need for status (as our real life Tinder Swindler example) or a desire to save the planet or a desire to hurt the one they love will all attract either a conscious or unconscious judgment from us.
A character is what he does, yes — but even more, a character is what he means to do.
Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint (p. 7). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
One thing we should never overlook when building a character is considering a character’s past, and how it shaped them to become who they are today.
Another Netflix example, and those from the UK may be familiar with this one. In the show Stay Close (spoilers), the murderer is someone who became a serial killer of "men who abused women" because she was abused to the point her abuser kicked her in the stomach, killed her baby (she’d been pregnant), and forever destroyed any chance of her having more children. How do you judge this character? It's a spin on another character. Dexter, in Darkly Dreaming Dexter, not only works in forensics assisting the police in their murder investigations, but is a serial killer of other murderers. Author Jeff Lindsay has created a nuanced anti-hero, which subverts readers' straightforward judgements of Dexter. A fully rounded character, such as Dexter, becomes capable of eliciting perhaps layers of judgement from a reader. Is it ever acceptable to take another human life, even if that life belongs to a murderer? A reader likes Dexter; he possesses good qualities, but are they enough to absolve him of his crimes?
In relation to a character’s past, like Carol Rose said – “How else can you expect to write a three-dimensional person if you don’t understand who they are, what shaped them, and what they want out of life? You can’t. You’ll end up with the author’s worst nightmare – a Mary Sue.”
We could consider their reputation, stereotype (job, sex, age, family role), habits and patterns, talents and abilities, tastes and preferences or the very thing that tells the least about our character (unless important to the story) body.
Remember that of all these different ways of getting to know people — and therefore getting to know characters — the most powerful of them, the ones that make the strongest impression, are the first three: what the character does in the story, what his motives are, and what he has done in the past.
Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint (p. 18). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
These are just a few tools we can apply to characters to make them engaging, and the more you engage a reader, the deeper they’re immersed in the world of your story. Of course, this is just one trail of many that you can use to climb the mountain of a book. So, whether you find creating a character daunting, overwhelming or a cinch, the main thing is that you keep forging your own way up that mountain.
YOUTUBE VIDEO
Rachel (RK Capps)
BUILDING A CHARACTER
CONFLICT
When was the last time someone seriously pissed you off? What did you do? Swallow your anger and quietly plot revenge, “nursing your wrath to keep it warm”? Throw a tantrum and swear a lot? Hit them? Tell them calmly their behaviour was disgusting and then didn’t waste any more time on them? Ignored them (you don't waste time on cretins)? Call them names behind their back to show how clever (you think) you are? Congratulations. You’ve just communicated your inner character to the world. And don’t think we didn’t take notes.
You don’t need to know technical terms in order to write a good story. Without being too highfalutin, external conflict is usually what happens TO a character and internal conflict is the stuff that goes on IN their head.
It’s been said that our character determines how we get on in life, although there are always people who do well even though their behaviour is vile. But contrary to what many believe, we are not shaped by what happens to us, good or bad. Circumstances do not shape our character, they reveal it. You are already the frightened child or the invincible warrior and how you react to the problems life throws at you shows us which you are. Actively pursuing your dreams, or passively waiting for someone to hand them to you, gift-wrapped. Angry at the world because you think it owes you something, or grateful for every day you’re here. Of course, the best characters usually have a mixture of different traits: child and warrior; vulnerability and strength; insecurity and conceit; determination and indecisiveness; poverty and pride… no one is all frightened child, or all invincible warrior. We’re all a mixture. Mix up your own ingredients for the best character combinations.
Describe three people you know. Do this exercise with people you like and dislike. Their good points and bad, flaws and virtues, light and shade – that’s a human being. Conflict is one tool you can use to give your fictional characters the same kind of depth.
When writing fiction, the “circumstances” I’ve mentioned above, which help reveal a fictional character to the reader, usually boil down to conflict. Internal and external conflict – call it whatever you like. Some of us call it throwing rocks at the protagonist. Big rocks. Throw rocks at your protagonist and then watch what they do. Because what they do under pressure, reveals the inner workings of their minds to the reader. Just as we reveal ourselves when the metaphorical sticky stuff starts hitting the fan of life, so our protagonist is revealed, for better or worse, when they react to what life (or you, the writer) throws at them. Make them really really want something and then really really prevent them getting it, and watch what they do.
