Using Internal Conflict to Give Your Story Depth

by Jan Drexler

I have a problem. The hero of my work-in-progress, The First Rose of Spring, is the epitome of a nice guy. He’s smart. He’s brave. He’s willing to sacrifice his future for the well-being of a stranger.

Get this – he’s also a pastor.

And a cowboy.

Some of you are asking, “What’s wrong with that? He sounds perfect!”

Yes, we all love the nice guy. But the problem is that a perfect character doesn’t lend himself to conflict. And without conflict, there’s no story.

What is an author to do?

Justice Cooper’s biggest problem is his perfection.

Think about it – no one is really perfect, right? If someone appears to be perfect, you know it’s only on the surface. Underneath that smooth exterior there’s a flaw.

A big one.

The bigger the better.

 
Coop’s character will only grow when he becomes broken – when he realizes that he is not strong enough, not smart enough, not brave enough to be the man God has called him to be.

My job as the author of this story is to break Coop. Bring him to the lowest point he can possibly reach so that he is forced to look outside himself for the answer to his problems. The way to do that is to tap into his internal conflict.

Finding your character's internal conflict is a post for another day, but in a nutshell, Coop's internal conflict, the Lie he believes, is that God requires him to be perfect before he can be used for His glory.

That brings me to the theme of the story.

What is the theme? In general, it’s the Truth you’re trying to convey to your readers. In a Christian book, the theme quite often involves a Bible verse – in fact, that’s why I include a verse in the front matter of my books.

The verse for this story is, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 KJV

 
How do I convey that theme to my readers throughout the book?

This is a subtle process because we want our readers to discover the all-important truth of our theme through our telling of the story.

I start by brainstorming images that will illustrate my theme of “strength in weakness through relying on God.”

 
A delicate wild rose on a windswept prairie…

An abandoned mail-order bride standing up to her tormentors…

A preacher who is failing until he bends to God’s will…

And then I write those images into my story.

The next question is: How do I do this?

I am always thankful for people who are smarter than I am. We learn how to write through reading blog posts like this one, talking to other writers, and reading craft books.

The craft book that helped me the most with relaying the theme through my story is The Moral Premise by Stan Williams. I first heard about this book here on Seekerville back in 2012.

The Moral Premise is used by many people as a method of outlining their stories, but once I had that mastered, I dug further into what the moral premise was and how to use it to deepen my story-telling.

Here are the links to Stan William's appearances on Seekerville: October 15, 2010, Myra's interview with Dr. Williams from October 1, 2012, Missy's take on The Moral Premise from January 13, 2014, and a post from Myra on Irony and The Moral Premise from October 15, 2015.

Here is the link to Stan William's website where you can find all sorts of information, encouragement, and free tools: Stan William's website

And, of course, you can buy his book on Amazon:

If you want to take your writing above and beyond where you are now, I encourage you to spend time learning how to use your characters' internal conflicts to expand the scope of your story. After all, that's what great writing is all about!

Leave a comment to tell us what you do to add depth to your story or share your favorite writing craft book. One commentor will win a $10 Amazon gift card - you can use it to buy a book to add to your TBR pile, or to purchase your own copy of The Moral Premise. :-)

Meanwhile, watch for the release of The First Rose of Spring this summer! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make That Lemonade!

 LINK TO TEDDY'S STORY JOINT!!!!!

Start your day with a smile and take the four-plus minutes and go to the link above and see just how easy this all is. :) Really... 

And then come back and we're gonna talk Write That Story!

Okay.... hysterical? I loved it! Sooooo funny! 

Now back to our regularly scheduled program!

WHAT A YEAR.

That's all I'm going to say about it. Not the good... not the bad... not the never-ending aspects of flattening a curve that had a mind of its own.

Let's talk the talk of spring.

Rebirth.

Begin again, like poor old Michael Finnegan. 

It would be so easy to list the bad things. To focus on the negative. To shrug off the positive.

There's no time for that. That's not our purpose here. And I don't mean on this blog "here". I mean on Earth "here".

If we are really God's children, if we are put here to do some good in some way, well, let's go! Let's do it! Off our laurels, off our butts, and into the mainstream of life we go and as we go... let's write that story.

What I found funniest about the skit above was the absolute truth in it. Plot devices. Plot twists. Characters. Writing tomes..... Sometimes we just plain make this gig way harder than it needs to be.

So making that lemonade is two-fold: 

FIRST: Figure out the kind of stories you want to tell.

SECOND: Tell 'em.

