7 Types of Internal Conflict for Your Protagonist
External conflict can always make readers more interested in a story. The fist fights, car chases, and fictional battles might make them hold their breath, but so can internal conflict. Check out the primary types of internal conflict your protagonist can experience to add more depth to your stories.
1. Morality Conflicts
Everyone eventually reaches a point where they question their morals. We have to believe in our morals as individuals to prioritize them. It’s not enough to have your parents or other leaders in your life tell you what’s right and wrong. You won’t hold the same morals until you choose them on your own.
Characters also reach these crucial points. It’s part of their character development like it’s part of our personal development.
Your protagonist may only grapple with one question of morality in your story or they could encounter many. The morals will most likely align with your theme so they make sense within your plot.
Example: Your protagonist is a scientific researcher and leading a trial that could result in a cure for a new illness. They know they shouldn’t take bribes and wouldn’t compromise their career, but someone who nearly qualifies for their trial offers a life-changing amount of money to get included even though they’ve already been ruled out.
The protagonist has to choose—do they stick with what they trust is morally correct or do they take the money and use it to help pay for a family member’s legal battle in criminal court? Do they view it as potentially saving two lives at once? Or do they reject the bribe and face whatever consequences could have possibly been avoided?
2. Self-Identity Conflicts
Your identity is something that morphs with time. People rarely settle on one version of themselves forever. Life makes us reconsider things from different perspectives as we go through periods of challenges and peace. Characters also grapple with their identities when faced with similar situations. It makes them take a stand, hold their ground, or chase new goals, which is much more interesting for readers.
Example: Your protagonist considers themselves an optimist because they’re a firefighter who has saved many lives. When they realize their chief has been starting all the fires their station ever fought, your protagonist begins to view people more pessimistically. It affects how quickly they’re willing to risk their life for others, which results in challenges and a character arc they wouldn’t have experienced without this fundamental change in their identity.
3. Religious Belief Conflicts
It’s much easier to stay firm in your religious beliefs if nothing challenges them. If a challenge or major question arises and your beliefs hold firm, that makes your identity stronger. It doesn’t always happen that way though.
When your protagonist faces this type of internal conflict and realizes their opinions or feelings contradict their religious beliefs, it can take them onto a path that shapes a new identity. These choices are hard but real. Readers who are going through the same experience or experienced the same questions before will get absorbed by your story because it’s relatable.
Example: Your protagonist attends a religious gathering every week. The group fundamentally believes their religion exists to help those in need. Prejudices begin to invade that group, so people start choosing their own well-being instead of helping others.
Your protagonist watches their religious family pick sides and has to question if they really believe in helping others or if they choose the familiarity and safety that comes with the approval of their longtime religious family.
4. Societal Role Conflicts
Societies have predetermined roles or expectations for people based on factors like their gender, sex, and economic status (just to name a few). Sometimes these roles feel natural to people and other times they don’t. We all have to decide what feels best for us on an ongoing basis. Your protagonist may need to choose their societal role, reject it, or shape a new one to portray your theme in a relatable way.
Example: Your protagonist goes to a university for the first time. They’ve been encouraged by everyone they know to start forming a large friend group. That’s what people are supposed to do in college, their loved ones said. But your protagonist is an introvert and values only a few friendships at a time. They have to choose if they’ll push themselves to become a social butterfly or if they’re happier as the person they’ve always been.
5. Political Opinion Conflicts
Political opinions can create all types of internal conflict. You may believe in a certain candidate or party during one part of your life and support something completely different in another part. Those values change as we experience new things and meet new people. Characters can face the same internal struggles as they recognize changing values or reject opportunities for change.
Example: Your protagonist may have never formed strong political opinions. They meet a new person who becomes their best friend, but their government starts passing laws that make their best friend’s life much harder because they’re part of a marginalized community your protagonist hasn’t empathized with before.
Your protagonist now cares for that community, so they have to decide if they’ll make different political choices that could ostracize them from the community they’ve been part of all their life.
6. Love Conflicts
There are numerous types of love—self-love, your love for your family, and your love of a potential romantic interest or current partner. These come into conflicts in stories all the time because people experience them every day.
