By Ken Miyamoto from ScreenCraft · January 10, 2024
In storytelling, conflict is the secret sauce. Without conflict, there’s no exciting journey for the characters to embark on. If there’s no journey, characters remain stagnant with no growth, evolution, or arc, leaving the audience underwhelmed. Remember, we live vicariously through the characters we read on the page or watch on the screen. The audience wants go on both an emotional and physical journey. That’s why literary and cinematic storytelling is the ultimate form of entertainment and escapism. All of that starts with conflict.
In its simplest definition, conflict is what propels the plot forward and keeps the audience engaged. Conflict in storytelling is the central element that drives the plot and creates tension, drama, and interest in a narrative. It’s the struggle or opposition between opposing forces that shapes the story’s development.
In storytelling, those opposing forces come in the shape of:
But conflict isn’t a one-time thing in the best stories. Yes, every great story has a big conflict that the protagonist or hero must face—that’s the heart of the concept and narrative. But, along the way, characters should be dealing with all sorts of conflicts.
‘Barbie’
We see and experience engaging character transformation primarily through actions and reactions when pitted against conflict. The more conflict there is, the more compelling the story and characters are.
The secret sauce of great storytelling is found in how the writer challenges their characters with a wide variety of conflict. Writers create that secret sauce by throwing new challenges at their characters or having the existing conflicts evolve to keep things interesting and to keep the characters on their toes. When that is accomplished, the secret sauce is blended for a perfect literary or cinematic dish that audiences love to consume and enjoy.
Conflict and characters need to co-exist in stories:
The best way to ensure that there’s enough conflict in a story is to find both the internal and external conflicts that fit well in the story and challenge the characters the most.
Read More: Creating Complex Characters: Inner Conflict
‘Anatomy of a Fall’
The main difference between internal and external conflict lies in the source and nature of the conflict. Internal conflict is found in a character’s inner struggles, while external conflict arises from forces or challenges outside of the character.
These two distinct types of conflicts in storytelling each impact the characters and the plot in different ways.
Internal conflict is the struggle that occurs within a character’s own mind, emotions, or conscience. It involves a character’s inner dilemmas, doubts, fears, moral choices, and personal growth.
You can find the seeds of inner conflict within the character’s values, desires, or past experiences that are set up in the story when you first showcase their ordinary world in the opening act.
Internal conflicts can include:
Internal conflicts are the type of conflict that add depth and complexity to characters, allowing the audience to connect with the character on a personal and emotional level. We primarily relate to characters through their internal conflicts because those types of emotions are universal.
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’
In cinematic storytelling, we may not find it easy to connect with Luke Skywalker’s interstellar journey to confront an Empire in the original Star Wars, but we can certainly resonate with a young boy navigating the challenges of growing up and seeking his life’s purpose.
In Everything Everywhere All at Once, a laundromat owner’s multi-dimensional journey to stop an alternate version of her daughter from destroying everything might not relatable, but we can empathize with a mother’s attempt to mend the broken relationships and heal the generational trauma within her family to create a more loving and acceptable environment to avoid losing the people she loves the most.
These are the types of internal conflicts that drive the character arcs of the protagonist. You can also inject internal conflicts into the character arcs of antagonists and villains as well—offering even greater story and character depth.
Read More: Using Empathy to Create a Better Villain
External conflict in storytelling refers to the challenges, obstacles, or opposition that a character faces from people, forces, or elements outside of themselves. These external forces can take various forms, including other characters, nature, society, technology, or supernatural elements.
External conflict serves as a critical driver of the narrative, creating tension, drama, and plot development. In turn, this is what instigates the internal conflicts characters face as they react to whatever external conflict is thrust upon them.
In cinematic storytelling especially, your protagonist must undergo a physical journey that unfolds for all to witness. Without an external conflict to face, there’s nothing tangible to present on the screen. While internal character arcs certainly play a role in cinematic narratives, they must always be complemented by an external arc. This serves as the gateway to connect the audience with the character’s inner emotions.
When a story is lacking external actions, reactions, and their consequences, there isn’t much of a visual story to convey. But this also works as a necessity in literary storytelling as well.
‘Jaws’
The Lord of the Rings uses both internal and external conflict to get Frodo and the Fellowship on their journeys.
The external conflicts within The Lord of the Rings are conveyed through the battle between the forces of good, represented by the characters from Middle-earth, and the dark lord Sauron, who seeks to regain the One Ring and conquer all of Middle-earth. This external conflict drives the central quest of the story.
These external conflicts lead the way to the internal conflicts and character arcs within the story:
The characters’ internal conflicts remain hidden until they confront the external conflicts. The external conflicts contribute to the epic nature of the story—shaping the characters’ journeys, testing their resolve, and driving the narrative toward its ultimate climax—while the internal conflicts drive each characters’ acrs.
Read More: How to Create Cinematic Conflict in Your Screenplays
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’
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Both of these conflicts are crucial for storytelling, as they contribute to character development and plot progression, providing depth and excitement to the narrative.
Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.
He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, and Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries Blackout, starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner, the feature thriller Hunter’s Creed, and many Lifetime thrillers. Follow Ken on Twitter @KenMovies and Instagram @KenMovies76
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