Emotion

Photo by Luis Galvez on Unsplash

Everyone has read a book where the emotions aren’t all that great. Either there wasn’t any, and the characters were cold and impersonal, or there was too much and you get bogged down in it. There is a sweet spot, somewhere between the two that will be different for everyone. For some, it will be more to the lots of emotion side of the spectrum, and others will prefer to not feel much at all.

However, in order to write a compelling story, there needs to be some emotion. Emotion is one of the ways a writer can make their character relatable and real, so why waste or ignore it? Instead, use it, taking advantage of the natural way that humans can read emotion.

One of the mistakes I make as a writer is to make my characters emotions outrageous. Someone will go from deliriously happy to suicidal in a matter of seconds, which might work in some situations, but it doesn’t when there isn’t an especially good reason for it to. Emotions don’t really work like that.

Another mistake that I make is to tell the emotion, not show it. I’ll say something like ‘Joe was angry,’ instead of encouraging my reader to discover his emotion for themselves with descriptive language. For example, instead of saying ‘Joe was angry,’ I would say something like ‘Joe folded his arms, narrowing his eyes. What right did she have? he thought. She thinks she’s so much better than everyone else. Why did I have to be the one to confront her? He took a step back, now standing a little away from Maria and closer to Janice. His shoulders were tense, the tension in the air as obvious as the blue of Timothy’s eyes.’ In this situation, Joe is angry at Maria, for some reason that wasn’t specified. But it obviously made him angry. The anger also didn’t happen immediately. There is obviously some tension in the air, even before whatever Maria said, and Joe isn’t happy about having to speak to her about it. But I never actually mentioned the word ‘anger’ once. Humans are wired to pick up emotions through body language and reactions.

Men and women have the same emotions, but will respond to them differently. An angry man might punch whoever made them angry, succumbing to the emotion in a physical way. A woman who is angry might slander whoever made them angry, responding to the emotion through abusing the other person’s emotions.

Humans are emotional beings, and these emotions are often very powerful. Remember: they might not remember what you said or did, but they will remember how you made them feel.