Hi! I have two questions.
First, I’m struggling with forming an internal conflict for my protagonist, as the novel starts with her having no memories. How could I make the character have personal goals and have the reader care about these goals when the protagonist has no memories? I have a couple of ideas but I don’t want my internal conflict to seem flat and pointless.
My second question is this: How do I have the driving conflict matter to the protagonist if she doesn’t have any memories and therefore no motives? My two questions are kind of intertwined.
I hope this wasn’t too confusing.
Thank you!
Really unique question!
I think having no memories is in a way an internal conflict. There are a lot of different ways you could shape it, but I imagine if I woke up without any memories, that would be incredibly distressing!
For instance, “I desperately need to know who I am” vs. “I’m terrified to learn who I actually am. What if I’m an awful person?”
There are probably a hundred different variations of that type of conflict for this situation, depending on what suits your character and the themes of your story.
I think the easiest way to make the Driving Conflict matter is to wrap it up in the “no memories” situation. Why doesn’t she have any memories? Who is she? How does that relate to the Driving Conflict?
If there’s no relationship between the two things, then I would rework the story so that there is. Without a relationship between those two very important facets of the story, no memories runs the risk of feeling gimmicky.
As an alternative, even without memories, we would each seek our own survival. What threat makes sense to her, even without memories, and will keep her moving?
The Bourne Identity does a good job of tackling this kind of thing (the movie, the book is some of the worst writing I’ve ever encountered).
It’s a tough nut to crack. But I think it’s worth playing with, it will be really cool when you figure out a way to make the pieces fit together!
This is fascinating Madi. Not going to claim that I have any answers, but wanted to share a couple of thoughts.
For the first one, would the internal conflict be that she has no memories or something related to that? Who am I, who do I know, or what do I do now?
For the second one, you said that she has no motives because she has no memories. She has morals and beliefs about how the world should operate so don’t those drive one side of a conflict?
Hello. I imagine such an internal conflict – your character finds information about who he is, perhaps a diary, but doubts that this information is true, mainly because he does not like what he sees there. And begins to explore the information and himself!