Fictional characters, like all human beings, are made up of many ingredients. Humour, sadness, strength, weakness, bravery or cowardice… the list is endless. You choose. It’s your book. You’ll want to include a few flaws, because without them your character will become a bit of a Mary Sue – as Rachel mentions – and you risk boring your reader. Besides, just as our own character determines much of what happens to us in life, so it is for the fictional characters we write. For writers, that means our characters’ behaviour – strengths, weaknesses etc – can help drive the plot. You put the obstacles in their way and the narrative arc is defined by their response to those obstacles.
Conflict is one of the tools you can use to reveal your character’s ingredients: what they’re made of. Without conflict, we won’t see what they’re made of, and that’ll be a pretty boring story. We’ll also want to know if those ingredients inside the character include Active behaviour, or Passive. Does the character cower and let you (life) keep throwing big rocks at them, or do they start batting them right back atchya while cracking a few sharp one-liners? Whatever they do, what are the consequences for them? More conflict? Yes, probably. It’s your job to use every weapon at your disposal to lay this character bare for readers to completely understand, warts and all, and to give them a good story along the way. We empathise more with characters we understand, especially if they have human problems or flaws, or conflicts we recognise.
So, how can you effectively reveal to your reader this fantastic character you’ve created? You can tell them, of course. You could say: Mr Roberts was too damn handsome for his own good. All 6ft 6in of his honed Armani-clad physique, perfect profile and high-flying Executive Accountancy job. But on the day he was made redundant, our Mr Roberts embezzled 1.5 million dollars from Anywhere You Choose and suddenly his admirers were as rare as brains at a political Rally (you could insert your own preferred politics: at a Trump Rally, Biden Rally, Johnson Rally, Starmer Rally, Pudding Ra– sorry, Putin Rally…)
Telling readers about our characters can be fun. So can showing them (see our Show -v- Tell Craft Chat JANUARY 2022). You could show us everything: from the moment our hero hears he’s going to be unemployed, to where he sits at his computer and makes a transfer from the company account into his personal account, then walks out of the office, chucks his mobile phone in the trash and heads for the airport.
Okay, now what? We’ve shown how this character reacts to the external conflict of bad news in the form of enforced redundancy. Now we need even more – is he internally conflicted about what he’s just done? Did he transfer that money in a moment of madness or with deliberate detachment? Does he phone his wife before he chucks the mobile away, to tell her he loves her? Tearfully asks how baby Aaron is (Inner turmoil suspected)? Or does he throw his wedding ring after the mobile phone then empty the family photo out of his wallet and bin that, too (No remorse here)? All the time, you are using varying degrees of conflict to build this character. And how he reacts to that conflict is vital information for the reader. Little by little the man is revealed to us just by showing us how he reacts to external and internal conflict. His behaviour. What he does. Not what he says he’ll do, we all know that’s no true measure of anything. What someone does always tells you more than what they say.
Conflict – internal or external?
I think you need both. Internal and external conflict are like a see-saw – if there’s too much weight on one side, it’s not as good a ride. Your character needs both, and your reader will want both because that makes the story more interesting, with more depth and more realism. Because your character is a real human being, remember. And real human beings have all sorts of worries warring inside them, and all sorts of world problems popping up around them. Frailty and flaws make us human, and that’s what make fictional characters real, too.
Internal conflict: I really want this prestigious job but I abhor the boss; I want to travel but Mum is sick and I can’t leave her; I’m a powerful witch / magician / mage / Otherworlder / Time Traveller / Elf – insert as required – but I’m torn, conflicted, confused, because my beloved parents taught me that all magic is The Work of the Devil.
