How’d the brainstorming go? By now, you should have your What if? fully developed and tested to be sure it’s big enough to turn into a full story. If not, click here to tease out your story concept, then come back to join us as we dive into the next step: developing your main character’s inner conflict.
The Who
You’ve established a little bit of the ‘what’, now you need to figure out the ‘who’. Stories are filled with a cast of characters that readers meet along the way. The main character (protagonist), the antagonist that challenges him, and a host of others.
It’s time to start sketching in this protagonist, often referred to as the ‘main character’ or the MC. It’s important to know who your MC is and what drives his actions. These actions will drive your plot (please note: the MC drives the plot, the plot does not drive your MC). A lot rides on your MC- done well, your readers will invest emotionally in this character: hoping for him during hard times, cheering as he overcomes struggles.
The protagonist
Well, who IS your MC? And how do you figure that out? You may already have an inkling, from your What if, such as: what happens if a homeless boy trades places with an identical-looking prince for a day? (You may recognize this as story line of The Prince and the Pauper.) The MC is identified in the What if: he is a poor, homeless boy.
But that doesn’t tell us enough to understand the pauper’s motivations for how he will respond to anything that happens in the story. Currently, our little boy is just one dimensional: he’s poor, he’s homeless, he likely wears soiled ill-fitting clothes. He may have no shoes or coat. His face may be smudged with dirt. He’s hungry and begs every day for enough money to buy food.
But as the author of this story, we need to know more about what drives him as a human. Specifically, we need to know his deep-rooted wants and his false belief of the world. These set-up his inner conflict. We’ll also need to know one more thing: what the MC really needs to be fulfilled.
Your character’s internal conflict
His wants
Yes, our pauper wants food. He may want a home. But the real want- the one that will drive his choices in your story- must be a much deeper. This is about what his internal heart and mind thinks he wants, based on his life experiences. It may not be anything he can ever get- our pauper will never actually become a prince (unless he has hidden royal blood, which would be a plot twisty trope…more on that another day). More importantly, it isn’t what he needs, but he’ll be too focused on his want to realize that until much later in the story.
Finding the want
How do you find this want? By getting to know who your character is and some of his background. Spend time considering your character’s life story and how he came to the point where we meet him. Yep- another mini-brainstorming session. (Note: it’s important to avoid the trap of listing every single life moment of your character. Focus on the important events that would bring him to this point in time.)
Now, that you know the MC a litle better, jot down a list of his deep desires. Look at that list and circle a few that lend themselves to interesting action thoughout the story. From those, pick one that will be his motivation to push through hard days.
Our pauper? He wants food. He wants enough money to not be hungry. He wants a home. Maybe he’d love enough money to move away from his abusive father that makes him beg. But even more, he wants to be rich enough to be respected by those judgy people scowling at him while throwing pennies into his cup. Ah, respect…now that want could be a real driver.
The messed-up world view
Everyone has a bit of mental baggage that holds us back or causes us to react differently than others in certain situations. Whatever it is, your MC has this, too. And his mental baggage makes him see the world in a distorted way. But all his experiences have validated this belief (from his point of view)–so for him, the it’s very real. This belief will plant a deep seed of insecurity or fear into your MC, so that just when he thinks he’s getting what he wants, his misbelief will thwart his efforts. He will sabotage himself.
Our pauper has developed a deep-seated sense of worthlessness that may sabotage his attempts to become rich. And it may tarnish his ability to ever feel respected.
Why do you need to know this?
Because this fear, this negative view of his own personal self-worth will keep our little pauper from getting ahead in life, at least for awhile. It will impact how he thinks others see him. For example, his want for money may drive him to steal some nice clothes for a job interview. But because of his misbelief, he’ll have lost the job even before the interview begins. His believe will show in how he carries himself, how he responds to interview questions. Worse? This event will reinforce his misbelief, sending him back to his begging lifestyle, angry at himself and sure he isn’t cut out for anything else.
So, what does your MC believe that really isn’t true? What mental demons can hold him back as he tries to get ahead?
Internal conflict and your reader
This push-pull of wants and distorted belief will drive the emotional ups and downs of your plot, as the MC tries to get the want, and sabotages himself through his misbelief. Why doesn’t it just end there? Because the want is so strong, that your MC will pick himself up and try again.
This cycle would be boringly repetitive, except that the MC’s growth arc through the story will allow him to slowly overcome this mismatch as he stuggles to get what he thinks he wants. And this will keep your readers wanting to know if he ever succeeds.
