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!
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!