WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®

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Stocking Stuffers for Writers: Emotion

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We know time is in short supply, so each day leading to Christmas, we’ll offer 5 simple, smart tips on an important topic to writers, helping with craft enhancement, revision and social networking!

 

stocking

Today’s Stocking Stuffer: Honing your mad EMOTION skillz:

1–Know what you want the reader to feel. Everything you put your character through–good, bad, ugly…it’s all to evoke a reaction from the reader. Be mindful of exactly what you want your audience to experience as you write. In order for the book to succeed, the reader must invest in the character’s plight and root for them as they struggle.

2–Use everything in your writing arsenal. Emotions are best shown through physical action, but the choices you make with story elements and structure can also enhance the experience for the reader. Setting choices (day, night, the weather, a setting with emotional tie to a character) can affect mood. Challenging a character’s strengths or revealing a weaknesses can bring out raw feeling. Description, wording, pacing, conflict, sentence structure…all of these can and should be used with intent to help bring about a specific reaction/feeling.

3–Be genuine, not melodramatic. With emotion more so than anything else, it’s easy to go a touch too far. Always keep an eye out for proportion when displaying emotion, making sure the reaction is relevant to the situation, within the character’s response range and most importantly, cliche-free.

4–Minimize thoughts, maximize action. Showing emotion through thoughts can be a slippery slope and can lead to telling/explaining. Showing emotion physically is difficult for a reason–it means having an intimate knowledge of the way your character expresses themselves. Strive for a balance of showing that leans more on action, with emotional thoughts acting as an enhancement. What your character does to express themselves will have more of an impact than what they think about the situation.

5–Emotions should lead to decisions. Always keep the story moving forward. A character agonizing over a choice will crank up the tension & heighten stakes, but too much will slow the pace. Remember too, often when emotion is involved, we make mistakes. Mistakes = great conflict!

Image: PublicDomainPictures @ Pixabay

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Comments

  1. Beth says

    I thought point #2 was really interesting. Once again you’ve helped me think about a different way to accomplish something in my writing. It’s so easy to choose a bland setting. I love the idea of using a setting that actually changes or reveals the character’s mood. Thanks!

  9. Jenn says

    Thanks for the excellent points. I’m enjoying these stocking stuffers–they last longer than the chocolate I usually get in my stocking. 🙂

  12. Laurel Garver says

    Great tips. I especially like the one about proportion, because it is easy to go too extreme in character’s reactions.

    I’ve sometimes erred in the other extreme, though–underplaying emotion to a degree my readers felt the character was too analytical and not having an honest reaction. Getting emotions right can be a tough balancing act.