External conflict: You’ve just set up the animal sanctuary you’ve worked towards for three years, and war is declared between your country and a neighbouring one ruled by a despot. You’ve planned and executed the perfect Murder at Midnight and are driving away fast, with no lights on. No one is around – except the variable you couldn’t foresee: a burglar dressed all in black who steps out in front of your speeding car and it hits him…
Characters often have some control over internal conflict, though it’s usually presented as something they have difficulty grappling with. We can take the job and put up with the horrible boss; decide to put off travelling and stay with Mum till she’s better. Powerful, but conflicted, witch? Learn to be True to Yourself – the classic trope and character arc our fictional character can strive toward. Because that’s what the internal conflict is usually about: the character arc. How your character solves those internal conflicts is what your reader wants to know. Just as fairy tales taught children some of the basics in life lessons (don’t go into dark woods alone; don’t trust everyone you meet; step-mothers often like their own kids best), so a fictional character’s internal journey can show the reader how some personal problems can be solved.
Internal conflict can often, though not always, be controlled by the character.
External conflict is usually out of their control. War, flood, incoming time travellers. There are hundreds of scenarios and unforeseen variables we cannot control that can affect a character’s plans and help us throw more rocks at them. Thank goodness!
Remember, your setting can be a character, too, and can be used to add backdrop or conflict. From the rolling hills, Cypress trees and blue skies of Tuscany on a sleepy summer afternoon, to the unforgiving whiteout of a brutal arctic blizzard, your setting can be a backdrop to the conflict, or part of it. External conflict: two friends go on holiday to beautiful Tuscany. On a quiet country road they’re robbed, their car and luggage are stolen and they have to find their way to a police station, without money, mobile phones or knowing the language. The quiet country lanes and villages are a backdrop to the conflict, but can also be part of it – they’re in the middle of nowhere. Where do they even begin? Internal conflict: one of them had stuffed a dead body in the boot of the car, hoping to dump it abroad, and didn’t mention that to their companion. Should they mention it before they find a police station?
You can have great fun mixing different types of conflict to inflict on your poor protagonist, just as you can have great fun mixing the ingredients of their personality and then revealing it, little by little.
Remember, you’re revealing parts of a fictional character to your reader every time they respond to conflict. You’re showing us exactly what your character is made of by the way they deal with what is thrown at them. A disagreeable, sexist boss and the main character is miserable working for him? No, not interesting. A bullying boss, and a young man who thinks things will get better if he keeps his head down? Nope, bo-ring. What about a boss that you, the main character, really like? Romantically like. It looks promising. He’s friendly, kind and just gave you a raise — and when you (legitimately) have to get some files from his desk, you discover a locket and two photo IDs. You’re just putting them back when you remember what the two photos remind you of: two girls who just that morning were on the news as the latest victims of a serial killer police are desperate to find. A serial killer who takes trophies from his victims – like a locket. Okay, now I’m interested. Does your handsome, charming boss suspect you’ve sussed who and what he really is? How scared are you? Can you hide your fear / disappointment / anger? What does your fictional character DO? Because what they do defines who they are, and only through their reaction to conflict can we get to know them.
There are so many ways you can introduce conflict to your characters and story, but remember to keep it balanced. Keep throwing rocks at your protagonist, yes, but also remember to give your characters (and so your readers) some breathing space in between the rocks. One big conflict after another is wearing for readers as well as characters.
Don’t just keep conflict for the protagonist. We hope to cover Best Baddies as a separate CC but, for now, remember to give your fictional characters the respect they deserve – give them an adversary worthy of them, not someone they can beat every time. Someone who stretches them. And so it follows the conflicts should be worthy of them, too. If they're going to argue with someone / murder someone / steal from someone, give them a good reason. Don't make it contrived. Respect your reader and your protagonist.
Give your adversary some conflicts, too, to explain their motivations. Throw rocks at them as well. But don’t expect conflicts alone to give you a good plot or make your characters better characters. The plot does not make a character great. What a character does (or not) makes them great (or not). Good dialogue helps, keeping your writing tight helps, knowing where your story is going helps. It's like a good soup: it doesn’t all rest on one ingredient. But conflict, and the character’s reaction to it, can help drive a story forward. Conflict makes the character interesting – if the protagonist has no problems, the story is dull. There are hundreds of problems you can give your characters. Keep it real, keep it bad, and keep it coming.
