A Test
Donald Maas says memorable characters are born from inner conflict. I decided to test this theory. Of all the characters I’ve read about, I chose the one that, for me, was the most memorable. And hands down, the answer was Hadassah, from Francine Rivers’ Mark of the Lion trilogy. I then examined Hadassah’s inner conflict, and WOW, does she have a lot. She’s falling in love with a Roman aristocrat, one who wants nothing to do with the Christian God she worships. Her heart is pulled in two very opposite directions. Love for the Lord and love for Marcus. But to add to the intensity is another inner conflict. Her desire to share her faith with the Valerians, but her consuming fear that doing so will get her killed. These two inner conflicts drive the story forward. I found myself thinking about Hadassah long after I turned the final page. Donald Maas hit the proverbial nail on the head. I remember Hadassah so well because of the inner conflict she faced throughout the course of the story.
How do we create inner conflict?
First, let’s establish an important point.
Inner conflict is not the same as inner turmoil. True inner conflict occurs when a character wants two mutually exclusive things. Inner conflict means our character is torn in two opposite directions. Let’s return to Hadassah. Letting herself fall in love with Marcus would mean forsaking God. And obeying God means rejecting Marcus’ love. Hadassah cannot have both. She just can’t. This is true inner conflict.
Answer the following questions:
– What does your protagonist want most in the world?
– What is opposite of this desire or goal?
– How can you make it so your protagonist wants both of these things?
The inner conflict from my WIP, Wishing on Willows:
My heroine wants to keep her husband’s memory alive. She thinks letting go of his memory and moving on with her life would negate what they had while he was alive. But at the same time, she finds herself falling in love with the man who’s trying to buy out her cafe (the same cafe she built in honor of her husband). She can’t have both. It’s impossible. She can’t stay loyal to her dead husband AND fall in love with this other man. She’s torn in two and it’s this inner conflict that drives the story.
My hero wants to build a successful string of condos and win the VP position at his dad’s company so he can regain a sense of worth and prove he’s not a failure. At the same time, he feels this strong desire to protect the heroine from hurt. There’s only one small problem. By buying out her cafe, he will cause her a great deal of hurt. So his inner conflict is huge. He has to prove to himself he’s not a failure and in his eyes, the only way to do this is by securing his promotion, and the only way to do that is by forcing the heroine to sell, which would hurt her – the one thing he doesn’t want to do. And so the story goes…
In Conclusion:
Spend a little time thinking about ways to increase the inner conflict within your characters. It’s a fail safe way to ensure that your readers will invest emotion into your story and remember your characters long after they close the book.
Question to Ponder:
What fictional character (movies or books) do you remember the most?
Hi Gwen!
So glad you stopped by! I have to agree – fifth grade is awesome. They are independent, but still fun and innocent (usually). It's so nice to meet a fellow mom/teacher/writer as well! Can you believe I started four weeks ago!? August 12th was the first day of school for the kids. This year was super early for some reason. I hope you have a wonderful school year. And I'll definitely be stopping by your blog.
Are you going to the ACFW conference by any chance?
God bless you right back!
Hi Katie,
I teach in Michigan. I LOVE fifth grade…that and second grade are my favorites! 🙂 I teach elementary music, so I have kids from Kind. through fifth.
I'm really glad to meet another teacher/writer too. No offense to ANY of your dear readers, but sometimes I feel we face different challenges than moms who are stay at home or homeschooling. Not bigger challenges; just different. 🙂
I'll be back to check out your blog…it's great! Have you started yet? Our teachers started school last Mon, but the kids don't come until Tues.
God bless you today!
Another post of great insight and fundamental importantance. I'm so glad that you're doing this, Katie. It's very helpful!
I hope you have a good weekend.
Great post. When I thought of great characters, Lucy Moneratz from While You Were Sleeping came to mind.
Engaged to one man, falling in love with his brother. 🙂
Thanks for the comments everybody! And sharing your memorable characters. Angel is def. on the top of my list!
