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@princess-foo absolutely! Right before the 3rd plot point is a great place to slow the conflict down.

@karthmin I think those are brilliant thoughts 😉 Internal conflict tends to be repetitive if we just follow strict rules for when to turn it up and when to pull back (in scene 4… after this moment). It largely depends on the story, though I really like your last point about how the character keeps trying to resolve their internal conflict, thinks they’ve resolved it, then a disaster of some sort makes them realize that they really haven’t resolved it, and they begin the cycle again, though on another level. When they finally reach the right conclusion, then the internal conflict is resolved (either right before the climax, or during it, as you mentioned). Those moments of apparent “resolution” are often tied to the plot points in a book, especially the 3rd one, right before a dark moment, just to make them more powerful… but I consider that more of a principal than a rule, because, again, it depends on the story.

So there’s a definite relationship between the internal and external conflict, but they do not follow the same arc pattern throughout the story.

When you said that, you were saying that disasters and triumphs of the plot/external conflict don’t always follow the ups and downs of the character’s internal conflict?

@sarah-inkdragon ah, that’s an interesting point you bring up there. I never thought of this in terms of negative character arcs 😛 Though you could say that their “resolution” is nearly reversed; they (think) they’re at peace with a negative belief because they’ve convinced themselves that they need it… but then at the climax, this firm resolution proves fatal for them, throwing them back into (possibly) eternal turmoil, since it would be impossible to be forever at peace with a negative belief.