While external conflict usually happens to someone, try to avoid making your characters too passive. It risks making them one-dimensional and boring. Let them drive the plot forward by action, by how they react to the conflicts and problems you throw at them. Let them take charge as much as they can so the reader can put themselves in the character’s shoes and be part of the action and therefore, hopefully, part of the solution. You’re teaching your readers conflict resolution here, and that’s one of the oldest reasons humanity has been listening to and reading stories: finding ways to solve universal problems (conflicts).
Ancora Amparo
Here are a few links that further explore conflict and character building:
How to Create Conflict | Author Ian Irvine
5 Ways to Create Conflict in Your Story - ScreenCraft
As before, the discussion thread will be open for FIVE DAYS from when we post the Chat. Let us know your thoughts and experiences. If you disagree with anything, that’s fine. Tell us why. We love hearing from you. All opinions are welcome and valid additions to our learning. Keep it civil.
Rachel (RK Capps), Galadriel, Ed, Kay (Ancora Imparo)
CHARACTER
There are so many choices to make when building characters. Carol Rose (our Litopian who wrote these Craft Chats before, and author of over 100 titles, 95 published) said:
“This sounds like a lot of work…
It is. But it’s also essential work if you’re to have three-dimensional, believable, consistent characters who evoke emotion in your readers. If you’re to have a place where your story is set that comes alive for those readers.”
When you create a character, you are creating a fictional human being. And when we interact with other human beings, we judge them, whether that judgement is conscious or unconscious. As writers, we should try and take advantage of this facet of human behaviour.
Recently, I watched The Tinder Swindler on Netflix. The victims made a judgement call on this con artist. He dressed in designer clothes. He seemed to fly all over Europe on business. His social media checked out, i.e. photos in designer clothes all over Europe. He even had a website that proclaimed he was in the diamond business. When he met these victims for the first time, he’d fly them in his private jet. He even flew one victim with a woman and child on board who he claimed was an ex with his son. All of this enabled them to make a judgement on him. He’s wealthy, generous (taking the victims on the plane), tolerant (he interacts with his ex), and nurturing (he still interacts with his son).
But people have secrets, and these are something we need to build into the fictional characters we create. This guy’s secret was that he used the money of the women he conned to fund his lavish lifestyle. Every judgement the victims made about this guy was incorrect. Talk about an insidious secret.
Perhaps we don’t want to create such an unlikeable character. But we can learn from an actual human being how to build our fictional characters so they do feel like a human being. Through their actions (showing, not telling), we can build their traits i.e. generous, tolerant, nurturing and them temper them with some kind of secret.
People become, in our minds, what we see them do.
This is the strongest, most irresistible form of characterization. What did we know about Indiana Jones at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark? He was a taciturn guy with a wry smile who took an artifact out of an ancient underground temple. When he was left to die, he figured out a way to escape. When a huge boulder rolled toward him, he didn’t freeze — he ran like a madman to get away. None of this required any explanation. Within ten minutes of the beginning of the movie, we knew that Indiana Jones was resourceful, greedy, clever, brave, intense; that he had a sense of humor and didn’t take himself too seriously; that he was determined to survive against all odds. Nobody had to tell us — we saw it.
Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint (p. 6). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
And after we’ve started to build our character, we need then to ask ‘what are their motives?’ A motive is an additional way for the reader to judge our characters. The character who acts out of greed or a need for status (as our real life Tinder Swindler example) or a desire to save the planet or a desire to hurt the one they love will all attract either a conscious or unconscious judgment from us.
A character is what he does, yes — but even more, a character is what he means to do.
Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint (p. 7). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
One thing we should never overlook when building a character is considering a character’s past, and how it shaped them to become who they are today.
