In Part I, I defined conflicts and described the kinds. As I said, conflict is the backbone of fiction, and understanding this important element helps the author become a better writer. Hopefully I have added a few new thoughts to this blog.
Nature of Conflict
1. Complexity
Conflict, especially internal conflict, is complex because it tests the character’s problem solving abilities and wiles. It forces the character to devise a plan and to test his or her strength, and it results in change. The conflict inherently opens emotional doors that add to the tension.
2. Choices
Conflicts offer choices. The character must make decisions which path he will travel to resolve the conflict. These choices are important to the integrity and worth value of the character. If he fails, his self-esteem crumbles or his life could end, depending on the type of genre. Making choices is when backstory comes into play. What were the beliefs of the character’s family? What was right and wrong? What old saying did they believe as true? A stitch in time saves nine. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Do to others as you would have them do to you. These beliefs influence the way in which a character thinks and acts, so make sure to use these childhood/family’s beliefs to enhance poor decision-making or unexpected choices. Surprise the reader. With choices, you have tension, and whether the right or wrong choice, an emotion is a result for both the character and the reader.
3. Conflicting Choices
In real life, people are often faced with decisions in which they must choice the “lesser of two evils.” Decisions are rarely easy and sometimes they are not perfect. When a character must make a choice that creates a new problem or clashes with a deep-seeded belief or value, a new conflict is created. When clashing into a value or belief, emotion is expelled. Let’s say to save himself from being accused of a crime, he must incriminate his brother or a parent. Or Finding a lottery ticket, he wins a large payout, but he knows the person who lost the ticket. Does he keep the money? Split it? Or tell the person who lost it that he won the million dollar jackpot? Can you imagine the emotional reactions characters have dealing with this kind of conflict.
4. Conflict Grows and Deepens
When you peel back one layer of an onion, beneath you find another thicker layer. This is conflict. A novel depends upon layers of conflicts—the thin ones first and then they grow deeper and more dramatic. As a character believes he is resolving one issue, it is important to add another problem in his path that creates a new conflict. Always save the most dramatic and worst one for last. Don’t make your character’s life easy. Drama and emotion go hand in hand.
5. Immediate Conflicts
Every novel opens with a conflict. This is what hooks the reader and keeps her reading. Often the early conflicts come from a situation appearing on the first pages that causes the character to act or to make a decision. This can happen from a letter, a telephone call, a new character with a message, a strange situation, finding a clue to something important or a person needing to run away from a situation. Whatever it is don’t plop heavy backstory into the opening chapters. Hint at the past through introspection or dialogue. Cause the character to do something that leaves the reader with questions (he receives a letter and hides it). But don’t spew out information that pulls the reader from the action. Let the conflict tug the reader along.
6. Conflict Introduction
Introduce a new conflict building before ending the current one. Don’t give the character a moment without a conflict. Be real. Life is filled with small and large problems. Organize the difficulties in the character’s life and present them one at a time. This keeps the novel moving along, and allows emotion to build in a realistic way.
Showing posts with label Creating Emotions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creating Emotions. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Conflict = Tension = Emotion - Part I
So many articles offer tips on creating conflict and talk about the kinds of conflict and why they’re important. The reason is simple. A novel is not a story when it lacks conflict because conflict breeds tension and tension is offers emotion in your novel which is a vital ingredient to a story that grabs the reader and lingers in his mind.
What is conflict?
Too often writers present disagreements and arguments as conflict. Although in a broad sense, disagreements and arguments are a form of struggle, they do not arouse a reader enough to glue her to the book. You and I have conflicts daily. They’re commonplace and boring. Obviously then those two types of conflict are not what a plot needs. I’ve talked about this before, but I hope this new article will provide some different takes on the issue.
Conflict is when a need or goal are opposed by another character, a serious situation or an internal struggle that holds the character back from reaching a goal.
Two people who want land to use for their important purpose creates an opposition. Two people vying for one job that will make all hte difference in each one's life is conflict. A family illness that ties a character to the same town or the same job when an offer draws him away, yet he cannot fail his dying mother or his love interest. Those scenarios are conflict. A woman, needing money to resolve a serious problem that endangers her well-being, is tempted to steal money from her employer, and though she has a plan and the capability, something in her values or experience, causes her to struggle with the means to resolve her need. These are all examples of the external, internal and even inherent conflict that can result in strong tension and create grabbing emotion.
Kinds of conflict
I’ve just named the basic kinds of conflict: inherent, external, and internal.
1. Inherent Conflicts in Plot
Setting is something in the novel from the beginning that causes problems: such as, the setting, distance in relationships, bad memories, or a dangerous environment.
2. External Conflict
This is the outside world pressing in, two or more whose needs or goals are in competition, or a person with two goals that oppose each other.
3. Internal Conflict
These are conflicts rising from a character’s fears, weaknesses, doubts, or failures. These conflicts also some from spiritual struggles or a character wanting to protect him or herself from another bad experience.
4. Extra Personal
Robert McKee identifies a fourth conflict as extra personal. These are often visual conflicts that are delivered in the form of action or farce. If you recall, the old I Love Lucy show with her classic chocolate factory plot, you will see how this create tension and emotion for the character as well as the viewer. The young camper lost in the woods finds an abandoned cabin—she thinks. Fear and foreshadowing danger arouses tension and thus emotion.
Part II will cover the Nature of Conflict
What is conflict?
Too often writers present disagreements and arguments as conflict. Although in a broad sense, disagreements and arguments are a form of struggle, they do not arouse a reader enough to glue her to the book. You and I have conflicts daily. They’re commonplace and boring. Obviously then those two types of conflict are not what a plot needs. I’ve talked about this before, but I hope this new article will provide some different takes on the issue.
Conflict is when a need or goal are opposed by another character, a serious situation or an internal struggle that holds the character back from reaching a goal.
Two people who want land to use for their important purpose creates an opposition. Two people vying for one job that will make all hte difference in each one's life is conflict. A family illness that ties a character to the same town or the same job when an offer draws him away, yet he cannot fail his dying mother or his love interest. Those scenarios are conflict. A woman, needing money to resolve a serious problem that endangers her well-being, is tempted to steal money from her employer, and though she has a plan and the capability, something in her values or experience, causes her to struggle with the means to resolve her need. These are all examples of the external, internal and even inherent conflict that can result in strong tension and create grabbing emotion.
Kinds of conflict
I’ve just named the basic kinds of conflict: inherent, external, and internal.
1. Inherent Conflicts in Plot
Setting is something in the novel from the beginning that causes problems: such as, the setting, distance in relationships, bad memories, or a dangerous environment.
2. External Conflict
This is the outside world pressing in, two or more whose needs or goals are in competition, or a person with two goals that oppose each other.
3. Internal Conflict
These are conflicts rising from a character’s fears, weaknesses, doubts, or failures. These conflicts also some from spiritual struggles or a character wanting to protect him or herself from another bad experience.
4. Extra Personal
Robert McKee identifies a fourth conflict as extra personal. These are often visual conflicts that are delivered in the form of action or farce. If you recall, the old I Love Lucy show with her classic chocolate factory plot, you will see how this create tension and emotion for the character as well as the viewer. The young camper lost in the woods finds an abandoned cabin—she thinks. Fear and foreshadowing danger arouses tension and thus emotion.
Part II will cover the Nature of Conflict
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Intimate Storytelling - Part II Character’s Feelings
Part I on Intimate Storytelling covered some of the elements of staying in a POV character’s viewpoint, but intimate storytelling needs more than a character’s viewpoint. The reader needs to feel the story through the character’s impressions and experience. This is done by bringing the senses to life.
The familiar “showing not telling” comes into play here. Let’s say a scene opens on a hot day. The POV character could say or think he was hot, or he could compare it mentally to the blast of the smelting ovens in the factory where he works. That ties the character to his employment which helps the reader know a little more about him.
