How to focus on external conflict rather than inner/interpersonal conflict?
I love creating characters and my plots generally focus greatly on their inner conflicts and their relationships with other characters (my experience has almost exclusively been writing romance). There is very little external conflict, as the overarching plot is the development of the relationship and is driven by the characters themselves.
However I have a few ideas for fantasy/adventure novels with plots that are driven by an external conflict. While I have a general idea of the plot points, I am finding it difficult to sit down and iron out the details. For example, in a story about the children of the seven Demon Kings of Hell, I know that the children discover their heritage and eventually have to travel to the depths of Hell to fight Satan, but are betrayed by one of their own and must flee back to the land of the living. But I can’t figure out how they get to Hell, or what happens in between which forces them to make the journey in the first place. When I try to take the time to develop the plot some more, I always get distracted by the characters and develop them instead. If I were to just sit down and start writing I would just write endless character interaction and nothing would ever happen. The characters are interesting, but I need them to “do” things. Rather than interacting with each other, I need to get them interacting with the external conflict.
I don’t necessarily think I should give up and only ever write character-based plot, even if this is what comes naturally to me. Does anyone have any advice to give on how to focus my attention on the external conflict?
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I would suggest that rather than thinking in terms of external conflict rather than internal conflict, you should think in terms of internal conflict caused by external conflict.
In a romance, the story tends to focus caused by the internal conflict between the desire for a romantic relationship and all of the other things each party wants from live. (One must give up their pride, another their prejudice.)
In an adventure there is still internal conflict but it is caused by external forces. Do I risk my life to fight the dragon or abandon my village to be destroyed by the dragon? The dragon is the source of the external conflict, but the conflict that makes the story interesting is the internal struggle between fight and flight. The actual fight with the dragon is just hacking and hewing. It is not interesting in itself. It is the hero's conquest of their fear of facing the dragon that is interesting, and it is in seeing the battle through to the end that the hero proves the transformation that has taken place in them that gave them the courage to face the dragon.
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