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Writing Excuses 13.23: Internal Conflicts
Jun. 14th, 2018 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarkerWriting Excuses 13.23: Internal Conflicts
From https://writingexcuses.com/2018/06/10/13-23-internal-conflicts/
Key Points: Internal conflicts are problems that your character has with themselves. When your character is their own antagonist. Conflict and growth. How do you come up with them? The difference between what the character wants and what the character needs. Backstory reactions that may even surprise the character. From the MICE quotient, it begins when the character is dissatisfied with their self-identity. Consider role, relationship, status, and competence. Role, responsibilities to career. Relationships, duty to other people. Status, what does your position in the class or hierarchy demand? Competence, expectations due to abilities. Where do these come into conflict with each other? How do you shift from I'm fine through I need to learn something to I'm going to make a change without alienating the reader? Illuminating backstory! And an external catalyst that triggers an internal reaction. Changing contexts often make us look at ourselves. Be careful when using mental illness as internal conflict. Every internal conflict does not necessarily need to be fixed or overcome. Some things are part of who we are. Consider the two questions, will the character succeed in the change they are making, and will this make them happy. The answers can be positive or negative, making four combinations -- made the change and happy, made the change and unhappy, didn't make the change and happy, or didn't make the change and unhappy. When a character is the only representative of a mental illness in a story, it often feels like a moral judgment and social commentary. The social baggage or weight of understanding about some issues is frequently erroneous and not nuanced. Watch out for reinforcing social understanding that this needs to be fixed. Just because someone has depression, anxiety, BPD, ADHD, is on the spectrum… Does not mean that's all they are! Let it inform the character, not define them.
( And more details here... )
[Brandon] We are out of time. We will dig more into topics like this in coming months. For now, Mary's going to give us some homework.
[Mary] Yes. Okay. So… In the first half of this podcast, I talked about role, relationship, status, and competence. What I want you to do is sit down and figure out what each of those are for a character. What their role is, what their relationship… How… For each of these, they'll have multiple aspects. Like their relationship, you may have three or four relationships listed there. Then, figure out how their role is… Creates conflict with their relationship. How relationship creates conflict with status, and how status creates conflict within competence. Within competence, not with incompetence.
[Laughter]
[Mary] Although, maybe so, yes. And how competence creates conflicts with their role.
[Brandon] All right. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
From https://writingexcuses.com/2018/06/10/13-23-internal-conflicts/
Key Points: Internal conflicts are problems that your character has with themselves. When your character is their own antagonist. Conflict and growth. How do you come up with them? The difference between what the character wants and what the character needs. Backstory reactions that may even surprise the character. From the MICE quotient, it begins when the character is dissatisfied with their self-identity. Consider role, relationship, status, and competence. Role, responsibilities to career. Relationships, duty to other people. Status, what does your position in the class or hierarchy demand? Competence, expectations due to abilities. Where do these come into conflict with each other? How do you shift from I'm fine through I need to learn something to I'm going to make a change without alienating the reader? Illuminating backstory! And an external catalyst that triggers an internal reaction. Changing contexts often make us look at ourselves. Be careful when using mental illness as internal conflict. Every internal conflict does not necessarily need to be fixed or overcome. Some things are part of who we are. Consider the two questions, will the character succeed in the change they are making, and will this make them happy. The answers can be positive or negative, making four combinations -- made the change and happy, made the change and unhappy, didn't make the change and happy, or didn't make the change and unhappy. When a character is the only representative of a mental illness in a story, it often feels like a moral judgment and social commentary. The social baggage or weight of understanding about some issues is frequently erroneous and not nuanced. Watch out for reinforcing social understanding that this needs to be fixed. Just because someone has depression, anxiety, BPD, ADHD, is on the spectrum… Does not mean that's all they are! Let it inform the character, not define them.
( And more details here... )
[Brandon] We are out of time. We will dig more into topics like this in coming months. For now, Mary's going to give us some homework.
[Mary] Yes. Okay. So… In the first half of this podcast, I talked about role, relationship, status, and competence. What I want you to do is sit down and figure out what each of those are for a character. What their role is, what their relationship… How… For each of these, they'll have multiple aspects. Like their relationship, you may have three or four relationships listed there. Then, figure out how their role is… Creates conflict with their relationship. How relationship creates conflict with status, and how status creates conflict within competence. Within competence, not with incompetence.
[Laughter]
[Mary] Although, maybe so, yes. And how competence creates conflicts with their role.
[Brandon] All right. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