But better yet, help the reader feel the heat through his perspective and experience. His palms slipped against his leather car seat leaving a moist imprint. He touched the steering wheel and drew back his hand. “?**#&8!” (You include the expletives that fit his personality.) In these two sentences readers don’t have to be told about the heat, they can experience it through the character’s senses—sight, sound and touch—because they have experienced the same thing in their lives.
Use on the impressions and senses that impact your story. You might show the heat of a day for the reader’s sense of place, but don’t over do it. You could use the first sentence in the example above alone and you would make your point. Keep descriptions concise when you are using them only to help the reader envision where they are. If you are going to use the setting to enhance the mood or define the character, then the description can be expanded. More about that later.
Too many senses used in one spot can also kill their effect. Chose which sense element is most dramatic or dynamic to your purpose. The overuse of senses can bring the story to a halt rather than add to its quality. If you read your work aloud, or use a text to voice program, many of these problems will jump out at you, and you can correct them. It’s always wise to hear as well as read your drafts. This is using your senses.
The familiar “showing not telling” comes into play here. Let’s say a scene opens on a hot day. The POV character could say or think he was hot, or he could compare it mentally to the blast of the smelting ovens in the factory where he works. That ties the character to his employment which helps the reader know a little more about him.
But better yet, help the reader feel the heat through his perspective and experience. His palms slipped against his leather car seat leaving a moist imprint. He touched the steering wheel and drew back his hand. “?**#&8!” (You include the expletives that fit his personality.) In these two sentences readers don’t have to be told about the heat, they can experience it through the character’s senses—sight, sound and touch—because they have experienced the same thing in their lives.
Use on the impressions and senses that impact your story. You might show the heat of a day for the reader’s sense of place, but don’t over do it. You could use the first sentence in the example above alone and you would make your point. Keep descriptions concise when you are using them only to help the reader envision where they are. If you are going to use the setting to enhance the mood or define the character, then the description can be expanded. More about that later.
Too many senses used in one spot can also kill their effect. Chose which sense element is most dramatic or dynamic to your purpose. The overuse of senses can bring the story to a halt rather than add to its quality. If you read your work aloud, or use a text to voice program, many of these problems will jump out at you, and you can correct them. It’s always wise to hear as well as read your drafts. This is using your senses.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Description II: Purposeful Details
Part I of this description section talked about putting life into your novel. Part II delves more into emotion and characterization. Description can connect with readers when it evokes emotion, and it can also deepen characterization by helping expose characters’ attitudes. When you use detailed descriptions in your novels, think about the affect the details have on readers. Develop them to get the most emotional impact you can. And how do you do that?
You create an emotional impact with the reader, by being selective with which details you chose and the emphasis you place on them. Remember that description and details are not only presented with the eyes. What we see is only one of the methods you use to bring the scene to life. Include the senses in description. In Description I, I used an example of a woods. Take that woods and add other senses besides sight. The scent of the woods lingers in your memory whether in the heat of summer, the moldering odor of autumn decay or the damp, mildew aroma of spring.
The woods are filled with colors from the white mushroom almost hidden in the grass to the umber hue of a tree trunk, the shades of spring green leaves to forest green. Then consider textures. Scrap you hand against the rough bark, run your finger along a maple’s smooth leaves as you feel the ridge of veins. Pick a peach from the fruit tree and stroke the fuzz, feel the tickle on your fingers and your mouth as your teeth snap into the sugary juice, and you smell the sweetness.
Where does this take you in your recollections? Does the description take you back to past experiences? Can you recall how you felt. Where you with someone else? Draw in the emotion it triggers in your mind.
Along with pulling emotions from senses, description creates word pictures that heighten a reader’s pleasure in your novel. Instead of seeing the woods tree by tree notice the clusters of trees, picture the open spaces in the landscape. Is this a meadow or a place filled with underbrush? The meadow is a setting for lovers to have a picnic while underbrush is a place to find a dead body. Leaving the woods, look at a bookshelf. Besides book what is there that helps to define the character—photographs of family, trophies from sports successes, knickknacks that hold memories for the owner, a pair of small scissors tarnished with age, a wooden box filled with pebbles? What do you learn about the character? How does this affect the character’s relationship with the owner of the items on the shelves? Will readers be aroused by the description you paint?
Description without purpose should create a sense of place only. He followed the path through the woods of maples and birches and heard in the background the skitter of animals as he trudged along in his thoughts. This is enough to let the reader picture his walk.
But description can be used to heighten characterization and emotion. When used well it can foreshadow danger—think of the underbrush in the woods—or set the mood for a romantic scene. When description, no matter how you use it, provide the reader with word pictures that trigger their own memories or experiences, you’ve done your job. Use description wisely.Description II: Purposeful Details
Description can connect with readers when it evokes emotion, and it can also deepen characterization by helping expose characters’ attitudes. When you use detailed descriptions in your novels, think about the affect the details have on readers. Develop them to get the most emotional impact you can. And how do you do that?
You create an emotional impact with the reader, by being selective with which details you chose and the emphasis you place on them. Remember that description and details are not only presented with the eyes. What we see is only one of the methods you use to bring the scene to life. Include the senses in description. In Description I, I used an example of a woods. Take that woods and add other senses besides sight. The scent of the woods lingers in your memory whether in the heat of summer, the moldering odor of autumn decay or the damp, mildew aroma of spring.
The woods are filled with colors from the white mushroom almost hidden in the grass to the umber hue of a tree trunk, the shades of spring green leaves to forest green. Then consider textures. Scrap you hand against the rough bark, run your finger along a maple’s smooth leaves as you feel the ridge of veins. Pick a peach from the fruit tree and stroke the fuzz, feel the tickle on your fingers and your mouth as your teeth snap into the sugary juice, and you smell the sweetness.
Where does this take you in your recollections? Does the description take you back to past experiences? Can you recall how you felt. Where you with someone else? Draw in the emotion it triggers in your mind.
Along with pulling emotions from senses, description creates word pictures that heighten a reader’s pleasure in your novel. Instead of seeing the woods tree by tree notice the clusters of trees, picture the open spaces in the landscape. Is this a meadow or a place filled with underbrush? The meadow is a setting for lovers to have a picnic while underbrush is a place to find a dead body. Leaving the woods, look at a bookshelf. Besides book what is there that helps to define the character—photographs of family, trophies from sports successes, knickknacks that hold memories for the owner, a pair of small scissors tarnished with age, a wooden box filled with pebbles? What do you learn about the character? How does this affect the character’s relationship with the owner of the items on the shelves? Will readers be aroused by the description you paint?
Description without purpose should create a sense of place only. He followed the path through the woods of maples and birches and heard in the background the skitter of animals as he trudged along in his thoughts. This is enough to let the reader picture his walk.
But description can be used to heighten characterization and emotion. When used well it can foreshadow danger—think of the underbrush in the woods—or set the mood for a romantic scene. When description, no matter how you use it, provide the reader with word pictures that trigger their own memories or experiences, you’ve done your job. Use description wisely.
You create an emotional impact with the reader, by being selective with which details you chose and the emphasis you place on them. Remember that description and details are not only presented with the eyes. What we see is only one of the methods you use to bring the scene to life. Include the senses in description. In Description I, I used an example of a woods. Take that woods and add other senses besides sight. The scent of the woods lingers in your memory whether in the heat of summer, the moldering odor of autumn decay or the damp, mildew aroma of spring.
The woods are filled with colors from the white mushroom almost hidden in the grass to the umber hue of a tree trunk, the shades of spring green leaves to forest green. Then consider textures. Scrap you hand against the rough bark, run your finger along a maple’s smooth leaves as you feel the ridge of veins. Pick a peach from the fruit tree and stroke the fuzz, feel the tickle on your fingers and your mouth as your teeth snap into the sugary juice, and you smell the sweetness.
Where does this take you in your recollections? Does the description take you back to past experiences? Can you recall how you felt. Where you with someone else? Draw in the emotion it triggers in your mind.
