A couple of weeks ago, we looked at internal conflict in detail: when a character is facing a struggle that’s taking place within their own mind.
Today, we’re going to look at some examples of different kinds of external conflict. You’ll normally need at least one type of external conflict in your story—it’s going to be a large part of what
drives the narrative.
What is External Conflict?
External conflict is the struggle between a character (usually your main character) and some kind of outside force. Quite often, that’s another character such as the antagonist—but it could also be society as a whole, the environment in which they exist, a supernatural force, or even fate.
A well-written story will generally have both internal and external conflict. Often, one will feed into the other (e.g. a character’s
self-doubt might be fuelled by a bully at work, or their struggle to choose between two love interests may be complicated by the society in which they live).
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