Should inner conflict be resolved?

Such an interesting question, and the answer is no, not necessarily. Internal conflict and its causes are not like character arcs. There doesn’t necessarily have to be a resolution. The internal conflict itself should shift or be changed somehow. Your character should move through the internal conflict or at the very least face it! 

Something must shift within your character’s conflict. Because Change is story. Change is drama. And at The Art of Writing we love change and we love drama because we love that kind of storytelling. Stories with oomph and chutzpah. 

What matters most is what that pesky internal conflict does to your character.

Before I go further, I want to say how fantastic our Zoom on Conflict and Character was on May 12. Such a thoughtful group! With such great discussion. We worked hard to understand what internal conflict actually creates, how it shapes behaviour, choices and emotional truth. So much fun!

By the end of a story, we need to feel that the character has moved through the conflict, or at the very least, understands it differently. That new understanding of the internal conflict is what will give your story its sense of completion. A change in awareness, in feeling, in the character’s very self.

So that was our last special Zoom Craft Clinic in this season’s series. Keep reading this newsletter to see if The Art of Writing will run more at the end of the year. They really are tight, focussed sessions. Character Arc and how that plays into character and internal conflict could be a really good session. Any thoughts on what you’d like to talk about? Just let me know.

In other news: 

Some questions that have come up about Memoir and character arc and how much sense of completion is needed for readers. 

A memoir does not have to have a neat and tidy end with a perfect ‘happy ever after.’ No one’s life is like that. Perfect memoir endings are boring because they are unrealistic. A memoir usually ends with a genuine insight or realisation or a deeper understanding. The writer realises something about their parent, their childhood, their ambition, or their grief that they did not understand before.

A memoir writer may not have a perfect answer at the end, but they now see their life or situation differently. They may have more compassion, more acceptance, or a clearer understanding of why things happened the way they did.

And occasionally the memoir ends with the recognition that the question itself can never be fully answered. That can be so powerful!

So the memoir does not need a neat solution or resolution. What it needs is the sense that the writer has engaged deeply with the question and arrived somewhere new.

We will be going deeper into all these writing issues at the Sydney Storytelling Workshop in August. I recommend that you check out the program here. There are so many fantastic teachers, speakers and agents! August 21, 22, 23. An intense 3-day writing extravaganza in Double Bay, Sydney. 

Let me know if you need a payment system. This retreat includes your premise introduction and in-person chat with Zeitgeist Literary Agency. Check out the link and write to me if you need help with your storytelling.

If you’d like to know more about how I work with story, I am teaching a special in-person 2-hour ESSENTIALS OF STORY class on Friday 6pm, May 22nd at Woollahra Library. Places are $10 each. Tickets available through the library here It would be so fab to see you there! It feels like a warm-up for our Sydney August 3-day event at Woollahra Library in Sydney’s east, Double Bay. 

That’s it for the moment. Back next week with more ways to get your characters into trouble.

Lisa