Monday, March 23, 2009

Inner Conflict


I've spent the day asking myself: if the external conflict is removed why can't my hero and heroine be together? In other words, what is the inner conflict?

Somehow, in all the changes and rewrites I lost track of what my characters were all about, what they believed about love and commitment - and their inability to sustain either.

It was hard work. But I think I can move on to the next chapter without the whole story falling into an incomprehensible mess. Much as it pains me, I believe I'm going to have to delete the next thirty or forty pages. For a slow writer that's painful. Hopefully, the scenes that replace them will make the book stronger. I'm going for emotional depth.

What do you find harder - internal or external conflict?

2 comments:

Kelly Boyce said...

Internal - definitely. Although I never thought of asking: if the external conflict is removed why can't my hero and heroine be together? Maybe that will make it easier looking at it from that angle. Thanks!

Unknown said...

I don't think there's a person in the world that isn't going to say internal. I was reading on eharlequin and someone mentioned what keeps the hero from falling in love-not with this heroine-but any heroine. Also a great thing to keep in mind. It's not always apparent in every book you read.