Another Netflix example, and those from the UK may be familiar with this one. In the show Stay Close (spoilers), the murderer is someone who became a serial killer of "men who abused women" because she was abused to the point her abuser kicked her in the stomach, killed her baby (she’d been pregnant), and forever destroyed any chance of her having more children. How do you judge this character? It's a spin on another character. Dexter, in Darkly Dreaming Dexter, not only works in forensics assisting the police in their murder investigations, but is a serial killer of other murderers. Author Jeff Lindsay has created a nuanced anti-hero, which subverts readers' straightforward judgements of Dexter. A fully rounded character, such as Dexter, becomes capable of eliciting perhaps layers of judgement from a reader. Is it ever acceptable to take another human life, even if that life belongs to a murderer? A reader likes Dexter; he possesses good qualities, but are they enough to absolve him of his crimes?
In relation to a character’s past, like Carol Rose said – “How else can you expect to write a three-dimensional person if you don’t understand who they are, what shaped them, and what they want out of life? You can’t. You’ll end up with the author’s worst nightmare – a Mary Sue.”
We could consider their reputation, stereotype (job, sex, age, family role), habits and patterns, talents and abilities, tastes and preferences or the very thing that tells the least about our character (unless important to the story) body.
Remember that of all these different ways of getting to know people — and therefore getting to know characters — the most powerful of them, the ones that make the strongest impression, are the first three: what the character does in the story, what his motives are, and what he has done in the past.
Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint (p. 18). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
These are just a few tools we can apply to characters to make them engaging, and the more you engage a reader, the deeper they’re immersed in the world of your story. Of course, this is just one trail of many that you can use to climb the mountain of a book. So, whether you find creating a character daunting, overwhelming or a cinch, the main thing is that you keep forging your own way up that mountain.
YOUTUBE VIDEO
Rachel (RK Capps)
BUILDING A CHARACTER
CONFLICT
When was the last time someone seriously pissed you off? What did you do? Swallow your anger and quietly plot revenge, “nursing your wrath to keep it warm”? Throw a tantrum and swear a lot? Hit them? Tell them calmly their behaviour was disgusting and then didn’t waste any more time on them? Ignored them (you don't waste time on cretins)? Call them names behind their back to show how clever (you think) you are? Congratulations. You’ve just communicated your inner character to the world. And don’t think we didn’t take notes.
You don’t need to know technical terms in order to write a good story. Without being too highfalutin, external conflict is usually what happens TO a character and internal conflict is the stuff that goes on IN their head.
It’s been said that our character determines how we get on in life, although there are always people who do well even though their behaviour is vile. But contrary to what many believe, we are not shaped by what happens to us, good or bad. Circumstances do not shape our character, they reveal it. You are already the frightened child or the invincible warrior and how you react to the problems life throws at you shows us which you are. Actively pursuing your dreams, or passively waiting for someone to hand them to you, gift-wrapped. Angry at the world because you think it owes you something, or grateful for every day you’re here. Of course, the best characters usually have a mixture of different traits: child and warrior; vulnerability and strength; insecurity and conceit; determination and indecisiveness; poverty and pride… no one is all frightened child, or all invincible warrior. We’re all a mixture. Mix up your own ingredients for the best character combinations.
Describe three people you know. Do this exercise with people you like and dislike. Their good points and bad, flaws and virtues, light and shade – that’s a human being. Conflict is one tool you can use to give your fictional characters the same kind of depth.
When writing fiction, the “circumstances” I’ve mentioned above, which help reveal a fictional character to the reader, usually boil down to conflict. Internal and external conflict – call it whatever you like. Some of us call it throwing rocks at the protagonist. Big rocks. Throw rocks at your protagonist and then watch what they do. Because what they do under pressure, reveals the inner workings of their minds to the reader. Just as we reveal ourselves when the metaphorical sticky stuff starts hitting the fan of life, so our protagonist is revealed, for better or worse, when they react to what life (or you, the writer) throws at them. Make them really really want something and then really really prevent them getting it, and watch what they do.
Fictional characters, like all human beings, are made up of many ingredients. Humour, sadness, strength, weakness, bravery or cowardice… the list is endless. You choose. It’s your book. You’ll want to include a few flaws, because without them your character will become a bit of a Mary Sue – as Rachel mentions – and you risk boring your reader. Besides, just as our own character determines much of what happens to us in life, so it is for the fictional characters we write. For writers, that means our characters’ behaviour – strengths, weaknesses etc – can help drive the plot. You put the obstacles in their way and the narrative arc is defined by their response to those obstacles.