The conflicts result in choices—does your protagonist choose to continue loving a specific person or do they fall out of love? Do they fight for that love or realize it never actually existed? These are just a few ways this inner conflict can play out.
Example: Your protagonist has three siblings. They’d give their life for their siblings because they’ve lived in an emotional and physical home environment that’s been unsafe all of their lives. However, your protagonist is also the oldest child who has to leave home when they’re 18.
They have to decide how to best love their siblings—do they leave them at home with a parent who is a threat to their safety so your protagonist can achieve an education or job that pays enough to create a new home for them? Do they get the legal system involved? Do they get their siblings and run away together since your protagonist is now old enough to lease an apartment, pay bills, etc?
7. Personal Journey Conflict
Existential crises make characters come to life by breaking their identity apart. These moments are unfortunately a real part of life, so readers want them in their books to help them cope, understand the changes, and generally feel not alone in their hardships.
This internal conflict happens when we question why we’re in this world or what we’re supposed to do with our lives. Sometimes there’s a clear answer after we start searching for it, but other times there isn’t. How your protagonist’s internal journey to a new purpose unfolds depends on your theme and plot.
Example: Your protagonist spent their life dreaming of becoming a politician. They wanted to help people and change the world, but they lost their first three attempts at running for local office. The third loss devastated them.
If voters don’t want them as a leader, what’s their purpose? Who are they if they aren’t a leader who changes the world through effective policies? The answer may come through the plot events that follow. If they don’t get an answer, sometimes it means their purpose already exists in their life and they’re overlooking it.
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Reading through the basic types of internal conflict will help you shape your future protagonists. If you align your desired theme with an inner conflict, the external events in your plot will be much easier to choose. Your readers will also connect with your story better because they’ll see real problems reflected in your protagonist’s character arc.
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Genshin Impact Character Details: Wriothesley
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“Steve Raglan”
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Artist - 구공 on twitter
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'Bullet Train' info from the book: Lemon and Tangerine
**Spoilers for the ‘Bullet Train’ book and film below**
This is not an exhaustive list of character attributes, just what I can currently remember after the reading the book awhile back!
[Click here to see posts on some of the other characters]
General
They're not brothers in the book but are said to bear a striking resemblance to one another and are therefore referred to by other characters as either 'The Twins' or 'The Fruits', implying they've had their operational names for awhile
They've been working together for 5 years when the book begins and are renowned in the industry for being very good at what they do but are slightly unhinged
They frequent an erotic bookshop in Tokyo run by an older woman named Momo to buy and sell information from/to her about the criminal underworld. Momo is very fond of them and even calls them whilst they're on the bullet train to check in and see how they're doing and give them advice on the other assassins on the train
They say that when die, they’ll keep coming back like the fruit that grows on fruit trees every year
They met Ladybug in a bar frequented by a lot of other assassins a few years before the events of the book and were said to look so similar that Ladybug couldn't tell them apart despite them having no blood relation
They’re both described as being tall with slightly longer hair and very conventionally attractive features
They’re real names are never revealed to the readers
Lemon
Like the film, he's very good at reading people and he relates people's behaviours to various characters from Thomas and Friends
He says he learns more of his life lessons from Thomas and Friends
Lemon is known for being very unpredictable and is considered to be the more deadly of the two because of this
His parents were neglectful alcoholics so he doesn't drink for this reason
He had his first kill when he was still in school
He thinks he's not physically able to die because if he was he'd have been dead a long time ago, in his opinion. However, he does die after being shot in the head by Prince in the climax of the book
Like the film, Lemon shoots Kimura, but the wound is unfatal
Lemon is fiercely loyal to Tangerine and pretty much no one else
He is described as a formidable fighter to the point where Tangerine doesn't even worry about him losing a fight to Ladybug
When asked by Prince 'why is it wrong to kill people?' Lemon essentially responds with 'It isn't'
