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Inner conflict and purpose is crucial for creating a engaging narrative and a believable character for your story. This starts with establishing a want, a need and a flaw for your character(s). Three elements that later make up the bedrock for their decitions making on-page. What you pick for your characters' want, need and flaw are highly relevant to your plot. The more they are tailored to what will happen in your plot, the more layered your story will feel. Plot points in your story should target your characters Flaws and Wants and force them to make though decitions to get to where they think they Want to be, but eventually getting what they Need. So what do your character want, need and how are they standing in their own way?
This post focuses on positive character arcs.
In this post I will be using examples from one of my own on-going projects to examplify the W-N-F's. They may be tweaked if the story needs it, but now they are what they are. My story is a coming-of-age with a maiden archetype which means that the protagonists story is about discovering your own identity, power and responsibility in the world, often facing an authority or predatory figure.
Want
The want in your story is the goal your character have when we meet them on the first page. It is a goal that they believe will solve the symptoms of their flaw. The goal the character set at this point is the external plot of your story.
- Their want needs to reflect or extend something deeper within the layers of the character. The "why" to why they want what they want is directly linked to their Flaw.
- It is oftenmost something external (physical) they want that they believe can solve their inner problems.
- The want can be a worthy goal on its own, but for your character in this specific context it is keeping them tied to their Flaw. It's not fullfilling them like they Need it to.
Want in my project: Complete a big mission her father has bestowed upon her to ensure his company's safety, and by extension, her own. She wants her father's love and sees this as the way to obtain it.
Need
Your character need a realization. A new truth to combat their Flaw. They will obtain this as they grow through the plot, and their view on their Flaw changes to make them able to overcome their external problem. At a point, your character will have to willingly sacrifice their Want to obtain their Need.
- The character should be able to demonstrate their new belief physically and visually at the end
Need in my project: She needs to become her own person, seperate from her father, and figure out what she wants for herself. As well, gaining the physical skills and means to protect herself, and what she loves.
Flaw
A flaw can also be refered to as a "misbelief" or "Lie" and is a conviction your character have about themselves and\or the world that is faulty and holds them back from what they Need. It can be stated in one sentences, possibly with a qualifier to make it specific enough. This misbelief is created somewhere in their backstory - often out of a type of trauma or unfortune - that leaves them disempowered against the plot at the start of the story. The flaw is the fundement their character arc will change from.
Flaw in my project: I can only obtain love and safety by doing as my father commands.
Ghost\Wound (backstory that eventually lead to this misbelief): Her father becoming abusive after her mother's death
Symptoms of her flaw: people-pleasing, hypervigiliant, too easily forgiving, does whatever her father asks, afraid of upsetting her father, feelings of worthlessness.
Reflections in her outer world: Isolation, acts as perfectly as she can. Visibly self-neglect.
How is the Lie making them miserable in the opening scene: this is a secret, but fill it out for yourself :)
Interweaving Want and Need to create tension
In the plot, the character will be drawn between their want and their need. This will create tension in scenes where they have to choose one of them. For much of the story, your character may progress towards one, but as a price getting further away from the other. Back and forth. Until they decide on one.
Sources:
Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Authors Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot and Character (2016) by K. M. Weiland
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