How To Add Life and Believability to Your Compelling Characters

Giving Life to Your  Protagonist! 

Featuring Sock Star George and The Snail: an afterlife cartoon. 

Adding The Human Condition

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Why Your Protagonist Needs to be at War With Themselves:

Great stories need conflict. Most writing advice I've been given has focused on external conflict—the obstacles, the annoying bad guy, and general world problems that must be overcome. But ask any therapist (or honest person who knows suffering): the toughest battles we fight are against ourselves! 

Personal dilemma will quickly transform any character from a regular chess piece moving through the logical motions into a living, breathing imperfect human. This is because of the play on relatability; as creative types and people watchers, we try to capture people. 

We know how the protagonist might shock you; maybe, an emotional break down with floods of tears as she verbally abuses herself, oblivious of the showers cold temperature late at night. Readers might nod in agreement if they've been there themselves.

The Psychology Behind Our Inner Struggles:

Deep visceral uncertainty comes from competing sets of desires, values, or beliefs. What we ought to do vs what is wanted or needed. Love vs revenge, doing whats right as opposed to serving yourself regardless. It's this tug-of-war that shows the uncertainty with how your protagonist will turnout.

The Best Internal Conflicts Share Characteristics:

1. They have no obvious 'right answer'

2. They force the protagonist to sacrifice something important

3. They connect directly to the core values and identity of either the storyline or the protagonist

4. They must evolve throughout the story otherwise they are pointless

Dimensions of Revealing Internal Conflict in Your Work:

If you are crafting characters who have strong inner turmoil, consider these important points:

The discrepancy between our words and reality, or what a character says in contrast to what they do shows internal conflict. Create tension between:

A. What is said versus what they really think, as mentioned above. 

B. Contradiction and the populace.  Expressions will create a web of cross-character attitudes and beliefs about the character. 

C. How their communication might change under stress: rapid or pressured speech, sweating, pacing, louder or higher tone et cetera

Your knight may well declare openly and confidently, 'I'm absolutely fine with my ex getting married,' while their white-knuckle grip on their sword handle betrays a different state of affairs!

The Battlefield Within:

A character's internal monologue is where we, as readers, get to enjoy a front-row seat to all the psychological torment. Show us:

a. Contradictory beliefs occurring simultaneously

b. Rationalisations and self-deception pulling the person apart

c. The change in their thinking as they process emotions and grow stronger as an individual

In one silly monologue, for example: 'I should be happy Mum's found someone new after Dad. I'm happy. Totally happy, in fact, yeah! It's just. . . does he really have to wear Dad's old cardigan? And sit in Dad's chair? And, well. . . breathe? There's nothing I can do. I'm not happy.'

The Ripple of Internal Turmoil:

A characters competing interests will not necessarily stay internal for too long. It has to come out. Always show your protagonist's inner battles with their closest relationships and how others see them. Any misunderstandings that arise from their conflicted behaviour keeps the narrative tasty. 

We sometimes see a main protagonist break character and turn on their most supportive best friend. Usually they're suffering in silence or something, that's internal conflict creating external drama. Bruce Wayne turned has bit at Alfred Pennyworth more than once. The New 52 series highlighted some great tension and conflict. 

When Behaviour Betrays True Motive! 

Actions speak louder than any internal drama. Your protagonist might:

Start projects they never finish or make impulsive decisions they later regret all for moments of short lived escapism. 

It's not uncommon for any stressed person to develop nervous habits or coping mechanisms. We might even sabotage our own success, especially if we are getting closer to an unwanted inevitably. 

It's like the boxer who insists they will be the best but 'unexpectedly' cancel fights, becoming a no show. It hints to the reader — without telling them — that something is wrong. 

The Physical Manifestation of Struggle:

Psychological stress will eventually show physically, for example: self neglect leads to tiredness, appearing dishevelled or irritability, darkening under the eyes et cetera. The body language betrays verbal claims: hiding his grimace behind raised open palms, he avoiding their eyes. After a short uncomfortable moment, his dreary polite voice broke the silence: 'I'm very glad to be here.' 

Physical symptoms of anxiety is a tight body posture and either physically guarded, suspicious, no mirth. PTSD presents with hypervigilance; physical or psychological. It can lead to preemptive action to contain others. Mood swings include anger or rage. 

Making Inner Conflict Matter to Your Plot:

For your protagonist's internal struggles to be meaningful, they must connect to your central theme. It makes sense that a forgiveness novel would likely involve some kind of ordeal surrounding self-forgiveness.

Conflict from indecision forces our choices, changing the direction of the narrative! It isn't always drama. Evolve it throughout the manuscript. External things will test your hero or heroine, which must reflect internally, creating conflict. 

Create Your Meaningful Character Arc:

By the end of your story you should be able to see how, life situations and inner battles bring change for your protagonist, be it for better or worse. However, it is important to avoid inner suffering clichés.

Instead of the typical 'character flaw', embellish your protagonist with two positive traits that are at odds with each other. For example, let's say a genius child, whose analytical mind (trait A), prevents her from trusting her pesky intuition about bad people (trait B), getting her into all sorts of troubles and scrapes.

Consider making the 'right' choice change. Nothing builds self doubts like everything going wrong! Perhaps what you established as correct from the start is suddenly altered? Your character will gain new information and insight. 

Writing easy resolutions is not helpful, but it feels like the right thing to do. The tranaforming rivalries we wrestle with rarely resolve with ease. Show the lingering doubt, let there be second-guessing. This is putting meat on the bones and will resonate with readers who know such self doubt themselves.

Bringing Personal Conflict to Life: A Mini-Workshop:

Try this exercise with your protagonist:

1. Conjure up two core values central to your character (e.g., loyalty and intelligence)

2. Dream up a scenario involving these values directly conflicting each other

3. Write up a short scene, focus on the internal struggle, use their words, thoughts, impact on relationships. Show contradictory actions, and physical responses. 

4. This time, rewrite the same scene but change just one outside factor that complicates the characters decision

This exercise will tease out new dimensions for your character. 

My Final Thoughts on Producing Discomfort:

All this genuine internal conflict we create is about using your protagonist to make readers feel discomfort. Do this well, transform that story into a fertile bed of empathy and emotion.

The most memorable protagonists aren't perfect. They drop the ball and might even blame someone else. They should make selfish decisions, but they need to grapple with impossible choices.

So the endogenous traits of a person arise from things like tough choices and allegiances. Early turmoil might initially go unnoticed to other characters, but still reveal bad omens for readers. However, pains build up, keeping the story turning over; each page read is testament to the interest you grow as a creator. 

What internal conflicts have your favourite characters faced? I'd love to hear about your writing endeavours in the comments!