Make ‘Em Sweat (Your Characters, That Is)

Conflict’s Role in Shaping Your Characters and Hooking Your Audience

Introduction

Let’s be real—if your characters aren’t sweating, neither are your readers. Conflict is the fire that makes your story come alive. It’s what forces your characters to grow, adapt, or fall apart. Conflict drives action and makes your audience care about what happens next. But not all conflict comes from the same place. Some of it crashes in from the outside—enemies, disasters, or society itself. And some? Well, that’s brewing inside your characters, full of doubt, fear, and desire.

In this post, we’ll break down how internal and external conflict work together to create compelling, layered characters. I’ll also share tips on how to use conflict to keep your readers hooked from the first page to the last. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to make your characters sweat—and why that’s the key to unforgettable storytelling.

Understanding Conflict: Internal vs. External

Internal Conflict:
Internal conflict is what happens inside your character’s head. It’s the emotional or psychological struggle they face as they grapple with their fears, doubts, or desires. Internal conflict is deeply personal, and it’s what makes your characters feel real.

Take Rachel, for instance, the central character in one of my upcoming novels. On the outside, she’s the pillar of strength, holding her family together as her mother’s health rapidly declines. But inside? She’s drowning in grief, guilt, and fear. Rachel constantly questions whether she’s doing enough—for her mother, her children, and even herself. She feels the weight of being the "strong one," but every decision feels like a tightrope walk between caring for others and falling apart herself.

This internal conflict—the fear of losing her mother and the guilt of not being able to protect her family from the pain—gives Rachel layers. It makes the quieter moments of her caregiving feel loaded with unspoken tension. Even when she’s sitting silently at her mother’s bedside, there’s a war waging inside her, and that emotional depth brings her character to life.

External Conflict:
External conflict is what happens to your character—an obstacle, an enemy, or a challenge from the outside world. External conflict creates action, but it becomes more compelling when it’s paired with internal struggles.

Take Rachel’s journey, for example. The external conflict she faces is the relentless reality of her mother’s deteriorating health. The constant hospital visits, medical decisions, and the looming inevitability of loss are all pressing down on her. She’s trying to juggle her responsibilities as a daughter, mother, and sister while navigating the logistical and emotional demands of her mother’s care.

What makes Rachel’s story resonate even more is how this external challenge collides with her internal fears and guilt. The strain of keeping her family afloat while her world crumbles makes the external conflict more than just a series of difficult decisions—it’s the backdrop to her emotional unraveling. Without that internal struggle, the stress of managing her mother’s illness wouldn’t cut as deep. It’s the combination of Rachel’s external fight to stay strong and her internal battle with grief and guilt that makes her story so compelling.

Why Both Types of Conflict Matter

External conflict keeps the plot moving, but internal conflict makes us care about the characters. When you combine the two, you create tension on both emotional and physical levels, which is what keeps readers invested. Your characters are struggling to survive, but they’re also fighting battles within themselves—and that’s where the real magic happens.

How to Make Your Characters Sweat: Developing Effective Conflict

Challenge Them on Both Fronts:
To make your characters sweat, you’ve got to hit them from all sides. The most gripping external conflicts force your characters to face their inner turmoil, and the best internal struggles raise the stakes of the external ones.

Take Marissa Donovan, the central character in another novel I’m working on. On the surface, she’s a high-powered lawyer handling critical court cases with steely precision (external conflict). But beneath that composed exterior? She’s wrestling with the unraveling of her marriage, balancing guilt and self-doubt with the relentless demands of her career (internal conflict). Every strategic decision she makes in court isn’t just about winning—it’s about proving to herself that she’s still in control of her life, even as her personal world slips away.

Balance Multiple Conflicts:
Most stories have more than one conflict at play. The key is layering them without overwhelming your readers. A character might be dealing with a career crisis (external conflict) while also grappling with imposter syndrome (internal conflict). When these conflicts feed into each other, it creates richer tension and deeper stakes.

For example, if your character is fighting for a promotion while secretly feeling unworthy, the external pressure of the job intensifies their internal doubts. As the conflict escalates, so does the emotional impact on your readers.

Using Conflict to Hook Your Audience

Conflict doesn’t just drive your characters—it’s what keeps your readers turning the page. When you build conflict that challenges your characters both externally and internally, you create a push-pull dynamic that pulls your readers in. They’re not just invested in what happens next, but also in how your characters will handle it.

Why Readers Love Characters Under Pressure:
Readers love characters who are forced to make tough choices under intense pressure. It’s not just about the action; it’s about watching your characters wrestle with themselves and their circumstances. When a character’s true self is revealed under pressure, that’s what resonates with readers.

Creating Emotional Engagement:
By layering internal and external conflict, you engage your readers emotionally. They become invested in your characters’ journeys because they understand their motivations, fears, and desires. When these conflicts come to a head, the emotional payoff is much stronger because readers have been on the ride with your characters from the start.

AI Integration: Streamlining the Conflict Brainstorming Process

Now, let’s talk about how AI can help spark fresh ideas when you’re stuck. AI won’t replace your creativity, but it can act like a brainstorming partner, helping you generate potential internal and external conflicts for your characters.

Using AI for Conflict Ideas:
Sometimes, you hit a wall while brainstorming. When that happens, AI tools can be helpful for throwing out new possibilities. For example, you could ask an AI tool to generate ideas for both internal and external conflicts for a specific type of character.

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Prompt Example: “Generate internal and external conflicts for a character who’s a politician facing a career-defining scandal.”

AI might suggest internal conflicts like guilt over past actions or fear of losing public trust, alongside external conflicts such as media attacks or political rivals seizing the moment. You don’t need to take these suggestions verbatim, but they can provide a spark to help you dig deeper into your character’s journey.

Personal Tip:
I’ve used AI to help brainstorm conflict in my own stories when I felt stuck. Currently, I’m using it explore Rachel and her brother struggle, both independently and together, in the aftermath of their mother’s death.

Exercises: Put Conflict to Work

Let’s take these ideas and put them into practice. Here are two exercises to help you develop deeper conflict for your characters.

Exercise 1: Generate Conflict Ideas Using AI
If you’re stuck, try using an AI tool to brainstorm internal and external conflicts for your character.

Prompt Example: “Generate internal and external conflicts for a character who is an ambitious lawyer facing burnout.”

Once you have some ideas, think about how the external conflict (a high-profile case) intensifies the internal struggle (fear of failure, self-doubt). How do these conflicts build on each other?

Exercise 2: Develop a Scene Around Conflict
Take one of the conflicts you generated and develop it into a full scene. Focus on how the external conflict escalates the internal tension for your character.

Prompt Example: “Write a scene where a character has to choose between protecting a loved one and advancing their career.”

Conclusion: Conflict is the Key

At the heart of every great story is conflict. It’s what forces your characters to grow, to make tough decisions, and to confront themselves. By blending internal and external conflict, you can create stories that not only hook your readers but also stay with them long after they’ve finished the book.

So, make ‘em sweat—your characters, that is. Push them to their limits and watch how conflict transforms them into unforgettable characters. Got any favorite conflict-driven characters? Drop a comment—I’d love to hear what makes them stand out to you!