Tag: emotions

Categories
Writing for YA

Five Things You Must Do To Reach Teen Readers

Sometimes it’s hard to remember all the emotions, feelings, and concerns that young teens have. Times change, attitudes change, technology changes, but some things remain the same. A wise author taps into universal truths to write a compelling story that resonates with readers.

Consider the Concerns of Your Audience

It’s not enough to care about teen and preteen readers. To reach them, authors must connect. Young readers want to know that the things they care about are being addressed. 

Ask the teens in your life what they’re worried about. The issues today’s teens deal with seem far from what previous generations faced, but commonalities exist. The same threads are woven throughout coming-of-age stories, because all people go through some predictable processes, experiences, and emotions as they mature. There are variations but there are just as many, if not more, similarities. The trick is to translate past experience into material relevant and accessible to today’s readers. Stretch yourself and find the connection, a way to relate to what your audience is going through right now. Dig deep, draw on the experiences of your own adolescence, and make specific applications to the best of your ability. 

Talk to People

If an author chooses to ignore the concerns and fears at the forefront of their audience’s mind, they risk a disconnect. If you’re unsure or unaware of the issues, start a conversation with a favorite teen or two (or three). Teenagers are not always the most forthcoming of conversationalists—depending on who they’re talking to—but give them a chance to express themselves by going to the source first, your target reader. Listen to what they have to say. Then, ask teachers and youth counselors what they feel are the most important issues facing young people today. 

Have a Sensitive Heart

Once you’ve found an issue you want to address, approach it with sensitivity, caring, and compassion. No one wants to be preached at, talked down to, or lectured. This is true no matter the age of your audience.

Make good use of beta readers and critique partners. Ask them to look for places that are preachy or heavy-handed. Enlist the help of a sensitivity reader when needed.

Be Authentic 

Everyone has been disappointed, suffered a loss, felt misunderstood, felt lost, failed, been embarrassed, and so on. Without authentic emotion, it’s difficult for a reader to become invested in a story. The saying is true, No tears in the writer, No tears in the reader. Don’t be afraid of powerful emotions. Capture them and put them on the page.

Go Beyond Surface Research

Understand the culture and attitudes of your audience, going beyond the surface. What’s popular today may be obsolete tomorrow. Points of view, ways of seeing the world, and cultural influences can have more of a lasting impact than trends. It’s important to know where people are coming from, how they interpret their environment. If an author doesn’t understand their intended audience, they aren’t likely to reach them.

If your story is contemporary, by the time it goes to press current fads may have fallen out of fashion. Stick to describing details that will remain the same for a few years or longer and avoid anything trendy. On the other hand, if you want to date your writing, use details firmly establishing your story in a particular time period.

Keep your eye on the prize. Writing for young adults is a calling. It’s an opportunity to have a tremendous influence on the future and change lives with the potential to have a lasting impact.

Donna Jo Stone is an award-winning author of young adult contemporary and adult historical fiction. She writes about tough issues but always ends her stories on a note of hope. Her novels are about common struggles and finding the faith to carry on through those battles.

The first book in Donna Jo’s young adult series is scheduled for publication in 2025, and her adult inspirational novella, Book Five in The Apron Strings Series, will release in May of 2024. You can find out more at  donnajostone.com.

Categories
The Intentional Writer

My Best Tool for Describing My Characters’ Emotions

The intentional writer

Do you struggle to find the right words to describe your characters’ emotions? I certainly do. Description and portraying emotions are not my strong suit. Since I know this is a weakness, I’ve looked for tools that help me improve this skill.

My best writer’s tool for helping me over this hurdle is The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide To Character Expression by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi.

What is an emotion thesaurus, and why do you need one?

The blurb on the back cover reads:

One of the biggest problem areas for writers is conveying emotion to the reader in a unique, compelling way. When showing our characters’ feelings, we often grab onto the first idea that comes to mind, and out characters end up smiling, shrugging, nodding, and frowning far too much.

Guilty as charged!

My first drafts contain far too many instances where characters are shrugging, smiling, nodding and frowning. That is why the emotion thesaurus is so helpful.