Along with pulling emotions from senses, description creates word pictures that heighten a reader’s pleasure in your novel. Instead of seeing the woods tree by tree notice the clusters of trees, picture the open spaces in the landscape. Is this a meadow or a place filled with underbrush? The meadow is a setting for lovers to have a picnic while underbrush is a place to find a dead body. Leaving the woods, look at a bookshelf. Besides book what is there that helps to define the character—photographs of family, trophies from sports successes, knickknacks that hold memories for the owner, a pair of small scissors tarnished with age, a wooden box filled with pebbles? What do you learn about the character? How does this affect the character’s relationship with the owner of the items on the shelves? Will readers be aroused by the description you paint?
Description without purpose should create a sense of place only. He followed the path through the woods of maples and birches and heard in the background the skitter of animals as he trudged along in his thoughts. This is enough to let the reader picture his walk.
But description can be used to heighten characterization and emotion. When used well it can foreshadow danger—think of the underbrush in the woods—or set the mood for a romantic scene. When description, no matter how you use it, provide the reader with word pictures that trigger their own memories or experiences, you’ve done your job. Use description wisely.Description II: Purposeful Details
Description can connect with readers when it evokes emotion, and it can also deepen characterization by helping expose characters’ attitudes. When you use detailed descriptions in your novels, think about the affect the details have on readers. Develop them to get the most emotional impact you can. And how do you do that?
You create an emotional impact with the reader, by being selective with which details you chose and the emphasis you place on them. Remember that description and details are not only presented with the eyes. What we see is only one of the methods you use to bring the scene to life. Include the senses in description. In Description I, I used an example of a woods. Take that woods and add other senses besides sight. The scent of the woods lingers in your memory whether in the heat of summer, the moldering odor of autumn decay or the damp, mildew aroma of spring.
The woods are filled with colors from the white mushroom almost hidden in the grass to the umber hue of a tree trunk, the shades of spring green leaves to forest green. Then consider textures. Scrap you hand against the rough bark, run your finger along a maple’s smooth leaves as you feel the ridge of veins. Pick a peach from the fruit tree and stroke the fuzz, feel the tickle on your fingers and your mouth as your teeth snap into the sugary juice, and you smell the sweetness.
Where does this take you in your recollections? Does the description take you back to past experiences? Can you recall how you felt. Where you with someone else? Draw in the emotion it triggers in your mind.
Along with pulling emotions from senses, description creates word pictures that heighten a reader’s pleasure in your novel. Instead of seeing the woods tree by tree notice the clusters of trees, picture the open spaces in the landscape. Is this a meadow or a place filled with underbrush? The meadow is a setting for lovers to have a picnic while underbrush is a place to find a dead body. Leaving the woods, look at a bookshelf. Besides book what is there that helps to define the character—photographs of family, trophies from sports successes, knickknacks that hold memories for the owner, a pair of small scissors tarnished with age, a wooden box filled with pebbles? What do you learn about the character? How does this affect the character’s relationship with the owner of the items on the shelves? Will readers be aroused by the description you paint?
Description without purpose should create a sense of place only. He followed the path through the woods of maples and birches and heard in the background the skitter of animals as he trudged along in his thoughts. This is enough to let the reader picture his walk.
But description can be used to heighten characterization and emotion. When used well it can foreshadow danger—think of the underbrush in the woods—or set the mood for a romantic scene. When description, no matter how you use it, provide the reader with word pictures that trigger their own memories or experiences, you’ve done your job. Use description wisely.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Tension and Conflict Part 4 - Mirco Tension
While conflict is action between people, ideas, or needs, tension is the response to that action. It is the emotion that drives the story. Tension shows urgency, requires choices, and leaves the reader with questions. Donald Maass in Fire In Fiction refers to Micro-Tension which is an inherent sense of tension built into the novel with the use of your writing style.
• Moment By Moment
Provide a step by step view of the scene, especially in suspense, that keeps readers in a state of tension as to what will happen. Think of an old John Wayne movie: two gunman facing each other. Focus on eyes of the good guy/eyes of the bad guy, focus on pistol in holster of both, shifting of their stance, fidgeting fingers, long distance view of the gunman facing each other, close up of a tick in the cheek of one, muscle jerk of another, motion, gun from holster, shot.
With each movement you will enhance the tension. This can be done in any novel in a
dramatic scene by detailing the scrap of a chair on the floor, table tips as he rises, women steps back and hand reaching for a kitchen drawer, man’s feet moving toward her, drawer opens, man reaches for her, her hand plunges into the drawer, man attacks, knife flashes, bloody shirt, man falls, woman screams.
You get the idea. Focus on each step, but only use this for scenes of drama that make a dynamic move forward in the plot.
• More Than Details Along with the moment by moment action, provide moment by moment details of emotion. Show how the main character responds to the action as it unfolds, and notice I said show and not tell. Use the body’s response such as: intake of breath, trembling, wrenching heart, galloping pulse. Use small pieces of introspection but give them a first person feeling. He can’t do this to me. I will not let him win. She won’t treat me like this again. Use introspection sparingly.
• Sense Of Foreboding
Leave readers with the feeling that more is there than they can see. Use subtle foreshadowing, leave sentences unended or questions unanswered, struggles unspoken but the reader feels them. Use situation that involves the senses—gooseflesh, pricking sensation up the spine, head spinning. Creating the feeling of ESP for the character or the reader who anticipates something is going to happen.
• Anxiety And Twists
Create anxiety and twists to the “normal.” Man walks into his office and the room is empty. Rattled by problems, woman drives to pick up her child at school, but he’s not there. Person plans a party and no one shows up. Fourth of July celebration and it rains.
It can be small to knee-jerking twists, but put them in your novels to create tension.
• Conflicting Emotions
Life produces conflicting emotions. A man wants a promotion but realizes it will take away time from his family life. Woman wants to have a child but realizes it will affect her career. Man wants to prove he’s innocent of a crime but must put the blame on a friend. Dieter faces her favorite dessert and struggles. Emotions in real life are often conflicting. Look in your own life and take note of what you struggle with. If you struggle, then so do many others. Work these kinds of conflicting tensions into your novels.
Emotions are often conflicting when someone is reluctant to accept or believe what they see, hear or feel. If you see a friend’s husband in a restaurant with another woman, you have conflicting emotions. Is this a romantic dinner? Is it really him or a look alike? Do you tell your friend or do you pretend that you didn’t see it? Each decision has with it inherent problems.
Another reluctance to accept or believe something comes with the character’s flaws. He is impatient, but does not accept that he is. She is fifty-nine but behaves as she did when she was twenty-one. He steals from his company but thinks he deserves the “bonus.”
Whether it’s facing our own conflicting emotions or dealing with someone else’s issues, tension is created for the character and the reader. Build these techniques into your basic story structure.
• Moment By Moment
Provide a step by step view of the scene, especially in suspense, that keeps readers in a state of tension as to what will happen. Think of an old John Wayne movie: two gunman facing each other. Focus on eyes of the good guy/eyes of the bad guy, focus on pistol in holster of both, shifting of their stance, fidgeting fingers, long distance view of the gunman facing each other, close up of a tick in the cheek of one, muscle jerk of another, motion, gun from holster, shot.
With each movement you will enhance the tension. This can be done in any novel in a
dramatic scene by detailing the scrap of a chair on the floor, table tips as he rises, women steps back and hand reaching for a kitchen drawer, man’s feet moving toward her, drawer opens, man reaches for her, her hand plunges into the drawer, man attacks, knife flashes, bloody shirt, man falls, woman screams.
You get the idea. Focus on each step, but only use this for scenes of drama that make a dynamic move forward in the plot.
• More Than Details Along with the moment by moment action, provide moment by moment details of emotion. Show how the main character responds to the action as it unfolds, and notice I said show and not tell. Use the body’s response such as: intake of breath, trembling, wrenching heart, galloping pulse. Use small pieces of introspection but give them a first person feeling. He can’t do this to me. I will not let him win. She won’t treat me like this again. Use introspection sparingly.
