365 days of writing prompts

10 writing prompts to help you show the battle within your characters and how it transforms them.

Welcome to Day 16! Yesterday, you explored the relationships that shape your story from the outside. Today, we turn inward to the conflicts that shape your characters from within.

Every meaningful story carries an inner struggle: fear versus courage, duty versus wish, truth versus. comfort. This inner conflict drives growth and gives readers something to feel. Transformation doesn’t just come from what happens to your character. It also comes from what happens inside them as they face those challenges.

I found this great article on this topic here. The writer, in the same article, also writes about external conflict. I want you to pay special attention to what he says about the internal conflicts of characters.

Today’s ten prompts will help you uncover your character’s deepest struggles and the ways they evolve through them.

1. The Inner Battle
   Find your character’s greatest internal conflict. What two forces or beliefs are at war within them?
2. The Mask
   Write a scene where your character hides how they truly feel. What cracks start to show?
3. The Defining Moment
   Recall a choice that changes everything. How does your character’s decision reveal what they fear or value most?
4. The Doubt
   Write a moment where your character questions their own strength, purpose, or worth. How do they respond to that doubt?
5. The Temptation
   Show your character facing an easy path that betrays who they want to become. Do they take it?
6. The Mirror Scene
   Let your character see themselves clearly for the first time. This can happen through another’s eyes. Is it a painful truth? Did it come from a quiet realization?
7. The Catalyst for Change
   What forces your character to finally confront their inner struggle? Write the scene that sparks transformation.
8. The Resistance
   Sometimes characters fight growth. Write a moment where your character clings to old patterns or fears, even when they know better.
9. The Shift in Belief
   Show a subtle but powerful change: a thought, feeling, or truth your character finally accepts.
10. The Becoming
    End with transformation. Who is your character now, compared to who they were at the beginning?

Inner conflict is the soul of a story. It turns characters into people we remember. Today, write bravely. Let your character struggle, fail, and rise again. Transformation always begins with truth.

Share in the comments which of the writing prompts helped you the most.