Internal Conflict: The Emotions Characters Feel & How to Show Them

M.L. Bull
Sep 19
5 min read

Internal conflict is the inner battle within characters when they collide with external forces. Character emotion is one of the most important aspects of all fictional characters whether they're humanlike characters or animals like in the allegorical novella, "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. Emotions allow writers to impact their readers and cause them to feel something and relate and connect with their characters. There is a wide range of emotions characters can experience; but primarily, there are seven generic emotions, which after increasing the intensity can lead to other more complex emotions. These include happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, anger, fear, and love. Now, let's check out how writers can expand on these and exactly how they can show characters' emotions in their stories.

WATCH THE EPISODE

See episode 30 of season 2 of my Journey of a Christian Writer series, Internal Conflict: The Emotions Characters Feel and How to Show Them or continue reading the blog post below.

7 GENERIC EMOTIONS CHARACTER FEEL

A pie chart of 7 Generic Emotions Characters Feel.

Here you can see a diagram of the seven generic emotions in a round pie chart. The Pixar movies Inside Out and Inside Out 2 are perfect examples of the most basic and common emotions characters feel when experiencing different story situations and external conflict in a story. For example, a character that gets angry at their dog for ruining their slippers, or a character who's sad their parents were killed in a car accident. These seven emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, anger, fear, and love, can be experimented with in various ways based on what characters go through or are challenged with in a story.

INCREASING EMOTIONAL INTENSITY FOR COMPLEX EMOTIONS

Below is a table that I've put together of the seven generic emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, anger, fear, and love. These seven emotions can be broadened into more complex emotions based on their different levels of emotional intensity as I've demonstrated in the table, having the lighter shaded emotions the least intense emotions and the darker shaded emotions the most intense emotions. For example, two more complex emotions from happiness are contentment and excitement. Contentment compared to excitement is a milder form of happiness by its lower emotional intensity. The other emotions sadness, surprise, disgust, anger, fear, and love are likewise organized as followed in the chart.

HAPPINESS	SADNESS	SURPRISE	DISGUST	ANGER	FEAR	LOVE
Contentment	Discouraged	Confused	Sick	Displeased	Shy	Compassionate
Gladness	Hopelessness	Perplexed	Miserable	Tense	Nervous	Empathetic
Delightful	Despondent	Shocked	Jealousy	Irritated	Worried	Passion
Joyful	Depression	Stunned	Envy	Frustrated	Anxious	Desire
Excitement	Grief	Astounded	Hatred	Furious	Terrified	Lust

As you can see, there are many detailed emotions that add emphasis and significance to the original basic emotions. There are several other emotions as well, but the above table was just an example of how emotions and their meanings change based on their levels of intensity. This is something writers should keep in mind when describing them and their characters emotional reactions and actions. While emotions can be messy, it's important not to use the wrong emotion or have characters come off as awkward or act out of character.

Ensure your characters respond appropriately based on their distinctive personalities during different story scenarios or conflict. For example, a shy character would probably be a little anxious about performing a musical recital on stage in from of an audience rather than ready, pumped, and excited. Okay, so how can writers show their characters' emotions? Well, writers can do this by using a combination of descriptions.

Let see some examples below.

HOW TO SHOW YOUR CHARACTERS' EMOTIONS

An African American couple fighting in the street.

As one of the most popular writing rules states, "Show, don't tell." If you've never heard of this phrase, it means to show your characters' emotions rather than simply stating them. For example, instead of telling John is angry, add visual details that show he's angry. Readers will be entertained and more connected with characters when writers show their characters' emotions in their stories. Sensory details, such a sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch are also helpful to use, and especially while characters interact with other characters and the external story world. But primarily, there are four main ways writers can show character emotion, including action beats, character dialogue, inner monologue, and emotional descriptions. Let's quickly go over each one of these below.

ACTION BEATS/BODY LANGUAGE

This first way is everything characters do within a scene or story, such as a character smiling, waving, sitting in a chair, or clenching their fist during an argument. It's all of the actions that characters take while interacting with other characters and in the external story world.

CHARACTER DIALOGUE

This second way is everything characters verbally say within a scene or story. Writers can get creative with dialogue based on word choice or usage, slang, or accents, which can also show the distinctive personalities of characters in a story. For example, maybe a Hispanic, bilingual character speaks in Spanish whenever they get upset about something. This shows the character's emotions and their cultural personality.

INNER MONOLOGUE

This third way is for the internal or inner thoughts of characters. Writers can use character thoughts to show internal conflict within characters, such as their worries or concerns. Two ways writers can write inner monologue into story narration is to italicize thoughts so that readers know they are separate from the rest of the narration, or to use the dialog tag thought after character thoughts as shown in the examples below.

EXAMPLE 1: John paused in his tracks. He widened his eyes and patted the side pockets of his Levi jeans. Oh, no. Did I lock my keys in my car?

EXAMPLE 2: John paused in his tracks. He widened his eyes and patted the side pockets of his Levi jeans. Oh, no. Did I lock my keys in my car? he thought.

EMOTIONAL DESCRIPTIONS

This fourth and last way is when writers make an emotion a character and give it actions, or they describe the physical effects characters feel when they experience different emotions. An example of making an emotion a character is "Anger thundered through John's veins." Hence, you're giving the emotion an action rather than simply stating John is angry. On the other hand, an example of describing the physical effects an emotion has on a character could be "John's knees weakened." Here, the physical effects of nervousness are described rather than telling John is nervous. Using emotional descriptions can be a good and creative alternative to telling and create a balance with action beats to avoid overusing them.

The book "Master Lists for Writers" by Bryn Donovan is a great writing reference that I found very helpful with improving my writing of character emotion. Maybe you will too. Grab a copy and check it out for yourself in the links provided.

CLOSING REMARKS:

Emotions can be fun and complicated things in real life and among our fictional characters in our story worlds, but they're also what makes us unique and allow our characters to be brought to life and stand out from one another. When describing your characters, get to know them well and let their emotions shine through during their interactions and reactions when faced with story situations. Who knows? Your lifelike characters may influence your readers to become potential fans of your next books. For more writing videos or tutorials, subscribe to my channel Journey of a Christian Writer series. Okay, that's it for this post. If you liked it and found it helpful, please, give it a (heart❤️), take part in the poll 🤔, and share your thoughts or comments 💬 below.)

Happy Writing! 😊✍🏽💻

🤔Hey, writers, what is your favorite way to show character emotion?