Character and Conflict: That Story Beneath the Story

What do you think of when I ask you about character and conflict? Do you immediately start plotting a fight? Perhaps a dramatic scene where someone storms out, slams a door, or says something they can never take back? Do you find yourself thinking, right, what can I make go wrong now? How do I keep things moving? How do I make my poor protagonist suffer just a little more?

Stop right there!

Start thinking about your character’s inner conflict. Some of the most amazing stories are not driven by external events. They are driven by a character’s inner conflict.

Inner conflict is the friction inside. It is that murky space between what someone wants and what holds them back.

Without inner conflict, a character moves through events, but they do not change. The story becomes a sequence of actions rather than a transformation. Readers may bounce along with you, but will they really invest deeply in your character? What draws us in is not simply what happens to a character, it’s how they wrestle with it.

Inner conflict creates all that gorgeous contradiction that we love. A woman longs for love but cannot trust it. A man who wants freedom but feels bound by duty. A daughter craves approval but resents the cost of earning it. This friction creates someone we relate to. Often it’s that inner conflict that forces your character to make certain decisions. Will she? Should she? Those wonderful moments of hesitation. That pull between what they want and why they feel they cannot have it.

Woohooo! This is story!

As you prepare for our upcoming May 14 Zoom session on character and conflict, muck around with your character in this place of inner conflict.

WRITING EXERCISE:

Write a short paragraph in which your character names what they want most at a certain point in your story. Then write a second paragraph in which they admit, perhaps reluctantly, what they are afraid will happen if they get it. Let the language shift between the two. Notice any contradictions? That could be your conflict!

Then write a brief scene, no more than half a page, in which your character is faced with a small, everyday decision. Nothing dramatic. Let their inner conflict shape the choice they make. Do they move toward what they want, or away from it. Do they hesitate. Do they justify. Do they deflect.

Bring this with you to the Zoom. We can use it as the foundation for our work together.

Frankly, this is one of the most interesting aspects of writing. I love to study people, their psychology and explore what drives them beneath the surface. Why is Mrs Smith such a Cranky Pants? Because somewhere inside her there is a reason for her irritability. Now that’s story telling!

If you haven’t registered yet for this Zoom, the details are here. This is our last 2026 Tuesday night monthly Zoom session.

In other news:

Organised by Woollahra Library, I am teaching a special in-person 2-hour ESSENTIALS OF STORY class on Friday night May 22nd at 1800. Tickets are $10 Tickets available through the library here It would be so fab to see you there! I feel like it’s a warm-up for our Sydney August 3-day event at Woollahra Library.

In important news, I’ve worked out how to share the August 3-day Sydney Art of Writing program with you online (thank God for patient sons who act as techs for their Baby Boomer Mums). 

August 21, 22, 23. Intense 3-day writing extravaganza in Double Bay, Sydney. 

Let me know if you need a payment system. This retreat includes an introduction and LIVE CHAT with Zeitgeist Literary Agency. Check out the link and write to me if you need help with your storytelling.

And in lucky last final news:

There is one last place in Rome. I have ignored our Rome Art of Writing because so much else has been going on. But if you’d like to meet me in Rome for dinner on November 8th, Dinner will be followed by four days of extreme writing classes, writing walks and historical walks. Loads of talking and working on all aspects of your writing! ONE LAST PLACE LEFT IN ITALY! See you here from November 8-12. The most fabulous, exclusive venue ever. Like, once in a lifetime opportunity. Unless you have mates in the Doria Pamphilj right on Via del Corso. 

As we mark ANZAC Day, I wish all Australians a moment to pause and remember every war, past and present. To honour those who serve and served, and those who gave their lives, so that we may live ours with freedom and choice.

Warmly,
Lisa