Conflict is one of the tools you can use to reveal your character’s ingredients: what they’re made of. Without conflict, we won’t see what they’re made of, and that’ll be a pretty boring story. We’ll also want to know if those ingredients inside the character include Active behaviour, or Passive. Does the character cower and let you (life) keep throwing big rocks at them, or do they start batting them right back atchya while cracking a few sharp one-liners? Whatever they do, what are the consequences for them? More conflict? Yes, probably. It’s your job to use every weapon at your disposal to lay this character bare for readers to completely understand, warts and all, and to give them a good story along the way. We empathise more with characters we understand, especially if they have human problems or flaws, or conflicts we recognise.
So, how can you effectively reveal to your reader this fantastic character you’ve created? You can tell them, of course. You could say: Mr Roberts was too damn handsome for his own good. All 6ft 6in of his honed Armani-clad physique, perfect profile and high-flying Executive Accountancy job. But on the day he was made redundant, our Mr Roberts embezzled 1.5 million dollars from Anywhere You Choose and suddenly his admirers were as rare as brains at a political Rally (you could insert your own preferred politics: at a Trump Rally, Biden Rally, Johnson Rally, Starmer Rally, Pudding Ra– sorry, Putin Rally…)
Telling readers about our characters can be fun. So can showing them (see our Show -v- Tell Craft Chat JANUARY 2022). You could show us everything: from the moment our hero hears he’s going to be unemployed, to where he sits at his computer and makes a transfer from the company account into his personal account, then walks out of the office, chucks his mobile phone in the trash and heads for the airport.
Okay, now what? We’ve shown how this character reacts to the external conflict of bad news in the form of enforced redundancy. Now we need even more – is he internally conflicted about what he’s just done? Did he transfer that money in a moment of madness or with deliberate detachment? Does he phone his wife before he chucks the mobile away, to tell her he loves her? Tearfully asks how baby Aaron is (Inner turmoil suspected)? Or does he throw his wedding ring after the mobile phone then empty the family photo out of his wallet and bin that, too (No remorse here)? All the time, you are using varying degrees of conflict to build this character. And how he reacts to that conflict is vital information for the reader. Little by little the man is revealed to us just by showing us how he reacts to external and internal conflict. His behaviour. What he does. Not what he says he’ll do, we all know that’s no true measure of anything. What someone does always tells you more than what they say.
Conflict – internal or external?
I think you need both. Internal and external conflict are like a see-saw – if there’s too much weight on one side, it’s not as good a ride. Your character needs both, and your reader will want both because that makes the story more interesting, with more depth and more realism. Because your character is a real human being, remember. And real human beings have all sorts of worries warring inside them, and all sorts of world problems popping up around them. Frailty and flaws make us human, and that’s what make fictional characters real, too.
Internal conflict: I really want this prestigious job but I abhor the boss; I want to travel but Mum is sick and I can’t leave her; I’m a powerful witch / magician / mage / Otherworlder / Time Traveller / Elf – insert as required – but I’m torn, conflicted, confused, because my beloved parents taught me that all magic is The Work of the Devil.
External conflict: You’ve just set up the animal sanctuary you’ve worked towards for three years, and war is declared between your country and a neighbouring one ruled by a despot. You’ve planned and executed the perfect Murder at Midnight and are driving away fast, with no lights on. No one is around – except the variable you couldn’t foresee: a burglar dressed all in black who steps out in front of your speeding car and it hits him…
Characters often have some control over internal conflict, though it’s usually presented as something they have difficulty grappling with. We can take the job and put up with the horrible boss; decide to put off travelling and stay with Mum till she’s better. Powerful, but conflicted, witch? Learn to be True to Yourself – the classic trope and character arc our fictional character can strive toward. Because that’s what the internal conflict is usually about: the character arc. How your character solves those internal conflicts is what your reader wants to know. Just as fairy tales taught children some of the basics in life lessons (don’t go into dark woods alone; don’t trust everyone you meet; step-mothers often like their own kids best), so a fictional character’s internal journey can show the reader how some personal problems can be solved.
