What is External and Internal Conflict?

You know that feeling when you’re reading a book and it’s perfectly enjoyable, but you can’t help but think something’s missing? Maybe this has happened in your own writing. You’re making your way through your book and you realise it doesn’t read like some of your favourite romance novels. The answer to this often lies in the conflict. Not sure what I mean? Keep reading then!

There are two types of conflict: external and internal.

External conflict is what tends to bring your characters together. Maybe the hero’s father passes away and leaves a will that dictates he must marry before he can inherit. He asks his best friend to marry him until the inheritance is his; thereafter, they can live their lives separately again (haha). Or maybe the heroine has a one-night stand, realises she’s pregnant and has to tell the man she slept with.

Basically, the external conflict is anything your characters face that comes from outside themselves.

External conflict can be linked to well-loved romance tropes, too. In my earlier examples, you can see marriages of convenience; friends-to-lovers; a surprise pregnancy; or perhaps even a secret baby.

Internal conflict, on the other hand, is what keeps your characters apart.

Internal conflict is more complicated than external conflict. It’s the emotional issues your characters have that keep them from simply being with one another. Perhaps our hero feels abandoned after his father’s death, and can’t bring himself to love someone again, lest he be hurt. Or maybe our heroine has dated a controlling man before and is terrified of it happening again. When she falls pregnant, and the hero asks her to marry him, she thinks he’s trying to control her, and she can’t accept it. Usually where your internal conflict is concerned, your characters start in one place – the place of hurt or fear – and end in another.

The journey the characters go on in the romance should dictate where that end place is.

In the above examples: the heroine shows the hero that love is worth taking the chance of being hurt for. Or the hero proves that he doesn’t want to control the heroine; only love her. The stronger the internal conflict, the more satisfying the romance. So while the external conflict is important, it’s really the internal conflict that’s king. At least in romance.

The point?

Conflict of both kinds need to appear in your romance novel. While most readers might not know what it is in so many words, they’ll definitely miss it if you don’t have it!
You can find Therese Beharrie on Twitter or Facebook!

What are the Strelitzia judges looking for? 5 tips to taking home the trophy

Today's guest post is from author Suzanne Jefferies, one of ROSA's founding members, a long-time member of the committee, and judge and mentor in ROSA's previous Strelitzia contests.

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What’s the thing - that seemingly undefinable thing - that will make a judge leap from their chair and exclaim, yep, this one!

It’s been two years of Strelitzia now and both times, when I've read the winning manuscript, I had that feeling. It trick-tracked gooseflesh up over my neck. I itched to turn the page (one I read at the hairdressers and sat sat sat there for hours, for once delighted to be delayed). I ached to know…what…happens…next.

How can you make sure yours is that entry in 2019? Here’s a few tips that might set you on the right path to Strelitzia glory:

1. Internal conflict. What emotional wound's driving your sexy protagonist and how’s he/she going to be forced to face it in his relationship with the antagonist? And vice versa. Hint: if everything's going smoothly between the two of them when they hook up and continues to do so, you’ve got no internal conflict. No conflict = boring. No conflict = I’m skip reading to the end of this. No conflict = no.
2. External conflict. Does your protagonist have a goal? What is it? If you’re launching into a ‘it’s complicated’ explanation, he/she doesn’t have a goal. What are the obstacles in the way of their goal? How is the love interest one of those obstacles? Hint: don’t clear the path here and make it less complicated. Turn up the heat. What’s the worst that can happen? Make that happen.
3. It’s a love story FIRST. Your protagonist and antagonist should spend at least 80% or more of the book in scenes together, conflicting with each other. If there are lots of scenes with the two of them apart, you’re running into trouble. Your book’s going to be about something else and not their love story.
4. Does this couple have a shot together, long(ish) term? Or are they fundamentally different characters who need a good one night stand? There has to be some emotional ‘glue’ that holds them together, otherwise, not buying it.
5. Unlikeable male characters. I’m going to be blunt here - if your character, for any reason, carries on about how much she hates the male character (him, not his behaviour), you’re courting a napalm-laced cocktail. There’s a fine line with Alpha-holes - don’t cross it. I get where it comes from: slapping guys as a prelude to passion was all the rage in 80s soap operas. It’s not now. Nagging a woman repeatedly for a date was de rigeur for decades. It’s not now. Even when it’s enemies to friends, try not to use ‘hate’ unless it’s an obvious exaggeration. If in doubt, don’t do it.

Happy writing!

#WriterTip Crafting and Creating Conflict in your Romance Novel

Erica Taylor, one of our ROSA members who attended #ROSACon16 and a session by Joss Wood on Conflict, has kindly shared her thoughts on the talk and what she learned.

