Clear steps for developing a powerful inner conflict

Question

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 why I need it. I have tons of examples, and I can usually generate perfectly fine inner conflicts (hereafter called ICs) for my characters. Until now.

For some reason, the ICs I've been generating lately seem weak. It might just be that I'm getting used to characters being pulled in two opposite directions; I don't know if that's normal for writers. Then again, it might be that I am genuinely developing weak ICs.

The difficult part is that I don't know how to describe it. I don't see anything wrong with the ICs I am developing. They seem just as potent at first glance as any other IC, even those in well known books. This might mean that the problem lies in my writing: maybe I don't know how to properly incorporate IC into the character in a powerful way.

Long story short, I can't identify the problem. And since I can't tell you what the problem is, I can't very well ask for an answer. So I've decided that I must be doing something somewhere wrong.

Question:

On that note, can anyone give me a clear and concise method for developing strong inner conflict? Hopefully studying the methods will shed light on where I am going wrong.

Note: Despite the above, and the below comments, I'm still looking for a clear method for developing powerful inner conflict. If you know of one that works for you, please post it here.

Edit: I have marked what's reply as the answer; however, the reply by Chris Sunami also contains some great counter examples, and should be read as well.

Further edit: 2 years later, I finally realize the problem: while the inner conflicts I was creating were fine, I wasn't showing them enough. If the plot doesn't show the inner conflict naturally in all its detail, you need a subplot. I wasn't working with subplots, thus my IC's came across as lacking.

Answer 1

You seem to reduce inner conflict to "characters being pulled in two opposite directions". That is, a person who wants two different things, is "conflicted".

We can imagine a person wanting both to lose weight and to eat a creamy cake to be conflicted in that manner. This is of course boring and not worth a novel. We can also imagine stronger, more tortuous conflicts, such as truly loving your wife, but yearning after sex with another partner, after being married for thirty years. A lot of inner and outer conflict can ensue from this want, but it is still not an exciting conflict (except for the person feeling it).

The first weakness in these kinds of conflicts is that often they can be resolved. After all, the person could eat this particular cake and still lose weight by not eating cake the other six days. Or the husband could talk his wife into a threesome. The character simply gets both things, and there is no more conflict. Many readers will see these easy solutions and feel irritated at the character worrying instead of resolving his issues.

The second, and more fundamental weakness, is that these kinds of conflicts rise from a person wanting two (seemingly opposed) things. But wanting is a subjective problem, and it suffers from the problem that the readers will ascribe a weak character to the person unable to abstain from cake or from cheating his wife. It is a pseudo-conflict that does not exist for a person with integrity and willpower.

So what is a conflict worthy of a novel, if conflicts of wanting are not?

What a great novel is about is a conflict of necessities. The protagonists of a great novel must do two things that are mutually exclusive.

For example, the protagonist can save his child only by killing his wife (or his wife by letting his child die). It is not what he wants to do, but that there is a choice to be made between two lives. The necessity of course is not objective. No one has to save their child (or their wife). But common values (and love) dictate that if you can, you ought to save them. It is not something that you want while the world frowns upon you (such as stuffing yourself to obesity), but something that most everyone would expect you to do and, more importantly, most everyone would feel conflicted in the same manner.

tl;dr

In short, a powerful inner conflict arises from an outside necessity to decide for one of two options, both of which have severely negative consequences. Both the necessity and the consequences must be common values shared by the readers.

Inner conflict does not arise from character, but from plot.

Answer 2

(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.

Answer 3

First, Imagine you are experiencing the same conflict as your character.

Next, imagine that your mortal enemy (seriously, think of somebody you really dislike) wants to go with Option 1, which would naturally make you want to take up Option 2. The beauty of this is that you are not your character and thus do not have an opinion or a preference either way; but by bringing somebody who you genuinly despise/hate/dislike/want to kill into the matter with a strong opinion of their own, tends to instantly make you want to take the opposite side and should open your mind to a line of thinking that you may otherwise not have explored.

Now play out the argument that would take place between yourself and your foe. Actually write down everything that you think would be said, be it offensive, expletive, sensible or otherwise.

Then all that remains is for you to tidy it up and apply it to your character and you should have (at least the basis for) a good internal conflict.

Finally, in order to also develop the character's desire for Option 1, merely write about Option 1 from your enemy's perspective and there you have it!

Answer 4

A like the Chipperish Media "How Story Works" way -- instead of binary conflicts, characters are built on Triangles: weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and strengths.

The same trait may be any one of these: I may be bad at math, but if I don't care, it's only a weakness, not a vulnerability. If I'm a manager and I might miss some embezzlement because I assume the numbers people have that part handled, it's a vulnerability. If my problems with math has me focus on other ways to understand data (visually, for example), then it's a strength.

What matters is how a character's vulnerabilities and strengths/weaknesses affect their pursuit of their goal.

https://chipperish.com/2017/08/28/hsw-22-the-character-triangle/ (an episode of the How Story Works podcast) has more details.