Wednesday Addams: How to Show Internal Conflict (Without Bursting into Song)

There’s a reason many people enjoy musicals. The music is beautiful and riveting. Most often, the acting is fantastic. But the most entrancing of all is when the characters belt out their desires and fears to the audience in their earth-shattering musical number. It’s one of the best feelings in the world when you leave the theater, or when your TV screen goes dark, and the singer’s notes are still resonating inside you. This is the power of internal conflict. If only every story out there could be as wonderful as a musical.

The only problem for us writers is…novels can’t sing. All good characters (should) have a strong want, and an even stronger fear. But, unless you’re writing a musical, or a Shakespearean soliloquy, it’s hard to include this vital element into your story without making your characters seem too blunt. 

We can all think of at least one emotional scene where a protagonist pours their heart out and tells another character all about their wondrous hopes and dreams, but in real life no one talks like that. Humans have a tendency to hide their true feelings instead of openly confess them. So…how can your reader know a character’s desire and fear, without being told flat out what those desires and fears actually are?

Today’s Example:

Netflix’s Wednesday, though not a novel, certainly doesn’t have music, nor many emotional confession scenes. In fact, Wednesday’s whole thing is that she’s stolid and overall emotionless. Yet somehow, I still found myself relating to her. How did they manage to seamlessly sneak her internal conflict in? The answer is surprisingly simple.

Actions:

Let’s look at the very first episode. The show starts with Wednesday getting herself expelled, which forces her parents to relocate her to another school. We begin to understand Wednesday’s motives during a conversation with her parents on the way to this new school called Nevermoor. She’s obviously embarrassed and disgusted by them and they way they love each other so deeply. By the way they talk, we can tell they’ve accomplished much in life, and just want the same for their daughter. However, it’s clear Wednesday wants to separate herself from them as much as possible. She desires to be unique because she’s afraid of living in her parent’s, more specifically her mother’s, shadow.

Now, that’s great and all, but how do you know I’m not just interpreting the show wrong or making this up? Well, like I said before, you just have to look at the way she acts. 

For starters, she’s rebellious. Though Wednesday’s parents aren’t exactly chipper, they certainly aren’t as dark, violent or witty as their daughter. Wednesday, through her life-style, purposely tries to go against everything they stand for. 

When Wednesday gets into Nevermoor, which is said to be the school her parents were enrolled at as children, everywhere she looks is a reminder of her mother. The principal mentions the legacy, the students talk about it, even the pictures on the wall are a haunting reminder of her mother. And Wednesday hates all of it. This is what motivates her to solve the town murder mystery, and create her own, separate legacy, far away from her mother.

Of course, over time, Wednesday’s desire to step outside of her parent’s shadow conflicts with her new friends who she continues to put in danger, and she eventually learns to be less selfish. But, before any of that happens, the viewer was able to understand her right from the start because her actions displayed her internal conflict perfectly.

However, actions can’t solve all of your problems. They can be interpreted in many different ways. A teenager can be rebellious for many reasons, whether it be a general hate against parental control, a strong belief that contradicts their parents, etc. Yet I could tell exactly why Wednesday was being selfish and rebellious, because early in the first episode, she tells her mother: ‘I will never be you.’ Through her tone and body language, you can clearly see what she hates most. ​​This realization helped interpret each of her actions in light of her greatest fear — becoming her mother — and her deepest desire — making her own legacy, rather than leaving her motives to the faulty guesswork of the viewers.

Though your characters can’t flat out declare what their desires and fears are, they do have to mention something about what they’re thinking. Even the most stone-faced characters, like Wednesday, should end up subtly sharing their thoughts.

Most real people, though they won’t burst into song about their internal conflict, certainly will mention something about their hopes and dreams at some point. You have to almost inch around the truth, just as many humans do when talking about their own feelings and emotions, giving just enough information and insight into the protagonist’s mind to let your reader relate. So next time you try to implement internal conflict into a character, remember to show it through the way they act. Even the most emotionless, Wednesday-like characters, struggle with something, and that struggle will eventually come out through their actions. Whether it be through their personality, the way they talk, or even through the way they dress, your character will be able to scream out their internal conflict, without even having to sing.

Brainstorm with me! What kind of actions can your characters do to show their internal conflict? How was this article? Too sweet? Too sour? Just right?