So we sat there and talked it out.  I ended the emotional arc of the character in chapter 23.  Five chapters before the finale.

Each story has two sources of tension: circumstance conflict and emotional conflict.  Circumstance conflict, often called plot conflict, is driven by the external needs of the character.  Soldier escaping from concentration camp, a lawyer struggling to win a case, a debutante trying to make a good match to save her family from financial ruin, all of those are conflicts of circumstance.  They are forced onto the protagonist by environment and they put protagonist in danger of failure.  The price of failure might be something as small as the loss of promotion or something as big as the loss of life, depending on the story.

Emotional conflict takes place inside the character.  It arises from the wants and needs of the characters themselves.  I prefer the stories where the emotional conflict directly opposes the conflict of circumstance.  A young debutante who must find a husband to pull her family out of bankruptcy falls for a poor man.  Oh noes!  Angst!

These two conflicts, the internal and the external, need to coincide in finale to deliver the maximum emotional gratification for the reader.  (John McClane saves his wife and they are back together.  Also the evil reporter is punched in the nose.)  Yours truly for some odd reason ended the emotional conflict in chapter 23 and the narrative ground to a halt.

For me the conflict progression is completely ingrained into writing – I don’t think of it unless I’m forced.  In this case I was forced to analyze it and I shall now make some sort of sweets for my family to atone for days of grumpiness.

It took me four days to figure it out.  Don’t be me.