• Sense Of Foreboding
Leave readers with the feeling that more is there than they can see. Use subtle foreshadowing, leave sentences unended or questions unanswered, struggles unspoken but the reader feels them. Use situation that involves the senses—gooseflesh, pricking sensation up the spine, head spinning. Creating the feeling of ESP for the character or the reader who anticipates something is going to happen.
• Anxiety And Twists
Create anxiety and twists to the “normal.” Man walks into his office and the room is empty. Rattled by problems, woman drives to pick up her child at school, but he’s not there. Person plans a party and no one shows up. Fourth of July celebration and it rains.
It can be small to knee-jerking twists, but put them in your novels to create tension.
• Conflicting Emotions
Life produces conflicting emotions. A man wants a promotion but realizes it will take away time from his family life. Woman wants to have a child but realizes it will affect her career. Man wants to prove he’s innocent of a crime but must put the blame on a friend. Dieter faces her favorite dessert and struggles. Emotions in real life are often conflicting. Look in your own life and take note of what you struggle with. If you struggle, then so do many others. Work these kinds of conflicting tensions into your novels.
Emotions are often conflicting when someone is reluctant to accept or believe what they see, hear or feel. If you see a friend’s husband in a restaurant with another woman, you have conflicting emotions. Is this a romantic dinner? Is it really him or a look alike? Do you tell your friend or do you pretend that you didn’t see it? Each decision has with it inherent problems.
Another reluctance to accept or believe something comes with the character’s flaws. He is impatient, but does not accept that he is. She is fifty-nine but behaves as she did when she was twenty-one. He steals from his company but thinks he deserves the “bonus.”
Whether it’s facing our own conflicting emotions or dealing with someone else’s issues, tension is created for the character and the reader. Build these techniques into your basic story structure.
Monday, April 14, 2008
A Graphic Look At Emotions
Emotion is vital to a good story. Characters are flat without realistic, dynamic emotion and the story will not hook a reader. While emotion has been covered on this blog in earlier blog entries, new information is always helpful to writers. A notable thought about emotions is that they are not pure responses, but are a complex blend of feelings and reactions with nuances and dimensions that come alive in a character's actions and thoughts.
A weblink came to my attention through blogger and romance novelist RaeAnne Thayne that creates a three-dimensional look at emotion and its amazing blend of colors. The article shows how a stimulus results in reactions both in thought, feelings, and behavior as the character disgests the event in all its complexities.
Click on this link and digest the powerful information.
http://www.fractal.org/Bewustzijns-Besturings-Model/Nature-of-emotions.htm
A weblink came to my attention through blogger and romance novelist RaeAnne Thayne that creates a three-dimensional look at emotion and its amazing blend of colors. The article shows how a stimulus results in reactions both in thought, feelings, and behavior as the character disgests the event in all its complexities.
Click on this link and digest the powerful information.
http://www.fractal.org/Bewustzijns-Besturings-Model/Nature-of-emotions.htm
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Emotion - Two More Ways to Show It
In my last post, I covered the first three methods of showing emotion—physical responses, action, and dialogue. Today I’ll cover the last two—introspection and analogies which includes poetic devices and using the setting to enhance the mood and emotion.
Introspection is what we call head talk. It’s the thinking process of POV characters, and it’s the one time the reader learns the truth as the character sees it. What we think is open and honest even if we try to cover the truth. It is in our heads in all it’s goodness or rottenness. So introspection is an excellent way to present many pieces of information throughout a novel, but it’s an excellent way to not only show emotion but to explain the "why" of it to readers.
When a character feels hurt or disappointed or upset, the person’s mind will go over the issues that troubles them. The reader can see the depth of the pain or joy that comes from these feelings. Just as thoughts run through your mind daily, so they do with characters, and we share them with the reader when the thoughts make a significant contribution to move the story forward as well as to explain an unknown.
For example, if you have a secret and someone talks about another situation close to your own, you will hid your internal reaction, but you will experience it in your head. Let’s say you are a Christian woman who had an abortion. Now this abortion tears at you, and when you are with someone who is talking about the horror of abortion, the killing of an unborn child, the unforgivable sin of taking a life, you will nod in agreement, but inside you are torn to bits by these comments. If this were a fictitious character, you can see how this revelation will create emotion in the reader.
If you still want to keep the total story a secret, you can have the character nod in agreement, but in her head, you could show her emotion in this way—her past coiled around her like a snake, choking the life from her. This kind of comment would foreshadow or provide the reader with a hint that something similar happened in the character’s life. Perhaps she took a friend to an abortion clinic, perhaps her sister had an abortion, or perhaps she did or thought about it. Which ever is the truth of this secret, the reader will now have something to cling to and to speculate about, and the reader will be eager to delve into the book to learn the truth.
Analogies are another way to bring emotions to life through imagery. Analogies are comparisons of two unlike things that have similarities. A paraphrased definition form the Wikipedia Encyclopedia is: An analogy is the reasoning of transferring information from a particular subject to another particular subject, and in a narrower sense, an analogy is an inference or an argument from a particular to another particular, where at least one of the premises or the conclusion is general.
For example. He watched the waves pounding against the rocks with power and fury, yet making unnoticeable impact on the invincible boulders, and he realized he, too, has been impacted by life in a way that should have destroyed him, but his faith has kept him strong.
Here we see the difference — rocks and life — yet the similarity is clear because life dashes against us and our spirit in the same way a wave crashes against the rocks.
Poetic devices are also used to make similar comparisons. The most common devices are similes and metaphors. A similes uses the word like or as while a metaphor is a comparison without using the word like or as. These devices create word pictures that compare two things with commonalities. For example, Carl Sandburg’s poem Fog: The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over the harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. Obviously fog doesn’t have feet but we see the imagery of a cat who moves quietly and stealthily without being heard and then slinks away. This metaphor also us to see the similarity to the movement and feeling of fog. Not only do we see the image, but we feel something as well. It creates a mood or attitude of loneliness or solitude and thus creates emotion. It draws us inside ourselves to deal with our feelings.
Here’s how a metaphor or simile can work in a novel— The man charged past, his bull frame causing everyone to move out of his way. Again this makes word pictures—images—you can see, but it also creates an attitude which causes an emotion. We can see the bulk of this man charging through a crowd and we don’t like what we see.
The simile makes this clear. Similes are easier to use and more easy to spot. He stalked across the room like a rooster in a hen house. You can see that if you’ve ever seen a rooster with that cocky, "I own this place" attitude. Again this creates an emotion in the reader or in the character as he or she views this man stalking across the room. Fear ripped through him like buckshot. Can you feel the sting of this emotion?
Nature and setting also can create an emotions. The weather or the tone of the day can be a refection of the character’s emotions. The rain plummeted from the sky flattening the flowers against the earth just as his words had tossed her self-image to the ground. Or She beat her fist against the locked door, wishing someone would beat against her heart to force it open and rid of her fears. In each case we can see the emotion clearly through the images we paint by using the setting.
Use introspection to bring the truth to readers and to show and explain the character’s emotion, and be creative as you use poetic devices and word pictures or imagery to bring your emotions to life.
Remember these important points about emotions:
They are complex
They are vital to creating compelling characters
They are most effective when the reader knows the character first
They must be felt
They must be shown
My next topic will be on birthing characters but I would also love to hear from you. Tell me what you're most interested in learning about.
Introspection is what we call head talk. It’s the thinking process of POV characters, and it’s the one time the reader learns the truth as the character sees it. What we think is open and honest even if we try to cover the truth. It is in our heads in all it’s goodness or rottenness. So introspection is an excellent way to present many pieces of information throughout a novel, but it’s an excellent way to not only show emotion but to explain the "why" of it to readers.
When a character feels hurt or disappointed or upset, the person’s mind will go over the issues that troubles them. The reader can see the depth of the pain or joy that comes from these feelings. Just as thoughts run through your mind daily, so they do with characters, and we share them with the reader when the thoughts make a significant contribution to move the story forward as well as to explain an unknown.