What does The Emotional Thesaurus offer?

This extremely practical book provides an alphabetical listing of 75 emotions from Adoration to Worry. Each emotion provides a two-page spread listing the following information:

  • A definition of this emotion
  • Physical signals (bouncing a foot, fanning oneself, a scathing tone…)
  • Internal sensations (fatigue, heat rising behind the eyelids, grinding one’s teeth)
  • Mental responses (irrational reactions, self-loathing, a lack of concentration)
  • Cues that this emotion is acute or long-term (an inability to move on, failing grades)
  • Cues this emotion is being suppressed (sitting unnaturally still, smoothing one’s clothing)
  • A list of emotions this emotion might escalate to (For example, disgust could move to scorn, fear, or anger.)
  • A writer’s tip related to the emotion.

That’s a lot of very useful information packed into two pages!

How can The Emotion Thesaurus help you?

One of the basic writing mantras is “Show, Don’t Tell.” The Emotion Thesaurus helps us do exactly that, giving us words to show a person’s anger with actions like sharp gestures, cutting people off when they speak, or flaring nostrils.

In addition, the authors point out that majority of communication between people occurs with nonverbal signals. Therefore, dialogue alone can’t portray all a reader needs to know to experience a scene. It’s critical to include emotional details in our writing via descriptive language and action.

Learning to describe character emotions in specific and compelling ways will also help us avoid writing pitfalls such as reliance on cliches (mad as a hornet, steam coming out his ears, quivering knees that knock together).

And with 75 emotions to choose from, the book helps us select emotions of the proper intensity for the scene, thus avoiding melodrama (emotions that feel too intense) or monotony (where all emotions remain the same intensity instead of rising and falling like real life).

I hope I’ve convinced you how useful this book can be. Now, excuse me while I follow my own advice and replace some of the smiling, nodding, shrugging and frowning with more interesting and compelling descriptions.

But wait, there’s more!

The Emotion Thesaurus concept proved so popular that the authors have adapted it to cover other subjects, such as:

  • Positive and negative traits
  • Conflicts and wounds
  • Setting

You can find more about The Emotional Thesaurus and all the companion products at the authors’ website, Writers Helping Writers.

If you want to take your emotional descriptions to the next level, I suggest you get a copy of The Emotional Thesaurus today.

Lisa E Betz

Lisa E. Betz is an engineer-turned-mystery-writer, entertaining speaker, and unconventional soul. She inspires others to become their best selves, living with authenticity, and purpose, and she infuses her novels with unconventional characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her Livia Aemilia Mysteries, set in first-century Rome, have won several awards, including the Golden Scroll Novel of the Year (2021).

She and her husband reside outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in her novels. Lisa directs church dramas, hikes the beautiful Pennsylvania woods, eats too much chocolate, and experiments with ancient Roman recipes. Visit lisaebetz.com.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Make it Personal

One of my favorite movies is You’ve Got Mail. When Joe Fox attempts to apologize to Kathleen Kelly for forcing her out of business, he says, “It wasn’t … personal.”

She replies, “What is that supposed to mean? … All that means is that it wasn’t personal to you. But it was personal to me … Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.”

The same is true of great fiction. It begins by being personal, meaning your story should embrace universal themes that people will relate to.

The Count of Monte Cristo poses the question, does getting even—revenge and retribution—make one happy and satisfied?

Kristan Higgins’ new release, Pack Up the Moon, is about a grieving widower who receives a letter a month from his late wife for the first year after her death. In spite of the downer premise, the theme is that “life’s greatest joys are often hiding in plain sight.”

A Christmas Carol and Les Miserables pose the question, is redemption possible?

I love stories with themes of perseverance, of never giving up, despite terrible odds. This is why I enjoy Susan May Warren’s adventure thrillers, like her Global Search and Rescue, Montana Marshalls, and Montana Rescue series. The stories are full of danger and intrigue and impossible predicaments, but the protagonists survive. I also like movies like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, and R.E.D. The heroes. Never. Give. Up.

Another book with a theme of perseverance would be A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L′Engle.

