: Re: Clear steps for developing a powerful inner conflict This question is similar to this one. However, it is different based on what I am looking for. I know what inner conflict is, and I know

(I thought @what gave a great answer, which I upvoted, but it also made me want to look for counterexamples.)

In Remains of the Day the main character is a repressed butler who devotes his life to providing exemplary service to a family that may not deserve his loyalty. In the process, he misses a shot at love with the family's housekeeper. The conflict here is between the character's repression and his need to connect, and while the conflict is entirely internal, not notably momentous, and arguably unrelatable, it still provides compelling tension and drama throughout the course of the movie/book.

I think the decisive factor is not whether the conflict is "strong" or "weak", or whether it is character or plot-driven or both, it's how real it feels. If you are creating your characters and situations first, and then adding in inner conflicts as a way to add depth and drama after-the-fact, it may feel forced and cursory. In the example you gave in the comments, you admit that the vengeance subplot is a non-starter. "IC" can't just be a checkbox you hit on the way to the finish line.

Let's say that your character is a key figure in bringing an end to this disastrous war. Let's see her on the brink of signing the peace treaty --what's the real conflict here, what's true to her character? Maybe you can convert the weakness of the vengeance plot into a strength. Maybe her plan all along was to sabotage the peace, out of a misguided sense of family loyalty. She's told herself that everything she's done was just to maneuver herself into this position, but now that she's here, she realizes she doesn't really want to go through with it. She doesn't really want the war to go on, she just feels like she should. The point here isn't the specifics, it's that you have to seek conflicts that are inherent to your story, not ones that are tacked on.

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: Re: Clear steps for developing a powerful inner conflict This question is similar to this one. However, it is different based on what I am looking for. I know what inner conflict is, and I know

More posts by @Sarah872

: If characters never do bad things, you don't have a plot, and if every bad action is followed by a speech about how bad it is, you end up with a didactic polemic, not a novel. It's possible

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: What's the common practice for warranty chapters in technical manuals? I'm working on a technical manual project for industrial machines and the original documents have some warranty warnings and

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