For example, if you have a secret and someone talks about another situation close to your own, you will hid your internal reaction, but you will experience it in your head. Let’s say you are a Christian woman who had an abortion. Now this abortion tears at you, and when you are with someone who is talking about the horror of abortion, the killing of an unborn child, the unforgivable sin of taking a life, you will nod in agreement, but inside you are torn to bits by these comments. If this were a fictitious character, you can see how this revelation will create emotion in the reader.
If you still want to keep the total story a secret, you can have the character nod in agreement, but in her head, you could show her emotion in this way—her past coiled around her like a snake, choking the life from her. This kind of comment would foreshadow or provide the reader with a hint that something similar happened in the character’s life. Perhaps she took a friend to an abortion clinic, perhaps her sister had an abortion, or perhaps she did or thought about it. Which ever is the truth of this secret, the reader will now have something to cling to and to speculate about, and the reader will be eager to delve into the book to learn the truth.
Analogies are another way to bring emotions to life through imagery. Analogies are comparisons of two unlike things that have similarities. A paraphrased definition form the Wikipedia Encyclopedia is: An analogy is the reasoning of transferring information from a particular subject to another particular subject, and in a narrower sense, an analogy is an inference or an argument from a particular to another particular, where at least one of the premises or the conclusion is general.
For example. He watched the waves pounding against the rocks with power and fury, yet making unnoticeable impact on the invincible boulders, and he realized he, too, has been impacted by life in a way that should have destroyed him, but his faith has kept him strong.
Here we see the difference — rocks and life — yet the similarity is clear because life dashes against us and our spirit in the same way a wave crashes against the rocks.
Poetic devices are also used to make similar comparisons. The most common devices are similes and metaphors. A similes uses the word like or as while a metaphor is a comparison without using the word like or as. These devices create word pictures that compare two things with commonalities. For example, Carl Sandburg’s poem Fog: The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over the harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on. Obviously fog doesn’t have feet but we see the imagery of a cat who moves quietly and stealthily without being heard and then slinks away. This metaphor also us to see the similarity to the movement and feeling of fog. Not only do we see the image, but we feel something as well. It creates a mood or attitude of loneliness or solitude and thus creates emotion. It draws us inside ourselves to deal with our feelings.
Here’s how a metaphor or simile can work in a novel— The man charged past, his bull frame causing everyone to move out of his way. Again this makes word pictures—images—you can see, but it also creates an attitude which causes an emotion. We can see the bulk of this man charging through a crowd and we don’t like what we see.
The simile makes this clear. Similes are easier to use and more easy to spot. He stalked across the room like a rooster in a hen house. You can see that if you’ve ever seen a rooster with that cocky, "I own this place" attitude. Again this creates an emotion in the reader or in the character as he or she views this man stalking across the room. Fear ripped through him like buckshot. Can you feel the sting of this emotion?
Nature and setting also can create an emotions. The weather or the tone of the day can be a refection of the character’s emotions. The rain plummeted from the sky flattening the flowers against the earth just as his words had tossed her self-image to the ground. Or She beat her fist against the locked door, wishing someone would beat against her heart to force it open and rid of her fears. In each case we can see the emotion clearly through the images we paint by using the setting.
Use introspection to bring the truth to readers and to show and explain the character’s emotion, and be creative as you use poetic devices and word pictures or imagery to bring your emotions to life.
Remember these important points about emotions:
They are complex
They are vital to creating compelling characters
They are most effective when the reader knows the character first
They must be felt
They must be shown
My next topic will be on birthing characters but I would also love to hear from you. Tell me what you're most interested in learning about.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Emotions - How We Show Them To Readers
Our characters can experience numerous emotions, but for emotions to make an impact, they need to come to life so that the reader sees them and feels them too. My last blog described steps to apply emotions to your novels, and today, I’ll cover the five ways to show emotions to the reader. Remember show not tell is a novelists motto. The five ways to help you show emotion are: physical responses, including facial expressions and body movements, reactions, dialogue, introspection, and using analogies—poetic devices and setting descriptions that reflect mood and emotion.
Physical Responses: Our bodies respond physically to emotion. Tension affects our blood pressure and heart rate. Our vocal cords tense. We perspire, flush, pale, get dizzy. Our heart s race, and blood pounds in our temples,. Sometimes our cheek tics, or we press our lips together until they turn white. Our eyes can become bloodshot. We might squint or our eyes will widen in fear. Our bodies become rigid, and we make fists. Every emotion affects us physically. Romantic love causes our hearts to flutter or palpitate. We feel giddy or breathless, and on and on. So when we show emotions, we can show these physical reactions. Remember that the POV character will feel his chest tighten or his stomach churn while the non-POV character can only see outward responses, such as trembling hands or a flush.
Action/Reaction: Slamming doors, stomping feet, flinging a pillow , throwing knife, swinging a fist, pounding a chest, all of these are expressions of various emotions. We show the emotion when we allow our characters to act and react in ways that exemplify the real life ways we behave under various kinds of emotion. A kiss or embrace shows love or passion. A fist pounding on a table shows anger or determination or a blend of these. As you write, use words that fit the emotion. He poked a knife toward her. He jabbed a knife toward her. Notice that "He jabbed" is stronger than he poked. Poked could be a playful action when character teases another when he tries to tell her what to do in a kitchen. The action words we select help to create the emotion. He slithered across the floor. He crept across the floor. He wiggled across the floor. See the difference? Which sounds more sinister and which more playful? Our word selection is vital to creating the mood and emotion of a scene.
Dialogue: Dialogue speaks for itself. Pun intended, but you’ll find a truth behind it. Dialogue should incorporate the drama of the scene without using tags and punctuation to make sure the reader gets it. "I’m so frightened! I don’t know what to do," she sobbed. "Stop!" he shouted.
Let’s look at those two sentences and see what’s wrong. First, cut the exclamation point. They’re for exclamations only. If the words I’m so frightened doesn’t express the emotion, then do something to make it that way. "I know he’s shrouded out there in the dark, waiting for me, and I don’t know what to do. I can’t breathe. I can’t move." Can you see the emotion in this scene? It doesn’t need an exclamation point. It doesn’t need a "she sobbed" either. It’s difficult to sob or laugh or chuckle and talk at the same time so that would tag would need some clarification. The second sentence is an exclamation. "Stop!" The exclamation point already indicates the statement is shouted so the tag is redundant and totally unnecessary.
Exclamation points are for words like Wow!, Help!, Stop! and other single word phrases that express excitement. You can do away with them totally if you set up the scene. For example, He darted from the house, racing toward the culprit. "Stop." His voice pierced the night sky. This does it without the explanation mark and does it more dramatically.
The word "sounds" we chose in dialogue and in narration help to create mood and emotion. Dialogue or narration in scenes that are tense or fast-paced uses shorter sentences and hard cutting sounds. Hard sounds are consonants like p, t, c, k, q, d, g. Make the sound of these letters and not their names. You’ll hear the sharper sounds. Here’s an example: I’ll kill you, you poisonous snake. You rat. Hit the road. Don’t come poking around again. Notice the short sentences, the sounds of k, p, k, t, d, c and g. Say the sentence aloud and feel the bitting tones. The letter s makes a hissing snake noise so that is also affective in this sentence.
The opposite sounds are used for the slower thoughtful, nostalgic, or romantic scenes. These sentences are usually longer with a lilting, more soft sound than the scenes with tension. The softer letters are vowels plus m, n, l, v, f, h, and w, for examples. Read this sentence aloud. The words I love you whispered above her hair as she lay in his arms. In this longer sentence, you feel the w, l, v, wh, and numerous vowel sounds that create a more tender sound.
These sounds can be used in alliterative patterns as well which accentuates the mood. Alliterative refers to more than one word together using the same sounds. Terrifying tapping and pistol pointed presents a pounding accent to the words while mellow moon and lilting lullaby create a more soothing feel to the sentence.
The next blog will cover the last two methods of showing emotion in your writing: Introspection and analogies or setting. As you know, not every sentence can be written using these techniques, but chose the ones that are most significant and work to create the kinds of sounds that will heighten the mood and emotion for your reader.
