: Can the main conflict be the inner conflict? I've recently been having trouble with developing plots. The plots I created seemed heavily sequential. No matter how many twists or complications

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It's totally okay, and makes for a nice vehicle of the theme (the plot itself is the deepest, subtlest and thus most effective means of making argument, as opposed to say the dialogue/opinions of your characters).

But you shouldn't worry about whether or not it's arbitrarily "okay". Hesitation holds new writers back, and one of the quickest ways to develop as a writer (and maybe even innovate your form) is to discard your fear of "breaking the rules". Could Joyce have written Ulysses if he were afraid of doing something "wrong" like this? Could Cortázar have written Rayuela?

My advice (and this is advice given to scientists and mathematicians, too): trust yourself. You are a human; you have experiences that others can empathize with, and you have messages you wish to send. If you have a new idea for how to tell a story that hasn't been done before, you should be all the more excited to try it out first.

Good luck!

EDIT

Popular example of a novel driven by a character's inner conflict: Moby Dick. If it worked for Melville, it can work for you!

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It depends on the genre and what you're trying to achieve, but it's certainly an accepted literary tool. The good ol' Man vs Self conflict.

It'll almost certainly result in a character-driven novel, but there's nothing wrong with character-driven novels!

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