Not all conflict in fiction needs to be, or should be, external.

Sometimes it’s good to be reminded of the fundamental things. A video on YouTube on “The Closer Look” channel did this for me yesterday.

A dynamic character IS dynamic precisely when the reader understands that there are various impulses, often conflicting, at work in the character’s psyche.

These can be any number of things. Just to give some examples:

• a desire for adventure vs a thirst for comfort (Bilbo Baggins)
• a desire to help others/do the right things vs a deep-seated knowledge of one’s inadequacy (Frodo Baggins)
• a sense of justice vs a desire for pure vengeance
• a desire for security vs a desire to reach out in love to help or protect another
• a desire for glory vs a sense of vanity that cares too much what the public things (King Saul in the Bible)

The list is as deep and varied as human nature.

But the idea is that your character needs to have different desires or demands pulling on him such that all desires / demands cannot be satisfied.

Greek tragedy is often centered around the idea of two EXTERNAL duties that are mutually exclusive if either is to be satisfied / fulfilled. Here, I’m taking about INTERNAL drives, emotional needs, deep-seated emotional crutches or fires of sorts.

Every choice we make excludes other choices. Every possibility we jump toward means shutting the door on other things.

This is where, internally, the tension comes from. What are the major drives for your character?

Pride? Fame? Honor or glory? Wealth/money/security? Comfort? A deep sense of integrity that can’t be compromised? Justice? A sense of security? A sense of accomplishment?

It is when these deep needs come into conflict internally that the magic in a story happens . . . when a story becomes one people will remember because it’s about far more than the plot–it shows what it means to be human.