He tends to wake up a lot later than Tangerine
He is exceptionally good at remembering people’s faces
He is remarkably intuitive and makes character-based judgments on people very quickly that are usually accurate. He then assigns people a character from Thomas and Friends based on their personality and gives them a sticker from his sticker book
Unlike the film, when Lemon gets shot by Prince he isn't wearing a vest. He gets shot in the head and dies. His body is soon found by Tangerine
Tangerine
Unlike his film counterpart, Tangerine in the book is described as being frighteningly calm and in control of his emotions at all times to the point where only Lemon can really tell when he's upset as he starts quoting a film or a book he likes
He reads a lot. He seems to prefer a lot of classic novels such as the works of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy (yes, including 'Anna Karenina’ lol) and he uses these as a basis for his worldview and morality
He tells Lemon that one of his biggest fears is dying alone
He is implied to have had a bad relationship to his Father, who is now dead
He is perpetually irritated by Lemon’s ramblings on Thomas the Tank Engine however he does prove that he’s been listening towards the end of the book when he sees the Diesel sticker on Prince’s jacket as was put there by Lemon
He’s described as being incredibly neat and clean, taking great care to wash his hands as thoroughly as a surgeon might before a procedure after going to the bathroom
When asked by Prince ‘why is it wrong to kill people?’ he responds with a philosophical ramble that lasts several pages of the book, quoting various philosophers as he does. His response amounts to him thinking that the concept of ‘crime’ in general is fluid depending on the country you’re in and is therefore meaningless in terms of moral value
When he realises that Prince was the one who killed Lemon, he hands Prince a gun as he says he wont shoot a child unarmed. He starts quoting Dostoyevsky and it is clear that he’s had some kind of mental break upon finding Lemon’s body
Ladybug walks in on this interaction and Tangerine turns around to fight him but falls in a gangway and breaks his neck upon hitting the ground
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* Obviously, don’t look into the character’s tags! Just go with your gut.
* Feel free to reblog for a larger sample size!
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Two things here,
Firstly the street confirms that the city is in fact LA, it wasn’t very hard to guess considering the Propensity 80s movies had to taking place in the city. It also makes the whole “center city” thing in legacy even weirder that they’re trying to distance from the real world— when the whole point was the contrast, I digress.
Second is the little sign on the side, that is handmade and likely the original sign for the arcade. I imagine Flynn took out a huge loan for the neon one, but I love the little one. It’s cheap and sparsely decorated sure but it’s got heart! More importantly its listing his games. Just like the gigantic billboard overhead (likely another major loan) proudly displaying paranoids. It’s his little ‘up yours’ to Dillinger and Encom; his little way to credit himself. I can also imagine he tells anyone who’ll listen they’re his games- but most people think he’s just saying that to impress them- except the younger kids. His hard core fans.
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Morgan and Raine's character sheet
Yeah lemme just drop these on tumblr too
I love these 2 lesbians
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I’m just browsing some of the common magic items in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, and quite a few of them delight me, for much the same reasons as the trinket tables. Not necessarily because they’re useful, but because they’re quite evocative of setting and character. These feel like … things that would be knocking around your world, and things that certain characters (or NPCs) would be drawn to.
Like. If you’re in a campaign/setting with a lot of intrigue, a combination of the Clothes of Mending (magically mends itself to counteract wear and tear), the Perfume of Bewitching (lasts an hour, gives advantage on all charisma checks, and does not alert people they’re being influenced by magic), and the Veteran’s Cane (transforms into a longsword on command and then becomes nonmagical) all feel like an excellent courtier/spy kit? Your clothes are always pristine, a dab of your perfume or cologne makes people ever so much more amenable to you, and if all else fails you have a weapon to hand even if technically they weren’t allowed on the premises. Create a persona as a somewhat unsteady dowager or a dignified ex-military person, and set about your missions.
I would also be quite fascinated at the thought of an NPC seller who specialises in such items. The perfume in particular. That dingy little shop that all the right gentlemen and women are … knowledgeable of. Perhaps they have other wares. Poisons, perhaps? In a setting with intrigue, definitely an opportunity to create something of a fixer/broker sort of character, someone who sells useful little items to gentlefolk in need.
