Using Your Character’s Internal Conflict as a Revision Tool
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Having a strong grasp of your character’s internal conflict can help you make big-picture decisions.
Of all the types of editing, developmental editing—taking a look at big-picture revisions like character arc, plot arc, and so on—is my absolute favorite. I love to dive into an author’s manuscript and explore their world, asking questions and giving suggestions to help the story become truer to itself. Even better is when I’m talking with an author and I see their eyes light up as an idea clicks into place or a solution presents itself. One of the best parts of the job.
But even with the rush of excitement and optimism that can come from a clearer vision of what the next draft should be, there is always the inevitable realization:
I still have to actually write the book now.
I feel you, Kiki.
I’ve been feeling this in a powerful way this month. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a novelist, too, in addition to being an editor. So you can believe me when I say I know exactly how it feels to sit down with a draft, feeling like you’re positively glowing with creativity and energy, and then hit the wall as soon as you actually look at the text. This month, I’ve been working on intense revisions for a story that’s lived with me for a long time, a YA sci-fi/fantasy. When I got started, I foolishly thought it’d only be a matter of moving up the inciting incident. HA! As soon as I started taking notes on potential changes, it dawned on me that this would not be a simple tweak. I reread the entire manuscript and realized I could make it so much more.
But even with the deep knowledge and passion I have for this story, knowing where to start with these changes felt like a total mystery. When you’ve been working on a story for a long time, changing some elements can feel like taking dynamite and exploding everything that you had. It’s messy, but if you have a few guiding principles in mind, you can work through the dust in the air and the general chaos of rewriting a story. I’ll share one principle with you today that’s been helpful to me.
Your main character’s internal conflict as a revision tool
In the story that I’m working on right now, I realized there were many scenes in the book that needed to change. I had my main character in situations that made sense in earlier drafts, but as my understanding of him as a character grew, they no longer worked. Some conversations with other characters now feel like they’re from a different story (because, really, they are). But even going in being fully prepared to make these big changes, I’ve still found it hard to break away from what I had originally and to make decisions about how to go about those changes. How could I get from my current draft to what I envisioned?
Lately, I’ve found that getting a solid grip on my main character’s inner conflict has been an extremely useful guide for making revisions. For a bit of context without getting too much into the weeds, this story is set in a fantasy world that has a decidedly post-apocalyptic kind of set dressing. My main character, Ransom, is an orphan who lives on the city floor, which is essentially the junkyard of three cities stacked on top of each other. He has no memories of how he got there or who he is.
While I talk through some examples from my own story as an example, think of the inner conflict as a thread that runs throughout the story. It should be woven through each scene from beginning to end.
Originally, I had imagined that Ransom’s inner conflict was that he is stuck in survival mode, doing whatever it takes to get by and sometimes hurting others in the process. He’s got a temper, but, in earlier drafts, I’d written him as defensive when someone would try to pull him out of his survivor way of thinking and take a good look at himself. The most common technique he’d use to deal with uncertainty and fear was deflection, changing the subject.
Now, as I worked on this story over time, my understanding of who Ransom was as a character changed. In a sense, that original idea is still there, but I went deeper. When I came back to this manuscript with a fresh eye, it was clear to me that my main character’s inner conflict stemmed from a different place. He’s an orphan, and he’s had to grow up in a harsh place on his own. He thinks he’s responsible for protecting his two friends, including a little boy he’s practically raising. But he has no idea what he’s doing, and the city floor is a terrifying place to live.
All of that to say, his anger comes from fear as well as some bitterness at feeling abandoned.
How to use internal conflict
In other words, how can you use inner conflict to actually make decisions about what to take out or put into the story?
Inner conflict helps you revise character dialogue
Once I had a better grip on what Ransom’s inner conflict was, I realized that I had to seriously revise any dialogue where he awkwardly changed the conversation or made jokes to hide how he really felt. This evasion and refusal to self-reflect matched the earlier story where he was a ruthless survivalist, doing anything to stay alive and not allowing himself to be emotional. But the external plot had shifted away from this survivalist narrative during subsequent drafts. If I was going to show that he’s struggling with anger because of his past and feeling like everything depends on him, then it didn’t make sense for him to try to be funny.
Inner conflict helps you revise key moments of change
Along the same lines, having a much better grasp of my character’s inner conflict helped me see that any time that my character encounters something new or unknown, he’ll most likely react in anger. Anger is how he deals with fear, so I needed to take a good look at the inciting incident, the point of no return, and the climax, all places where he should be facing the unknown or something new. Take a look at the turning points in your story to see how the inner conflict is shining through. If it isn’t showing up in these key moments, take some time to consider how your character’s inner conflict can add tension (if their inner conflict is making them react badly) or catharsis (if they are resolving or overcoming some of their inner conflict).
Inner conflict helps you assess the effectiveness of the climax and conclusion
When you know your character’s inner conflict, you can review your story’s climax with a more objective eye. Of course you need to check that all of the external plot threads are being wrapped up, but now you can ask yourself, “Does this external conflict connect to my character’s inner conflict?” And in the falling action or conclusion, you can ask, “Is my character’s inner conflict resolved, eased in some way, or worsened?” For a resonant narrative, a character must be changed by what they experience throughout the story, and the external and the internal conflicts should remain linked throughout. Can you see how your character’s inner conflict has been affected by the plot?
Wrapping Up
So I’m not saying that revising with this principle in mind will make your revisions easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy. Sadly, there is no quick fix to smooth out all the wrinkles in our stories. This is still tough work, but spending some time thinking about your character’s inner conflict can give you a solid handle on what may need to change in your story while you’re making big-picture revisions.
Looking for expert guidance for your story revisions?
We’d love to hear more about you’re working on. If you’re interested in in-depth feedback on your book, a manuscript assessment or a developmental edit may be just the thing.
Thanks to Benigno Hoyuela via Unsplash for the image!