What struck me most about Joss’ lecture on conflict was how much it made sense. It is probably something that we all do subconsciously without even realizing it, or having a literary definition attached to it, but having it defined made me more aware that it was another tool I had in my storytelling arsenal.  Joss tells us the way to tell a good story is make your characters go through crap—people don’t want smooth sailing and enduring love from the get-go. Readers want to be tortured with the characters, to hang on to the belief that love will conquer all, and to ride the happily-ever-after high into the tediousness of real life.

Using excerpts from one of her own novels, The Honeymoon Arrangement, Joss toured the lecture through the process of setting up conflict and using it as a tool to move the story along. 

Characters should have a “misguided external goal based on an internal goal,” or what the character thinks they want (point A) versus what that actually need (point B. Throughout the story, your characters will work through the conflicts you put in their path, getting them from point A to point B. 

Characters start off as silly little things thinking they know everything in their perfect little worlds and they have everything figured out. Ha! Little did they know the author of their story is about to shake up their world and they will be better for it, and their author will torture them until they come to realize, the author was right all along.

Joss explained there are two types of conflict: External conflict is the stuff happening around your characters. Internal conflict is the stuff happening inside the characters mind, their thoughts and worries and whatnot. And each character is different—whatever he/she wants must be specific to him or her.

“If your hero is a firefighter, your heroine better be an arsonist.” - Joss Wood

Three types of External Conflict:

• Character vs. character (When opposite personalities attract—and clash)
• Character vs. nature (When a hero faces an earthquake)
• Character vs. Society (When a Lord falls in love with a maid)

Ways to up the conflict:

• Use the characters fears again them.
• Concoct the worst thing that could happen to them, then torture them with it.
• Dig deep. Look back to their childhood—an author is part storyteller, part psychiatrist.
• Find that thing that sends them off the deep end, and use it!

An example from Joss’ novel The Honeymoon Arrangement:
Internal: What are their deepest wounds and what scares them the most?
The heroine has deep rooted issues with her estranged mother.
External: Make that thing happen>>>>Mom calls her on the phone and sends the heroine spiraling into self-destruct mode.

What was most interesting about what Joss’ lecture, was how natural it seemed. Even in our everyday lives things pop-up that question our internal resolve. Challenges arise, things happen and the external conflicts we deal with each day have shaped who we are and dictate our internal conflicts. Readers read romance as a means of escape, searching for a trace of hope that no matter what happens in our lives, there is someone who will love us for who we are. As writers, we achieve the same escapism when we create this insurmountable problems for our characters and find a way to achieve their happily-ever-afters. 

We need to believe in the power of love just as much as the reader. We need to believe that no matter what life throws at us, everything will be okay. Writing conflict into your story not only moves the narrative along in a tangible, believable way, it adds a sense of realism to the story. Readers will relate to a flawed character, one who harbors secrets and refrains from letting their crazy hang out for the world to see, and when there is someone who can overlook their flaws, we want to hang on to that person even tighter. We root for someone to overcome the mundane conflicts in their life, because we all need to believe we can do it too.

#ROSACon2015: Romy Sommer on Conflict

Thank you to author Linze Brandon for this report back on Romy's talk on External vs Internal Conflict.


Romy dealt with the one subject that differentiates a narrative from a story, the dull from the exciting - conflict.

Without conflict in a story, there is no motivation for the reader to finish the story. The reader will not be rooting for the hero (and heroine) and will soon be bored since there will be nothing that drives the story to its conclusion.

Does the hero overcome his biggest obstacle? Do the hero and heroine finally overcome their past prejudices, fears, histories, problems and let their hearts embrace the love waiting for them?

Even in romance fiction external conflict needs to assist in the internal conflict that drives the story forward. The main plot is the development of the relationship, and the focus must remain on the romance even in romantic sub-genres.

Romy addressed both the aspects of internal conflict and external conflict in category romance fiction with clear examples and focus on the genre's expectations.

Romance stories are primarily stories about relationships, and the motivation (or lack thereof) that the main characters experience to get to their happily ever after.

All other story structures need to support this concept and Romy addressed this with clarity in her talk. She also went on to explain what conflict is not, as these situations are often confused with what does constitute the conflict in the scene.

Overall a talk well worth listening to, even for published authors as we sometimes need a reminder of the essential elements of the stories that we write.

~Romy Sommer is the Chairperson and one of the founding members of ROSA.
~Linzé Brandon is a member of ROSA and the administrator of the official Twitter account @SARomance