The Tankard of Sobriety is also an interesting little character detail. You simply can’t get drunk off whatever you drink out of it. (You can still be poisoned or drink acid out of it, it’s not protective in those senses, you just can’t get drunk). That’s a fascinating little thing for someone to have. And, again, it might just be because the Perfume made me think intrigue, but that would be such a useful information gathering tool. You gently encourage your targets to get drunk around you, and you’re tossing back exactly the same stuff as well, so they don’t suspect, but you’re staying fully compos mentis while they descend. I feel like this would be a really good little item for a crime lord sort of NPC to have? Their little way of keeping control while attending fraught meetings and the like.
On a much less delicate and more rough and tumble sort of level, I also quite enjoy both the Rope of Mending and the Pole of Collapsing. The rope you can cut up however you want and then say a command to knit it all back together, though any missing pieces will be lost. The pole you can collapse down from 10ft to 1ft with a command for easy stowing, and expand back out with another command. Interestingly, it’ll only expand as far as the space allows, which gives me distinct Sun Wukong vibes. I wonder if you could use it to arrest your fall down a narrow shaft? Anyway. I like this pair of items because they just feel like the sorts of things a pragmatic explorer would have.
And then there’s interesting little items like the Charlatan’s Die and the Candle of the Deep.
The die requires attunement, and it’s that quintessential cheaters tool of a loaded dice, in that it lands on whatever number you want it to land. So it’s a sophisticated cheater’s die in that you can tailor it to whatever number fits the situation, so it isn’t just perpetually rolling sixes. You can rig every roll as you please, to win, to lose, to be one short of what you need. It’s a great tool for a gambler who likes to play the players as much as play the game, as they can tailor any series of rolls to build drama or lessen tension as they require. It allows a lot more psychological manipulation of what is meant to be a game of chance, so it’s a telling sort of item for a good cheater to have.
And the candle is quite practical, being just a candle that burns underwater, but also just so good for when you want spooky Innsmouth underwater rituals to sea hags or dark gods to be happening in your world. An altar set with these in the middle of a flooded temple dungeon, their eerie light flickering under the murky water, is just a wonderful bit of set-dressing to throw in, and a nice bit of a thing for players to salvage. Possibly at some risk, if they’re taking them off an active altar.
Also, they run down just like normal candles, so I’m delighted again that there’s likely someone out there selling them. A dockside chandler that supplies all your salty ritual needs.
Like, these are all just great little character or setting building details. Interesting things for players to pick up and play with, and potentially informative little things to watch an NPC use or find in their possession.
Low level magic items are potentially a lot of fun. Heh.
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I may need to double check but I find it kinda funny that a movie that’s notorious for limited dialogue has more than the book. I genuinely think Dave and Frank talk more in the movie, largely thanks to the interview. Which is also just, generally a great way to inform the audience and get across all the information that was narration and internal thoughts in the book. Similarly to how the briefing on the TMA-1 was skipped in favor of a conversation about it.
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Genshin Impact Character Details: Navia
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New Post: Learn How to Create a Protagonist
My latest blog post is all about structuring a protagonist from scratch. It includes 6 easy steps to making a main character who feels real, plus free resources for all of your character-building needs.
Check it out here!
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I love it whenever characters get super emotional (excited, scared, angry, etc.), their native accent comes out. Or when characters have specific fidgets they do. I adore little details like that idk
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The Tsum Tsum event has a tendency to reveal things about the characters (usually through their Tsum lookalikes) but in Copper's case the biggest thing that gets revealed is that he cannot be allowed to Tsumsit. Not because he's irresponsible or anything (though Copper Tsum IS a playful little daredevil that likes to rush away when you try to catch it.)
It's because Copper is convinced the Tsums are those kind of super fancy marshmallows. Trying to convince him these are living creatures isn't going to get you anywhere, these things are fancy marshmallows and they're enchanted to interact with people. Why? He doesn't know, he doesn't care. He can't look at the Tsums without getting hungry.
Yes, this comes from a visual of his Tsum looking trustingly up at him from his hands as he's like "aaawww, look at you, you look so cute..." and then there's a sudden tonal shift and atmosphere change as he goes "and delicious." The Tsum has to bolt before he can try to put it in his mouth to test the marshmallow theory.
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