Physical Responses: Our bodies respond physically to emotion. Tension affects our blood pressure and heart rate. Our vocal cords tense. We perspire, flush, pale, get dizzy. Our heart s race, and blood pounds in our temples,. Sometimes our cheek tics, or we press our lips together until they turn white. Our eyes can become bloodshot. We might squint or our eyes will widen in fear. Our bodies become rigid, and we make fists. Every emotion affects us physically. Romantic love causes our hearts to flutter or palpitate. We feel giddy or breathless, and on and on. So when we show emotions, we can show these physical reactions. Remember that the POV character will feel his chest tighten or his stomach churn while the non-POV character can only see outward responses, such as trembling hands or a flush.
Action/Reaction: Slamming doors, stomping feet, flinging a pillow , throwing knife, swinging a fist, pounding a chest, all of these are expressions of various emotions. We show the emotion when we allow our characters to act and react in ways that exemplify the real life ways we behave under various kinds of emotion. A kiss or embrace shows love or passion. A fist pounding on a table shows anger or determination or a blend of these. As you write, use words that fit the emotion. He poked a knife toward her. He jabbed a knife toward her. Notice that "He jabbed" is stronger than he poked. Poked could be a playful action when character teases another when he tries to tell her what to do in a kitchen. The action words we select help to create the emotion. He slithered across the floor. He crept across the floor. He wiggled across the floor. See the difference? Which sounds more sinister and which more playful? Our word selection is vital to creating the mood and emotion of a scene.
Dialogue: Dialogue speaks for itself. Pun intended, but you’ll find a truth behind it. Dialogue should incorporate the drama of the scene without using tags and punctuation to make sure the reader gets it. "I’m so frightened! I don’t know what to do," she sobbed. "Stop!" he shouted.
Let’s look at those two sentences and see what’s wrong. First, cut the exclamation point. They’re for exclamations only. If the words I’m so frightened doesn’t express the emotion, then do something to make it that way. "I know he’s shrouded out there in the dark, waiting for me, and I don’t know what to do. I can’t breathe. I can’t move." Can you see the emotion in this scene? It doesn’t need an exclamation point. It doesn’t need a "she sobbed" either. It’s difficult to sob or laugh or chuckle and talk at the same time so that would tag would need some clarification. The second sentence is an exclamation. "Stop!" The exclamation point already indicates the statement is shouted so the tag is redundant and totally unnecessary.
Exclamation points are for words like Wow!, Help!, Stop! and other single word phrases that express excitement. You can do away with them totally if you set up the scene. For example, He darted from the house, racing toward the culprit. "Stop." His voice pierced the night sky. This does it without the explanation mark and does it more dramatically.
The word "sounds" we chose in dialogue and in narration help to create mood and emotion. Dialogue or narration in scenes that are tense or fast-paced uses shorter sentences and hard cutting sounds. Hard sounds are consonants like p, t, c, k, q, d, g. Make the sound of these letters and not their names. You’ll hear the sharper sounds. Here’s an example: I’ll kill you, you poisonous snake. You rat. Hit the road. Don’t come poking around again. Notice the short sentences, the sounds of k, p, k, t, d, c and g. Say the sentence aloud and feel the bitting tones. The letter s makes a hissing snake noise so that is also affective in this sentence.
The opposite sounds are used for the slower thoughtful, nostalgic, or romantic scenes. These sentences are usually longer with a lilting, more soft sound than the scenes with tension. The softer letters are vowels plus m, n, l, v, f, h, and w, for examples. Read this sentence aloud. The words I love you whispered above her hair as she lay in his arms. In this longer sentence, you feel the w, l, v, wh, and numerous vowel sounds that create a more tender sound.
These sounds can be used in alliterative patterns as well which accentuates the mood. Alliterative refers to more than one word together using the same sounds. Terrifying tapping and pistol pointed presents a pounding accent to the words while mellow moon and lilting lullaby create a more soothing feel to the sentence.
The next blog will cover the last two methods of showing emotion in your writing: Introspection and analogies or setting. As you know, not every sentence can be written using these techniques, but chose the ones that are most significant and work to create the kinds of sounds that will heighten the mood and emotion for your reader.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Emotions and the Reader - Connecting and Showing
Two things about emotions in fiction are they most connect with the reader, and to do that , they must be shown. As I wrote in an earlier blog, emotions are vital to creating 3-dimensional characters. Without emotions they are stick figures—flat and unbelievable like a cartoon. As writers you want your characters to fill the readers head and heart. You do this with emotion.
Here are some steps to help you create believable characters that connect:
1. Emotions are consistent. This means if a person has a fear of something or behaves in a certain way, he will continue to behave this way or have this fear until he is challenged to grow and change. This takes time. If you had a fear of heights or a fear of being in the dark, this didn’t change overnight. You had to learn to overcome the fear in small steps. So our character’s must do the same. If your character is cranky in the morning, he’ll be the same way to everyone, even though he tries to control it with his boss or the heroine in a romance, but the crankiness will show. He’ll have to make amends for this or cover it in some way. Only through growth will a character change and that changes over time.
2. Emotions must connect with the reader so this is why a realistic problem and a more common difficult situation will connect with your audience because they’ve been there. They’ve felt that same emotion or they know someone who has. Try to build the character's problems with growing emotion. As the reader gets to know the characters, she will feel more and more connect with the characters in your story. This is why it is best to hold off the most dramatic problems until your reader has established a relationship with your characters. This is the same reason I advised you to keep backstory out of the first pages. At this point, the reader doesn’t care about the character, but once she does, she will feel the woman’s pain as she describes a jarring rejection from her husband or a group of woman laughing at her for her inappropriate dress at a socal event.
3. Emotions must be felt, first by you and then by your reader. If the emotion you’re putting into your novel doesn’t pull at your heart, if it doesn’t bring tears to your eyes or make you laugh, then you’re doing something wrong. Emotions are felt not just witnessed. They affect our bodies, our reactions, or responses. When you write an emotion, it will be far more realistic if you experience that emotion at the same time. Work toward making the feelings of your characters emotions that you’ve felt and drag them out of your own being so you can put them on the page in a realistic way.
4. Emotions must be shown. We cannot tell an emotion and make it dramatic. He was angry doesn’t do it. We want to see his anger in every possible way we can. Remember that emotions are complex as well, so you will show a mix of sensations and reactions as you bring emotions to life by showing them. Here’s an example of the difference:
Telling: She felt hurt.
Showing: Tears filled her eyes, and she brushed them away wanting to rid herself of them, but her futile action only produced more tears. This time she buried her fists into her eye sockets and pressed the moisture back inside.
If you recall, I talked about emotions being a blend of feelings, so hurt must be broken into pieces, probably a blend of anger and sadness. We can see this response in her jerky motions of brushing the tears from her eyes wanting to get rid of them and then pushing her fists into her eye sockets to force the outward emotion away. We know she’s sad because of the tears, but it’s almost a kind of resentment too, not wanting to admit that this situation hurt her enough to bring her to tears.
You have to ask yourself, which is most effect. The single sentence—she felt hurt—or the descriptive passages that shows her reaction. I think you’d agree it’s the latter choice.
The showing and telling technique is complex and one of the hardest to learn. I will cover that at another time in this blog.
Next I’ll talk about five ways we can show emotion in our novels. Don’t forget if you have questions, please email me privately or put them in the comments. I’ll be pleased to blog on any writing topic you’d like. I hope to cover all of the major techniques of writing fiction eventually, and you will have all of that in much more depth along with examples from well-known Christian authors if you purchase my book from Writers Digest, Writing the Christian Romance coming out at the end of December. Although the focus is romance, the techniques are very much the same for all genre. You can pre-order at http://www.gailmartin.com/ Just click on the link.
Here are some steps to help you create believable characters that connect:
1. Emotions are consistent. This means if a person has a fear of something or behaves in a certain way, he will continue to behave this way or have this fear until he is challenged to grow and change. This takes time. If you had a fear of heights or a fear of being in the dark, this didn’t change overnight. You had to learn to overcome the fear in small steps. So our character’s must do the same. If your character is cranky in the morning, he’ll be the same way to everyone, even though he tries to control it with his boss or the heroine in a romance, but the crankiness will show. He’ll have to make amends for this or cover it in some way. Only through growth will a character change and that changes over time.
