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Search Results for: how to show emotion

Emotional Wounds Thesaurus Entry: Becoming a Caregiver at a Young Age

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When you're writing a character, it's important to know why she is the way she is. Knowing her backstory is important to achieving this end, and one of the most impactful pieces of a character's backstory is her emotional wound. This negative experience from the past … [Read more...] about Emotional Wounds Thesaurus Entry: Becoming a Caregiver at a Young Age

Why Is Your Character’s Emotional Wound So Important?

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Emotional wounds hold incredible power, steering a hero’s motives, actions, and beliefs. They damage their sense of self worth, filter how they view the world, and dictate how they interact with other people, making it harder for them to achieve their goals. So what exactly is a wound? An … [Read more...] about Why Is Your Character’s Emotional Wound So Important?

The Connection Between Emotional Wounds and Basic Needs

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As many of you may know, we have a new thesaurus, one that looks into a problematic (yet SO important) area: Emotional Wounds. It's somewhat intuitive to see how a traumatic event might spawn specific fears or cause flaws or attributes to form. What isn't quite so clear is the relationship … [Read more...] about The Connection Between Emotional Wounds and Basic Needs

Emotional Wound Thesaurus

Below are condensed sample entries from our popular emotional wound thesaurus as they first appeared here on our blog. It has since been developed into the bestselling book: The Emotional Wounds Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma. This resource profiles well over 100 … [Read more...] about Emotional Wound Thesaurus

The Art of Story: When Telling Trumps Showing

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Show, don’t tell advice helps us craft immersive fiction because showing involves readers, but this doesn't mean there's no place for telling. Telling is necessary sometimes, and a story will be better for it. The real question is, when is it okay to tell, not show? 1. High Action or Fast … [Read more...] about The Art of Story: When Telling Trumps Showing

Writing Emotion: Does Your Hero Shrug, Smile & Frown Too Much?

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Crutch gestures can sometimes get in the way of good writing.  They come in all shapes and sizes--maybe an eye roll, a clenched stomach, curled fists or shrugs--cues we writers tend to overuse while trying to convey what our character is feeling. Coming up with fresh emotional description … [Read more...] about Writing Emotion: Does Your Hero Shrug, Smile & Frown Too Much?

Writing Extreme Emotion Without The Melodrama

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Finding the right balance of emotion can be difficult; too little and the reader will feel no empathy for the characters, but too much, and the scene becomes melodramatic. Melodrama will pull readers right out of the story because the character’s reactions seem too ‘over the top’. If all emotions … [Read more...] about Writing Extreme Emotion Without The Melodrama

How a Character’s Unexpected Emotions Will Draw Readers In

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When the topic of Emotional Writing came up at a Donald Maass Workshop, he encouraged us to move past ‘expected’ character emotions and try for something deeper, more primal. Something unexpected. The why was simple: readers are drawn in by well-written emotion, and almost every meaningful … [Read more...] about How a Character’s Unexpected Emotions Will Draw Readers In

Hidden Emotion: Using The “Just Act Normal” Technique

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As humans, we value honesty, but in truth, to protect ourselves from harm, we often turn to deception, especially where emotions are concerned. We mislead others to think we’re feeling one way when we’re experiencing something else, and why? A few possibilities . . . The reasons go on and … [Read more...] about Hidden Emotion: Using The “Just Act Normal” Technique