In a recent post, September Fawkes examines the difference between the external and internal plotlines and how to work with the latter.
The external plotline is your hero’s concrete story goal and the struggles to achieve it. The internal plotline follows the character’s inner journey, which is driven by an abstract desire. Your story may also have a relationship journey, as two characters grow closer together or further apart.
Not all stories need an internal plotline. Thrillers, horror stories, and mysteries often focus heavily on plot action with protagonists who don’t experience significant internal change. For example, in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones lacks an internal plotline, but has a societal plotline, reflected in the presence of the Nazis.
The internal plotline usually relates to identity and involves abstract concepts like freedom, responsibility, and emotional growth. How those are defined vary from person to person. However, the internal needs to be expressed in concrete ways. In most cases, a character has a physical goal that reflects their internal need. For example, a teenager may crave freedom, and a set of car keys is the concrete object that represents freedom. In Star Wars, Luke wants to be a hero (abstract), a goal that is manifested by mounting a rescue effort for Leia, studying to become a Jedi, and attacking the Death Star. In The X-Files, Mulder wants to discover the truth (abstract), which he pursues as an FBI investigator.
In other words: If your hero wants to achieve an internal goal, they have to take concrete visible action. If they don’t take outside action, maybe they don’t want that internal goal so badly. “A want without a concrete goal is just a wish,” Fawkes says.
Of course, obstacles arise. Dad doesn’t want his child to drive his car. Luke has to fight the Empire. Mulder is faced with skeptics within the FBI and finds that the truth is elusive. In the internal plotline, the hero is also their own antagonist. Luke must let go of his ego before he can fully utilize the Force. Mulder fears that the truth he seeks is actually a lie.
This internal conflict can manifest in several ways:
- Contradictory desires
- Personal flaws or moral weaknesses
- Opposing belief systems
- Temptations and tendencies
- Questions about the cost of the journey
- Self-doubt
These conflict can weave together and they often tap into the thematic argument. At the end of The Hunger Games, Katniss’ internal need to survive conflicts with her equally powerful desire to protect Peeta.
But all those elements only matter if there are consequences. “The consequences don’t have to be huge, but they do need to be significant, meaning they could shift the protagonist’s current trajectory,” Fawkes writes. In the internal plotline, the consequences are psychological. If Luke can’t let go of his ego, his potential to be a hero crumbles. If Mulder succumbs to self-doubt, he will never find the truth and be left unfulfilled. He will have wasted his life.
This journey is marked by turning points that change the direction of the plot. When the hero suffers a setback, learns new information, or achieves a small victory, the story moves in a new direction. This is where conflict encounters consequences. The biggest turning point is the climax, when the hero wins or fails, but the story is marked by smaller twists along the way. In the internal plotline, the climax is when the hero definitively answers the question: Who am I?
This climax often comes right before or during the external climax, when the hero must define themselves before they can overcome their final obstacle. “What the protagonist is dealing with internally should impact the external, and what is happening externally should impact the internal,” Fawkes writes. Because the concrete goal is driven by the internal goal, their paths are intertwined. Achieving the external goal requires the character to fulfill their internal need, which in turns helps the character reach the external goal.