Another great recap of Maas! Thanks! As for fave characters: Dagny in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and Jane in Jane Eyre. Loved them!
Thanks for the quick lesson. Just like I’m gonna pointedly and consciously make a not of the POV character for every scene and chapter, I’ll make Inner conflict a check off item when in comes to creating characters, or, as you know, what Dwight Swain calls Story People.
Best Regards, Galen
Imagineering Fiction Blog
I was going to say Angel from Redeeming Love too, but a couple others beat me to it!. Side note: one of my best friends has the rights to the book and is trying to get it made into a movie – wouldn't that be amazing? And, Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Predjudice (sigh).
I was just working on some conflict issues, so this was incredibly timely for me! Thank you!
Excellent questions. Great post–again. Thanks Katie, I'm going to put INNER CONFLICT at the top of every draft I work on. Good stuff.
Katie,
You and I are on the same pages in this book! It's awesome to hear you summarize it all so well! I can't hear it too many times, believe me! I'm just now trying to shape my characters for my next book, and all of this is so timely!
Awesome post! I love Angel/Amanda from Redeeming Love as well. My heart ached for her through so much of that book.
Great post!!!
I always remember Anne of Green Gables when I think of memorable characters.
Of course, I love all Francine Rivers' books! Well, not the novellas, but the full-sized ones I adore.
My sister thinks Hadassah is awesome. She was going to name her daughter that at one point. LOL
I always liked Rizpah. Or maybe I should say I wanted to be like Rizpah, even though I knew Hadassah was completely, almost, perfect. 🙂
I hope I have enough inner conflict in my stories. The ones I'm going to query I didn't know all this stuff when I wrote them, so hopefully I can apply all this new info to new manuscripts. 🙂
i agree with hadassah…man. great trilogy, though book one and two are my favs. another trilogy that gripped me was julie lessman's, esp. her character of Faith. internal conflict abounds in her stories…loving someone your sister loves, etc.
and by the way…internal conflicts of robin and braxton are off the charts awesome. seriously.
This post is a real gift to someone like me,who has written nonfiction for years and is now trying to get up enough nerve to attempt a novel. Thank you.
Karen Walker
Hey, Katie! This is helping me think about the story I'm brainstorming. I know there's some kind of inner conflict; just need to figure out what. So, thank you!
Katie, this is a great post. It really helps with my WIP, too. I like that you distinguished between inner conflict and inner turmoil. This can really help push a book to the next level. Thanks!
Popped over from On the Path. Hope you don't mind if I splash around a bit here. Your words are encouraging and it is a pure joy to meet writers who are using their syllables for HIs glory.
Blessings from Costa Rica,
Sarah Dawn
I love, love, loved, A Voice in the Wind. I read the trilogy as well. I wish Francine Rivers would write faster. HAve you read the women of grace (gosh I hope that's what it's called) series? That was awesome too. It's coming out in OCt. for $11.00 for the whole series! (after I spent ten per story grrr…)
Reuben in Peace Like a River. Just wrote about that book today and my mind was already there, but he stirred with a lot of inner conflict.
This is an excellent post for writers.
~ Wendy
Great post Katie! I've always loved stories best that have a healthy dose of inner conflict. The external conflicts often feel contrived in stories to me, but the inner ones seem far more relatable.
OH MY! Hadassah! Seriously, I get weepy just thinking about here. I totally agree with your assessment of her being a memorable character.
Angel/Amanda from Redeeming Love is another good one, as is the girl from Atonement Child… Francine just is FULL of memorable characters.
In my own, my first book, Jenny wars between "safety" which she craves due to an almost kidnapping when she was little… and the man she loves, who lives a state away and whom she only knows "online." Being with him is the ultimate safety risk… and she isn't sure she has it in her.
Hmmm… lots to think about. I think I am going to print your posts and hang them about my office for when I start revising my WIP. 🙂
Julie Roberts in Pretty Woman… ooh, I like her and that movie 🙂