Do you think people face internal conflict or external conflict more often in their daily lives?
Answers
Answer:
The most obvious conflict is between Maggie and her mother on one side and Dee on the other. But there is evidence also of internal conflict within the mother, who finds it difficult to know how to love Dee, and internal conflict within Dee, as well as evidence of conflict between Dee and society.
Answer:
In fiction, ‘internal conflict’ refers to a character’s internal struggle. A character might struggle with an emotional problem such as fear of intimacy or abandonment, for example. Internal conflict is important for characterization, since flaws and internal struggles make characters more lifelike and sympathetic.
External conflict, on the other hand, refers to the conflicts between a character and external forces. This type of conflict can be between one character and another or a group (or between groups of characters). It can also be between a character and more abstract forces. For example, a bleak and hostile environment in a post-apocalyptic novel.
Both types of conflict, internal and external, are useful because they create:
Tension: Because of conflict’s uncertainty, we want to know how it resolves and keep turning pages to find out
Stakes: Conflict suggests worst-case outcomes and makes resolution urgent (the hero must overcome the antagonist/environment or themselves ‘or else…’)
Character development: Conflict allows for dramatic incidents and confrontations that test characters and cause them to learn and adapt
So how do you use external and internal conflict to develop characters?