2. Emotions must connect with the reader so this is why a realistic problem and a more common difficult situation will connect with your audience because they’ve been there. They’ve felt that same emotion or they know someone who has. Try to build the character's problems with growing emotion. As the reader gets to know the characters, she will feel more and more connect with the characters in your story. This is why it is best to hold off the most dramatic problems until your reader has established a relationship with your characters. This is the same reason I advised you to keep backstory out of the first pages. At this point, the reader doesn’t care about the character, but once she does, she will feel the woman’s pain as she describes a jarring rejection from her husband or a group of woman laughing at her for her inappropriate dress at a socal event.
3. Emotions must be felt, first by you and then by your reader. If the emotion you’re putting into your novel doesn’t pull at your heart, if it doesn’t bring tears to your eyes or make you laugh, then you’re doing something wrong. Emotions are felt not just witnessed. They affect our bodies, our reactions, or responses. When you write an emotion, it will be far more realistic if you experience that emotion at the same time. Work toward making the feelings of your characters emotions that you’ve felt and drag them out of your own being so you can put them on the page in a realistic way.
4. Emotions must be shown. We cannot tell an emotion and make it dramatic. He was angry doesn’t do it. We want to see his anger in every possible way we can. Remember that emotions are complex as well, so you will show a mix of sensations and reactions as you bring emotions to life by showing them. Here’s an example of the difference:
Telling: She felt hurt.
Showing: Tears filled her eyes, and she brushed them away wanting to rid herself of them, but her futile action only produced more tears. This time she buried her fists into her eye sockets and pressed the moisture back inside.
If you recall, I talked about emotions being a blend of feelings, so hurt must be broken into pieces, probably a blend of anger and sadness. We can see this response in her jerky motions of brushing the tears from her eyes wanting to get rid of them and then pushing her fists into her eye sockets to force the outward emotion away. We know she’s sad because of the tears, but it’s almost a kind of resentment too, not wanting to admit that this situation hurt her enough to bring her to tears.
You have to ask yourself, which is most effect. The single sentence—she felt hurt—or the descriptive passages that shows her reaction. I think you’d agree it’s the latter choice.
The showing and telling technique is complex and one of the hardest to learn. I will cover that at another time in this blog.
Next I’ll talk about five ways we can show emotion in our novels. Don’t forget if you have questions, please email me privately or put them in the comments. I’ll be pleased to blog on any writing topic you’d like. I hope to cover all of the major techniques of writing fiction eventually, and you will have all of that in much more depth along with examples from well-known Christian authors if you purchase my book from Writers Digest, Writing the Christian Romance coming out at the end of December. Although the focus is romance, the techniques are very much the same for all genre. You can pre-order at http://www.gailmartin.com/ Just click on the link.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Emotion - Researching Emotions
Designing character’s backstory is the best way to begin creating emotions. Once you understand who your character was and who he is now, you can see the logical ways his past has affected his present life and how he will act and react to stimulus. This action defines emotion.
Remember that even birth order can affect how a character responds to things around him. You can use a search engine for more details, but briefly here’s a sketch of information:
FIRST BORN: The first born is highly motivated and demands great things of himself. He’s received much attention as a child and now senses he must live up to the focus he’s received. He will often by a Type A personality, driven to excel and unforgiving of himself when he fails. His emotions will be more dramatic—anger will be seen more readily and pleasure too.
MIDDLE CHILD: The middle child blends into the woodwork. This is the quiet and often unseen child who spends time in his room or away from the home. Feeling in competition with the oldest child, this child looks at himself as insignificant and unable to meet the same standards as his older sibling. Since he can’t find the same niche as this brother or sister, he’ll seek friendships outside the family home and will not connect as well with the family. His emotions will be more internal, and he will look for support outside the family.
YOUNGEST CHILD: The youngest child gets so much attention that he begins to think of himself as either king or jester. This child will often become the clown or the rebellious one. Unlike the middle child, he wants attention so he gets it one way or the other. He will learn to manipulate people, to be more secretive, to talk his way out of problems. The youngest child will be lazier than the other children—more laid back, and the future can hold the extremes of being an addict when it comes to drugs, alcohol, or food or to be a politician, salesman or someone in a career that takes charismatic personalities and persuasive abilities.
When you add a dysfunctional family to the mix, the characteristics will skew even more, and once again this information can be provided through research, but it is obvious that birth order tends to affect how the adult will relate to others and respond to outside stimulus.
Once you’ve gathered research about birth order, family dysfunction, and backstory, you can begin to bring this character to life through your own experiences. Study your own families and yourself to see how the past has played out in your life. You’ll see how each family member emotes differently depending on the things that befell them earlier in their lives. This will help you create characters since you can give them similar responses.
You can also take past emotion in your life and recall how you responded physically and mentally to experiences of fear, love, anger, grief, nostalgia and the whole realm of emotion. Did you keep it inside? Did you react outwardly? Did you tremble? Did your heart pound? Did you feel dizzy? Once you recall your responses to various stimuli, you can reproduce that in your fiction. For example, if you were alone one night and thought you were being followed as you headed down a dark street to your car, you can think back and remember your body’s response. Then if you create s scene where a character is really being stalked, you can provide realistic physical and emotional reactions to this event.
Sometimes I re-enact events. I think about being angry and act this out by myself to see how my body and mind respond to this feeling. I look in a mirror to see the way it affects my facial expressions, my body and my posture. But if you’re not a good actor, then you can do this by observing others. Spend a couple of hours sitting in a mall or a coffee house and observe people. You can see a whole realm of emotions passing by, and you can observe the look of an emotion. You can see a mother thinking her child is lost or being upset with a child. You can observe a couple in love, holding hands and creating a sense of intimacy in a crowded place. You can see two people talking politics or making a decision about a purchase.
Another option is to watch reality TV. Spend an hour taking notes as you watch Jerry Spring show or Oprah. Observe the characters on these shows and notice all of the physical responses— body gestures, facial, and vocal tones. When you’ve given emotions thought and note how they are shown, you can use this information to create real life emotion in your characters by reproducing these imagines in your novel.
Emotions don’t stop here, next, I’ll talk about applying these emotions and techniques you can use to show them to your readers.
Remember that even birth order can affect how a character responds to things around him. You can use a search engine for more details, but briefly here’s a sketch of information:
FIRST BORN: The first born is highly motivated and demands great things of himself. He’s received much attention as a child and now senses he must live up to the focus he’s received. He will often by a Type A personality, driven to excel and unforgiving of himself when he fails. His emotions will be more dramatic—anger will be seen more readily and pleasure too.
MIDDLE CHILD: The middle child blends into the woodwork. This is the quiet and often unseen child who spends time in his room or away from the home. Feeling in competition with the oldest child, this child looks at himself as insignificant and unable to meet the same standards as his older sibling. Since he can’t find the same niche as this brother or sister, he’ll seek friendships outside the family home and will not connect as well with the family. His emotions will be more internal, and he will look for support outside the family.
YOUNGEST CHILD: The youngest child gets so much attention that he begins to think of himself as either king or jester. This child will often become the clown or the rebellious one. Unlike the middle child, he wants attention so he gets it one way or the other. He will learn to manipulate people, to be more secretive, to talk his way out of problems. The youngest child will be lazier than the other children—more laid back, and the future can hold the extremes of being an addict when it comes to drugs, alcohol, or food or to be a politician, salesman or someone in a career that takes charismatic personalities and persuasive abilities.
When you add a dysfunctional family to the mix, the characteristics will skew even more, and once again this information can be provided through research, but it is obvious that birth order tends to affect how the adult will relate to others and respond to outside stimulus.