Now before the lot o' youse start gnashing your teeth and staring with your yellow eyes and not blinking once (Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak) let me share my theory and then you tell me yours in the comments. Tell me what works... what should work... or if you've been a dormant slug, take this as your moment to awaken-stretch-reach! You've got this!

Goal/Mission/Calling: Write stories that uplift women.

I do this for a lot of reasons, but mostly because we only got the stinkin' vote 100 years ago, that's ridiculous, and we've been second-class in work-related things in many areas for, oh... ever? So I want stories that uplift women, where women rescue themselves but if it's a romance, they find the absolute right man to be their point/counterpoint! 

Plots used:  Prodigal is one of my faves, and like the skit showed, one story can use the same plot device and be so completely different!  

Running on Empty: "Anne Kellwyn has a secret. It's cost her everything to keep it."

Anne fled her life when her abuser threatened to "out" her... and now she's back home to help her dying mother but can this prodigal face the man she loved-- and left-- and still loves? 

Back in the Saddle (Book 1 Double S Ranch): "He’s broke, but not broken..."

It’s been a long time since Colt Stafford shrugged off his cowboy legacy for shiny Manhattan loafers and a promising career on Wall Street. But when stock market manipulations leave him financially strapped, the oldest son of legendary rancher Sam Stafford decides to return to the sprawling Double S ranch in Gray’s Glen, Washington.

A Hopeful Harvest (Book 1 Golden Grove): "Her orchard. His heart. Can they successfully heal both?" 

When her family’s apple orchard is damaged by a storm, single mom Libby Creighton knows the harvest she’s depending on is in jeopardy. Though he prefers a solitary life, Jax McClaren has the skills to revive Libby’s orchard—and her guarded heart. But he’ll have to overcome the secrets of his past if he and Libby are going to have a fruitful future together.

                                                                   ***********

The prodigal theme is used often because it works. So does the sacrificial lamb, the person going off to save the lamb in trouble, risking life and limb. There was a reason Jesus used these stories to relay to the crowds because they are relatable.

But if you don't have a prodigal lying around, an overcomer works just fine! 

Overcomers are the survivors. They've made it through the rough times, the wars, the pestilence, the sorrows, the poverty, the lack, the losses of parents or children or divorce... and they take their lives very seriously because they have something to prove. To themselves... their parents... their ex-wives or husbands or their old friends, the neighbors who thought they'd amount to nothing.... That's where the "How Do You Like Me Now?" attitude can be put into play.

I've done a lot of Overcomer books because I'm an overcomer. I know lots of overcomers. I love them! They're not whiners. They're of the "race that knows Joseph". They're the ones who see a job and do it and even when the going gets tough, they tuck their chins and carry on.

Hush Thackery in "Sweet Hush" was one of those heroines. I love Hush. Deb Smith touched all the right buttons for me in that story because Hush reminded me of myself. THAT'S CLUTCH.

Make the story relatable. 

I have a brand new prodigal story for you! I have two copies of "Rebuilding Her Life" to give away to two lucky commenters.... 

If you're a writer, leave a comment about story themes/tomes/plots and give me an idea of where you're at....

If you're a reader, let's talk reading! 

Either way, thank you for stopping by. Coffee is on! And because it's Lent and some of youse might have forsworn treats, I have some fresh bread and butter that you can have plain or slather it with my homemade jam. Sour cherry or Triple Berry or there's even a pot of Strawberry Rhubarb, a farm favorite! 

Multi-published, USA Today bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne is thrilled to introduce this newest book.... and loving that winter is coming to an end in Western New York where Ruthy runs a growing pumpkin farm with her husband Farmer Dave, a bunch of kids and friends and grandkids and mud.... Friend her on Facebook (she's a conservative Libertarian so be forewarned!) visit her website ruthloganherne.com and you can always visit with her here in Seekerville.... or just straight out email Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com. 

Home

Guest Amy Anguish

Home.

Just four short letters, and yet, it’s a word that packs a powerful impact. Think about all the songs and sayings related to it.

“Home is where the heart is.”

“There’s no place like home.”

“Home is where you hang your hat.”

“Who says you can’t go home?”

You get the idea. Okay. So, home is important. We all have one, right? That depends on how you define home. If you simply define it as the address where you receive your mail, then yes. We all have a home. If you define it as something deeper, a system of roots, a place full of memories and love and growth and all that entails, then no. Some of us don’t have that. Not in one place, anyway.

