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Deploy a character who
reveals both inner struggle
and inner confl ict.
An inner struggle is something the Lead brings with her
into the story. It’s there before the narrative begins. It’s
the struggle that is holding her back in life itself, not
just in the plot.
The inner conflict is a product of the plot. It is the
“argument” the character is having inside over pursuit
of the objective.
Here’s how to get at these elements.
inner struggle
First, fi gure out what the most positive characteristic of
your Lead is. What do you want the readers to know most
about her after they’ve fi nished the novel?
Let’s say you choose determined. Now, list what battles
against that characteristic. Timidity perhaps, or hesitancy.
Next, create in your Lead’s background a reason for
this struggle. Maybe it was something from her child-
hood, a traumatic incident of some kind. Or the way she
was raised. Or someone she looked up to telling her she’d
never amount to anything in life. Dramatize this, and
you can well use the beat as a “reveal” in your novel.
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Remember, inner struggle is not tied to the plot. It’s
something the Lead brings to the plot from her past, and
it is something she will carry with her throughout the
story. The pressures of the plot will put her in places
where she has to somehow deal with this struggle.
It may be that she’s just fi ghting herself. But eventu-
ally, she’s going to have to choose which of the two sides
she will let control her.
This exercise will automatically, and without a great
deal of effort, transform your Leads from plain vanilla
to dynamic and dimensional.
inner confl ict
Inner conflict is related to the plot. It springs from the
Lead’s objective.
He has to get—or get away from—something, and the
realization of this goal is essential to his well-being. Death
overhangs: If he does not achieve the objective, he will
die—physically, professionally, and/or psychologically.
But as the forces gather against him, there is another
“voice” inside, arguing that he must give up. It may be
the voice of pure fear. Or the simple realization of his
limitations and the odds he’s up against.
These two sides put him on the rack emotionally, as
long as you make the case for each as strong as possible.
Another exercise:
Write a page-long passage, with heightened intensity,
revealing the inner struggle.
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Then write another passage, this time revealing the
inner confl ict.
Feel the hot tongs of emotion as you write.
Then see if you can fi nd a place in your novel to place
these beats. You can edit them down, of course, to fi t
your needs. But try to use both of them somewhere, in
some form.
Here is the way Mickey Spillane revealed the inside
of his P.I. Mike Hammer in One Lonely Night:
So the judge was right all the while. I could feel
the madness in my brain eating its way through my
veins, chewing the edges of my nerves raw, leaving
me something that resembled a man and that was
all. The judge had been right! There had been too many
of those dusks and dawns; there had been a pleasure
in all that killing, an obscene pleasure that froze your
face in a grin even when you were charged w ith fear. …
I enjoyed that killing, every bit of it. I killed because
I had to and I killed things that needed killing. But
that wasn’t the point. I enjoyed killing those things and
I knew the judge was right! I was rotten right through
and I knew that at that moment my face was twist-
ed out of shape into a grin that was half sneer and
my heart beat fast because it was nice sitting back
there with a rod under my arm and somebody was
going to hurt pretty quick now, then die. And it
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might even be me and I didn’t give a good damn
one way or another.
Inner struggle and inner confl ict will ratchet up the
emotional experience for your readers and strengthen
their bond with your characters.
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