Once you’ve gathered research about birth order, family dysfunction, and backstory, you can begin to bring this character to life through your own experiences. Study your own families and yourself to see how the past has played out in your life. You’ll see how each family member emotes differently depending on the things that befell them earlier in their lives. This will help you create characters since you can give them similar responses.
You can also take past emotion in your life and recall how you responded physically and mentally to experiences of fear, love, anger, grief, nostalgia and the whole realm of emotion. Did you keep it inside? Did you react outwardly? Did you tremble? Did your heart pound? Did you feel dizzy? Once you recall your responses to various stimuli, you can reproduce that in your fiction. For example, if you were alone one night and thought you were being followed as you headed down a dark street to your car, you can think back and remember your body’s response. Then if you create s scene where a character is really being stalked, you can provide realistic physical and emotional reactions to this event.
Sometimes I re-enact events. I think about being angry and act this out by myself to see how my body and mind respond to this feeling. I look in a mirror to see the way it affects my facial expressions, my body and my posture. But if you’re not a good actor, then you can do this by observing others. Spend a couple of hours sitting in a mall or a coffee house and observe people. You can see a whole realm of emotions passing by, and you can observe the look of an emotion. You can see a mother thinking her child is lost or being upset with a child. You can observe a couple in love, holding hands and creating a sense of intimacy in a crowded place. You can see two people talking politics or making a decision about a purchase.
Another option is to watch reality TV. Spend an hour taking notes as you watch Jerry Spring show or Oprah. Observe the characters on these shows and notice all of the physical responses— body gestures, facial, and vocal tones. When you’ve given emotions thought and note how they are shown, you can use this information to create real life emotion in your characters by reproducing these imagines in your novel.
Emotions don’t stop here, next, I’ll talk about applying these emotions and techniques you can use to show them to your readers.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Creating Real Emotions
Emotion is what makes characters three dimensional rather than flat caricatures. The readers relate to the characters because they have experienced similar emotions that your characters experience. As your novel progresses, readers want to feel the same happiness and sense of security that your book dramatizes so they will be drawn into the story to see how their crises are resolved.
Emotion, then, is the crux of every good story. The senses are aroused, and readers react mentally to this stimulus. Emotions are not pure but complex. We often say we’re angry when we’re really disappointed, hurt, distressed, frustrated, or irritated—or a mixture of these emotions. This holds true for characters. What they feel is not one emotion but a blend. A child anticipating Christmas might feel happy, excited, and anxious but beneath those feelings, they fear that Christmas will not be what they’re expecting or the gift they most want won’t be under the tree. The child knows that Aunt June will be at the family dinner, and she always pinches the child’s cheek and makes him kiss her, and he doesn’t want to.
Knowing your character’s emotions is important because being angry is handled differently than being hurt, yet sometimes in real life we mix the two. So it’s logical that your characters might show anger, but the problem is deeper and more complex, and resolving the situation will take a different solution. A man facing his wife’s anger might scream back or walk out and slam the door, but if they woman is actually angry because she’s hurt, he could resolve this by speaking softly, expressing his regret, or doing something to make up for his past action that caused the problem. Think about at your own emotions to understand their complexities.
Emotion, then, is based on our past experiences, on our upbringing, age, personality and even the situations and circumstances in which we find ourselves . As you create characters, you will create a past or backstory for the main characters. You will want to define their upbringing, their successes and failures, their dreams and hopes, their traits and attitudes, and family discipline style and values. Raised in a family that doesn’t express emotions means the character will have only experienced certain outward reactions and will have been trained subconsciously to react in a similar way. This character will have probably a difficult time showing his true feelings. Families who are very outgoing and are openly demonstrative of their feelings will most often produce children who learn to hug, kiss, say I love you, cry and react outwardly to their feelings.
If you had a bad experience talking in public at one time in your life, you will approach speaking to a group with much more trauma than someone who has either found success or has no preconceived notions of failure, other than a normal nervousness of doing something different. If a man normally gets an agreeable response when asking a favor of his boss, he will approach a request with little hesitation. If his boss is always disagreeable, his need to ask a favor will result in a more traumatic attitude for the man.
Gender can create a significant difference in depicting emotions. On the whole, men and woman express motions differently. Most boys are raised to think they’re supposed to be tough. They’re not supposed to cry or like things that girls like. They are raised to believe they are the strong ones, the breadwinners, and the protectors. So they are usually not willing to show emotion like crying or being frightened. Instead, they hold their emotion at bay. They walk away or do something active to control the emotion. When woman are upset, men don’t want to talk about it or deal with it. They want to fix it. That’s there job. When they can’t fix it, they are frustrated. When writing fiction, try to remember these gender differences when creating characters. Naturally you’ll find exceptions, but make sure that your characters emotions fit their backstory, their personality, their experiences, and their gender.
Finally remember that reactions to stimuli are consistent. Someone afraid of speaking in public will be the same in various environments and situations. These responses will only change in time with growth of character and with new experiences that allow the character to change and alter past ways of dealing with emotion.
Since I’ve made numerous references to backstory, I’ll cover this next before moving into the techniques of creating emotions in fiction that readers can experience.
Emotion, then, is the crux of every good story. The senses are aroused, and readers react mentally to this stimulus. Emotions are not pure but complex. We often say we’re angry when we’re really disappointed, hurt, distressed, frustrated, or irritated—or a mixture of these emotions. This holds true for characters. What they feel is not one emotion but a blend. A child anticipating Christmas might feel happy, excited, and anxious but beneath those feelings, they fear that Christmas will not be what they’re expecting or the gift they most want won’t be under the tree. The child knows that Aunt June will be at the family dinner, and she always pinches the child’s cheek and makes him kiss her, and he doesn’t want to.
Knowing your character’s emotions is important because being angry is handled differently than being hurt, yet sometimes in real life we mix the two. So it’s logical that your characters might show anger, but the problem is deeper and more complex, and resolving the situation will take a different solution. A man facing his wife’s anger might scream back or walk out and slam the door, but if they woman is actually angry because she’s hurt, he could resolve this by speaking softly, expressing his regret, or doing something to make up for his past action that caused the problem. Think about at your own emotions to understand their complexities.
Emotion, then, is based on our past experiences, on our upbringing, age, personality and even the situations and circumstances in which we find ourselves . As you create characters, you will create a past or backstory for the main characters. You will want to define their upbringing, their successes and failures, their dreams and hopes, their traits and attitudes, and family discipline style and values. Raised in a family that doesn’t express emotions means the character will have only experienced certain outward reactions and will have been trained subconsciously to react in a similar way. This character will have probably a difficult time showing his true feelings. Families who are very outgoing and are openly demonstrative of their feelings will most often produce children who learn to hug, kiss, say I love you, cry and react outwardly to their feelings.
If you had a bad experience talking in public at one time in your life, you will approach speaking to a group with much more trauma than someone who has either found success or has no preconceived notions of failure, other than a normal nervousness of doing something different. If a man normally gets an agreeable response when asking a favor of his boss, he will approach a request with little hesitation. If his boss is always disagreeable, his need to ask a favor will result in a more traumatic attitude for the man.
Gender can create a significant difference in depicting emotions. On the whole, men and woman express motions differently. Most boys are raised to think they’re supposed to be tough. They’re not supposed to cry or like things that girls like. They are raised to believe they are the strong ones, the breadwinners, and the protectors. So they are usually not willing to show emotion like crying or being frightened. Instead, they hold their emotion at bay. They walk away or do something active to control the emotion. When woman are upset, men don’t want to talk about it or deal with it. They want to fix it. That’s there job. When they can’t fix it, they are frustrated. When writing fiction, try to remember these gender differences when creating characters. Naturally you’ll find exceptions, but make sure that your characters emotions fit their backstory, their personality, their experiences, and their gender.
Finally remember that reactions to stimuli are consistent. Someone afraid of speaking in public will be the same in various environments and situations. These responses will only change in time with growth of character and with new experiences that allow the character to change and alter past ways of dealing with emotion.
Since I’ve made numerous references to backstory, I’ll cover this next before moving into the techniques of creating emotions in fiction that readers can experience.
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