Internal conflict can often, though not always, be controlled by the character.
External conflict is usually out of their control. War, flood, incoming time travellers. There are hundreds of scenarios and unforeseen variables we cannot control that can affect a character’s plans and help us throw more rocks at them. Thank goodness!
Remember, your setting can be a character, too, and can be used to add backdrop or conflict. From the rolling hills, Cypress trees and blue skies of Tuscany on a sleepy summer afternoon, to the unforgiving whiteout of a brutal arctic blizzard, your setting can be a backdrop to the conflict, or part of it. External conflict: two friends go on holiday to beautiful Tuscany. On a quiet country road they’re robbed, their car and luggage are stolen and they have to find their way to a police station, without money, mobile phones or knowing the language. The quiet country lanes and villages are a backdrop to the conflict, but can also be part of it – they’re in the middle of nowhere. Where do they even begin? Internal conflict: one of them had stuffed a dead body in the boot of the car, hoping to dump it abroad, and didn’t mention that to their companion. Should they mention it before they find a police station?
You can have great fun mixing different types of conflict to inflict on your poor protagonist, just as you can have great fun mixing the ingredients of their personality and then revealing it, little by little.
Remember, you’re revealing parts of a fictional character to your reader every time they respond to conflict. You’re showing us exactly what your character is made of by the way they deal with what is thrown at them. A disagreeable, sexist boss and the main character is miserable working for him? No, not interesting. A bullying boss, and a young man who thinks things will get better if he keeps his head down? Nope, bo-ring. What about a boss that you, the main character, really like? Romantically like. It looks promising. He’s friendly, kind and just gave you a raise — and when you (legitimately) have to get some files from his desk, you discover a locket and two photo IDs. You’re just putting them back when you remember what the two photos remind you of: two girls who just that morning were on the news as the latest victims of a serial killer police are desperate to find. A serial killer who takes trophies from his victims – like a locket. Okay, now I’m interested. Does your handsome, charming boss suspect you’ve sussed who and what he really is? How scared are you? Can you hide your fear / disappointment / anger? What does your fictional character DO? Because what they do defines who they are, and only through their reaction to conflict can we get to know them.
There are so many ways you can introduce conflict to your characters and story, but remember to keep it balanced. Keep throwing rocks at your protagonist, yes, but also remember to give your characters (and so your readers) some breathing space in between the rocks. One big conflict after another is wearing for readers as well as characters.
Don’t just keep conflict for the protagonist. We hope to cover Best Baddies as a separate CC but, for now, remember to give your fictional characters the respect they deserve – give them an adversary worthy of them, not someone they can beat every time. Someone who stretches them. And so it follows the conflicts should be worthy of them, too. If they're going to argue with someone / murder someone / steal from someone, give them a good reason. Don't make it contrived. Respect your reader and your protagonist.
Give your adversary some conflicts, too, to explain their motivations. Throw rocks at them as well. But don’t expect conflicts alone to give you a good plot or make your characters better characters. The plot does not make a character great. What a character does (or not) makes them great (or not). Good dialogue helps, keeping your writing tight helps, knowing where your story is going helps. It's like a good soup: it doesn’t all rest on one ingredient. But conflict, and the character’s reaction to it, can help drive a story forward. Conflict makes the character interesting – if the protagonist has no problems, the story is dull. There are hundreds of problems you can give your characters. Keep it real, keep it bad, and keep it coming.
While external conflict usually happens to someone, try to avoid making your characters too passive. It risks making them one-dimensional and boring. Let them drive the plot forward by action, by how they react to the conflicts and problems you throw at them. Let them take charge as much as they can so the reader can put themselves in the character’s shoes and be part of the action and therefore, hopefully, part of the solution. You’re teaching your readers conflict resolution here, and that’s one of the oldest reasons humanity has been listening to and reading stories: finding ways to solve universal problems (conflicts).
Ancora Amparo
Here are a few links that further explore conflict and character building:
How to Create Conflict | Author Ian Irvine
5 Ways to Create Conflict in Your Story - ScreenCraft
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