I’m a preacher’s kid. My daddy has always preached in small congregations in small towns. Unfortunately, that meant we moved every few years. I’ve never lived anywhere longer than six years. When people ask me where I’m from, I simply say “the south.” It’s easier than saying, “Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee.” I’ve added Texas to the mix since I got married, for the record. I grew up everywhere. As a child, that was hard. After all, no one wants to leave their best friends behind, start a new school, try to fit in. Especially in high school. College was a balm to my soul, with all those people who just accepted me because almost none of us had been there our whole lives.

Now that I’m an adult, I can see benefits to the way I grew up. After all, not having an earthly place to really think of as home keeps me focused on the heavenly one I’ll get one day. And it’s helped me lose any shyness I had when younger, giving me a willingness to put myself out there and find friends. And it’s helped me help my husband learn to acclimate to new places as we’ve moved around in our fourteen years of marriage (he grew up in the same place his whole life).

The more I write, the more I find my “lack” of a home has also affected my writing. “Home” has become almost a recurring character in my stories. It started out sneakily, but has become more and more prominent.

In my novel, An Unexpected Legacy, my characters Jessica and Chad are both transplants to the central Texas area. After they start dating, they find out their families are actually from the same small town in Arkansas--the town Jessica thinks of as home because of all the good memories with her grandparents and aunt there. Unfortunately, when her aunt demands she quit dating Chad, that sense of home is ruined for Jessica unless she can figure out what the aunt has against her boyfriend.

In my novel coming out in April, The Greatest of These, two sisters Faith and Hope are thrown together for the summer, despite not getting along. Faith has chosen to live in Texas with her husband Sam. Hope made her home in Mississippi and hates to leave it, but needs a job. Hope has to overcome her prejudice against the state of Texas as well as realize that location isn’t so much what makes a home as the people.

I have a couple of other stories still in edits before I can have them published, too. In one, Michelle moves back to her small hometown after being away for several years. But everything is not the same, including her best friend, Greg. She comes back with dreams, goals, and a baby, and has to figure out how to fit back in to the place she loves most. And in another, my character, Adrian, is a lot like me. She grew up a preacher’s kid, moving every few years. Unfortunately, that caused her to give up on God and choose to live working a job that doesn’t allow her to settle. After all, if she never settles anywhere, she won’t have to go through the pain of leaving friends behind. She also has to learn the true meaning of home.

The house in Kansas where I lived as a baby.

I didn’t set out to write my stories to be so “home-centric,” but it’s there in each. It’s not necessarily the main struggle or even the main theme, but it’s big enough that you know it’s there. Each character has to realize that home is more than just a place. It’s wherever you can be yourself, be comfortable, be loved. Because without love, it’s just a place.

Last summer, I was privileged to attend the Ken Ten Writers’ Retreat in Tennessee. In one session, Linda Fulkerson, an author who is amazing at marketing, told us that to market well, we have to figure out what our platform is. Then, we need to write about that. At the time, I wasn’t sure what my platform was, besides getting the stories out of my head and into people’s hands. But the more I think about it, the more I think it’s “home.”

After all, everyone wants a home. It’s a God-given desire, the longing for a place to belong, to be comfortable, to be loved. And if I can tie that in to my stories, as well as the longing for our eternal home, that sounds like a great platform, a way to reach out to my readers and find a common ground.

The house my husband and I bought last year here in Tennessee.

What about you? Do you have a theme that is so big you can almost call it a character? Do you have something in your past that sneaks its way into your stories and somehow ties them all together? I’d love to hear about it!

*****

Amy will be doing a giveaway today! Just let us know you'd like to be entered.

An Unexpected Legacy

When Chad Manning introduces himself to Jessica Garcia at her favorite smoothie shop, it's like he stepped out of one of her romance novels. But as she tentatively walks into a relationship with this man of her dreams, secrets from their past threaten to shatter their already fragile bond.  Chad and Jessica must struggle to figure out if their relationship has a chance or if there is nothing between them but a love of smoothies.

Amy R. Anguish
Author of An Unexpected Legacy
Amy R. Anguish grew up a preacher's kid, and in spite of having lived in seven different states that are all south of the Mason Dixon line, she is not a football fan. Currently, she resides in Tennessee with her husband, daughter, and son, and usually a bossy cat or two. Amy has an English degree from Freed-Hardeman University that she intends to use to glorify God, and she wants her stories to show that while Christians face real struggles, it can still work out for good.

Follow her at http://abitofanguish.weebly.com or http://www.facebook.com/amyanguishauthor