Your dirty little secret
You need to know something else important about your MC that he doesn’t even know about himself. Your MC will struggle to get that thing he wants. But the dirty little secret you know is that thing isn’t what he really needs to be happy. In fact, if he gets the thing he might be happy…for a very brief moment…until he realizes he’s still unfulfilled.
For our pauper, his real need is self-esteem. He can be as rich as he wants, but without self-esteem, he’ll still feel empty in the end.
This is a good time to think about what your MC really needs to be happy.
The inner conflict cycle
Growth, break through…
I find this cycle of working toward a goal and failing to be a lot like math. I made it through high school without a good grasp of word problems. To be honest, I would freeze at word problems and just tell myself I couldn’t solve it. (Yep- this was my misbelief.) No matter how these problems were explained to me, my brain shut down. All those past experiences of seeing big red “F” pen marks on math papers had cemented my misbelief–that I would never understand math.
And then I had to take math in college to reach my ultimate goal of being a pharmacist. (Yes, I had no clue how much math clinical pharmacists need to know!) And something miraculous happened. It was as simple as one professor explaining those horrible word problems in a different way that suddenly opened a bright shiny door to my mind (and future career). Sure, I struggled for a few tests–I wasn’t instantly a math whiz. But eventually, I realized there were simple tricks to the words that had seemed so confusing.
I got an A in that course. And my belief that I couldn’t learn math was shattered…
…and fall
…Until I took calculus. And then I lost my confidence again. My misbelief was back in full control and my career was hanging by a tiny thread. The struggle continued, but I finally won, bit by bit.
As it turned out, it wasn’t becoming a pharmacist that I really needed. Sure, I ended up with a long and great career that was steeped in much more complicated math. What I needed was much simpler. I needed confidence–the kind that came with unraveling that misbelief. The confidence that came with erasing my self-doubt and fear that I wasn’t smart enough. The confidence that would spill over into the rest of my life. The same confidence that led me to work in a newborn ICU, calculating medication doses for premature babies with complex math that scared many pharmacists away from the field.
And that fulfilled me more than getting word problems right.
The push pull dynamics: want vs belief
My personal little math vs career story is also a great illustration of how your character can NOT (and must not) fully overcome their misbelief on the very first try. That’s a boring, predictable story. To make an interesting story, the MC needs a ‘2-steps-forward-1-step-back’ cycle of self-development. Each time, the MC should grow a little bit more, but the misbelief should win out, leaving the MC in another mess (just not quite as bad as before).
The final breakthrough
This struggle will make your reader sigh and turn the page to see what happens. This cycle should continue throughout the plot until your MC finally breaks through that misbelief to win the day, to the great relief of your readers. And to the surprise of your MC, even though he doesn’t get that thing he thought he wanted, he’ll have gained something much more important.
Done well, this cycle and final breakthrough will take your readers on a little adrenaline trip worrying and cheering for the MC. More importantly, it will leave them wanting more of your writing (cue 2nd book).
Today’s assignment?
Find the inner conflict for your MC. We don’t have to paint the entire growth and change arc just yet, but delve into your MC’s background enough to know what happened in the past that drives a deep want…and the internal misbelief (demon) that will make it hard to achieve without some serious struggles and growth throughout your plot. Also take a little time to figure out the true need that will actually fulfill the character.
Check List:
1) Character want: ________________________________________________
2) Character need: ________________________________________________
3) Character misbelief: _____________________________________________
Brief character background: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Resources:
From need-want pairs to developing that misbelief, here are some great articles and books to help you out.
Article links:
KM Weiland: Creating your character’s Inner conflict: want versus need
Jane Friedman: How to write compelling inner conflict
Ken Miyamoto: 100 Internal conflicts your character can face
Becca Puglisi: How to reveal a character’s inner conflict
Angela Ackerman: How to resolve our characters internal arc
Angela Ackerman: The destructive power of the lie your character believes
Janice Hardy: The inner struggle: Guides for using internal conflict that make sense
Janice Hardy: Making sense out of character wants and needs
Janie Hardy: What “So Undercover” and “Miss Congeniality” can teach us about character arcs
Craft books:
Story Genius, Lisa Cron (chapters specifically on the ‘who’, character misbelief)
Story Engineering, Larry Brooks (chapters on interior conflict, and developing your character)
Have fun!
The post Writing a Fiction Novel (Part 2): How to Find a Character’s Inner Conflict first appeared on Miffie Seideman.