In this article, we talk about external and internal conflicts. Conflict drives story. Learn how to use your characters’ conscious wants and subconscious needs to write a killer story that both entertains readers and resonates with them on a deeper level.
Be sure to watch my YouTube video on this subject as well.
A tale of two conflicts.
In every story, you’ll find two main types of conflict that drive the two main types of narratives.
The external conflict drives the external narrative, which is the plot of the book. The internal conflict drives the internal narrative, the arc of a character from the beginning of their journey to the end.
The external conflict occurs when a character consciously wants something. They know that this is their objective, and their actions in the story are fueled by this desire. Conflict occurs when some external obstacle prevents them from reaching that objective.
In short, this conflict creates the situation, or plot, of the novel.
The internal conflict occurs when a character subconsciously needs something. This implies that the character may not know what their internal objective is. Often, they must endure the trials and tribulations of the external conflict in order to learn that what they needed all along was different from what they wanted.
In short, this conflict creates a character’s arc and development as they experience internal change.
The internal narrative is also the element of the story that connects to the reader on a human level. We may find plot intellectually interesting and entertaining, but it is the character’s internal struggle that we relate to most. We can deeply empathize with coming of age stories, tales of redemption, and crises of identity (all viable internal conflicts) because they’re universal in real life.
These narratives make us feel more invested in the characters, which in turn, makes us more invested in the external narrative, as we watch to see what happens to these relatable fictional people next.
For my money, the best stories balance the impacts of the external and internal conflicts.
What does this mean for different writers?
How do we practically apply these principles to our writing, especially in various genres?
Conflict in commercial fiction.
In commercial fiction (such as the popular genres), the external conflict is prioritized, while the internal conflict becomes a major subplot that enhances our experience with the plot. The situation of the story is the main attraction for the reader. Meanwhile, the characters’ internal conflicts add to the stakes of the plot and make us care deeply about the resolution.
For example, a homicide detective consciously wants to catch a killer in the external conflict. This forms the plot of the book, as the investigation is the main attraction. But perhaps this case is personal, because symbolically, if the detective catches the murderer, she’ll redeem herself from a terrible mistake she made in her past.
That internal redemption story adds another layer of stakes to the case, while at the same time connecting us to the detective at a human level.
So, the external narrative is the priority, but a compelling internal narrative is crucial to the successful execution of the plot.
To put it another way, in commercial fiction, the best plot means nothing without a significant internal story to give it emotional weight.
For more information about using external and internal conflicts in crime fiction, read my post on how to write suspenseful thrillers!
Conflict in literary fiction.
Meanwhile, literary fiction prioritizes the internal narrative. The main attraction for a literary reader is the character’s change over the course of the novel. The external narrative provides the context and catalyst for that change.
For example, is To Kill a Mockingbird a legal thriller in which our focus is on Atticus and his court case? Or is it a coming of age story about Scout? Remember that a coming of age narrative is internal, because it tells us how a character develops within the context of external situations.
Is The Great Gatsby about Gatsby and whether or not he gets the girl and survives the mob? Or is it about Nick and his internal change?
Of course, there is plenty of cross-over between these two generalized explanations of external and internal narratives in literary and commercial fiction. There are commercial books that prioritize the internal and literary books with strong external plots.
The crucial point here is that a great writer will be able to use both types of conflict to achieve different effects, depending on their goals for any given project.
A note on point of view.
One interesting observation I’ll share is that you can often pinpoint which narrative is prioritized in a book by examining the point of view character.
In a commercial novel, the story is usually told by the character at the center of the external conflict. In a literary novel, your POV character is typically the person at the heart of the internal conflict.
This makes sense, because in both cases, the reader spends the most time with the character who has the most to gain or lose in the conflict that is the most interesting in that type of fiction.
Back to our examples.
Let’s go back to the To Kill a Mockingbird example and compare that novel to the legal thrillers of today. Scout is at the center of the coming of age story. The essential questions the reader asks in that conflict focus on what kind of person Scout will become after experiencing the story. It’s logical, then, that the narrative will be most engaging from Scout’s point of view, and not from another character’s.
However, if you look at John Grisham’s thriller A Time to Kill, you’ll find that the protagonist, Jake Brigance, is a defense attorney at the center of the major external conflict of the book. The central questions of the novel revolve around his court case, so Jake’s perspective is the most interesting for the reader.
The other key point I’ll emphasize here is that, in both books, the authors balance the external and internal narratives well, even as they prioritize one or the other. Both arcs are important in the story, making these works impactful on deeper levels for the reader.
Summary.
Okay, let’s review.
- External conflict occurs when an external obstacle prevents a character from getting what they consciously want.
- Internal conflict occurs when a character subconsciously needs something, but doesn’t yet know it.
- The external conflict drives the external narrative, the plot. The internal conflict drives the internal narrative, the character’s arc.
- Commercial fiction prioritizes the external narrative and uses the internal narrative to raise the stakes. Literary fiction prioritizes the internal narrative and uses the external narrative as the catalyst for the protagonist’s change.
- In commercial fiction, the POV character is often the person at the center of the external conflict. In literary fiction, the POV character is often the person at the center of the internal conflict.
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Everything. A mystery novel is really a game between the reader and the writer, and the mechanics of the gameplay are built from an analogy.
Additionally, because mystery novels are most often set in the point of view of the investigator character, the reader typically receives that information at the same pace and from the same perspective as their fictional counterpart.
I recommend going back and reading the Sherlock Holmes stories. It’s no coincidence that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had his hero say, “The game is afoot!” He used these mechanics to perfection, and it’s the reason his fiction remains the model for popular mysteries today, from books to TV crime dramas.
Another example…