The theme of You’ve Got Mail is summed up nicely in its tagline: Someone you pass on the street may already be the love of your life.

That’s intriguing. Even if you’re with the love of your life, there are occasions you may wonder what (or who) might be out there. What if you’d walked to work the day you met your significant other, instead of taking the bus?

The movie Sliding Doors shows this “path not taken,” plot with a lot of heart and creativity. Helen is fired from her job and takes a train home in the middle of the day to find her boyfriend with another woman. Or did she miss the train and arrived home after the other woman left, and stayed in a relationship with the cheater?

I think Sliding Doors’ theme is, will true love always find a way?

The heroine of my work in progress is a young widow. I’ve never lost a spouse, but I’ve lost a parent and other close loved ones. I know the stages of grief (anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). The hero has his own loss that he’s dealing with, so their journeys are each echoed in the other. I’m attempting to show a theme that life and love can be rich again, after loss.

Grief and joy. Regret and eagerness. Doubt and excitement.

Our job is put those emotions on the page in a way the reader relates to and (hopefully) feels them as much as our characters do. Personally.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever afters. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. She recently signed a contract with Sunrise Publishing to co-write a romance novel with New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hauck that will be published in 2022. Carrie and her husband live in the country with their high-maintenance cat and laid-back dog, within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Courting the Muse

Why Advice Columns Might Just Give You Your Next Story Idea

These days, anyone who wants to write short stories of an unconventional bent has their pick of quirky venues to showcase their work.

By way of example, just look at Taco Bell Quarterly, a self-professed rival of the storied Paris Review. One of the hottest literary magazines to emerge in the past year, it only accepts work related to America’s favorite fast-food purveyor of Crunchwrap Supremes. Microverses, an even newer journal of speculative flash fiction, limits itself to “tweet-length work” — minute narratives of no more than 280 characters.

Then there’s r/relationships, a wildly popular advice forum on the social media giant Reddit. Frequented by some 3 million visitors worldwide, it’s come under fire recently for being filled with lies. As it turns out, many of those posting on the forum aren’t actually lovelorn sufferers in genuine need of advice — they’re fiction writers, flexing their skills in an unusual form.

That brings me to my favorite source of narratively rich and formally intriguing short fiction: the old-fashioned advice column. That’s not to say that everyone corresponding with the likes of Dear Prudence and Ask Polly is a fabulist, honing their craft in the inbox of an agony aunt (though readers have made a sport out of spotting the fake letters for years). Even if most letter-writers are seeking advice in earnest, this oddball genre remains fertile ground for literary inspiration.

Directly adapting a letter into a story might raise some eyebrows — especially if you assume the mind behind it belongs to a genuine advice-seeker, not a fellow fiction writer. But even if turning a stranger’s vulnerability into a literary project, detail for detail, doesn’t strike you as the right move, advice columns can still inspire good writing.

Glance at any given advice column, and you’ll find a treasure trove of emotionally resonant stories, from the heartrending to the absurd. For me, these accounts aren’t just intriguing because of their wealth of hyper-specific detail: the exact infractions committed by an overzealous homeowner’s association, the strange scent clinging to an adulterous spouse’s clothes. The little narratives they encapsulate are valuable to writers primarily because of their nuanced — even outright messy — depictions of human feeling.

Advice columnists, and the people who write to them, acknowledge that we don’t always react to emotional stimuli in ways that make sense. Betrayal can evoke relief as well as heartbreak, and the most passionate love can be complicated by mutual resentment.

When it comes to crafting complicated, true-to-life emotional arcs for your stories, there’s almost no better source of inspiration than the advice letter. If you find one that touches a nerve, consider exploring its palette of emotions through an analogous — but distinct — scenario of your own invention. All you need to do is meld the letter-writer’s narrative with your own experience, adding dash of imagination and empathy for good measure. You just might find yourself looking at your next short story.

When you try to turn that initial spark into a well-executed work, you might try seeking inspiration from the advice column in terms of form as well as content. While we don’t typically think of advice letters as high art, they have a lot to teach short story writers about style and presentation.

Advice column letters are perfectly crafted for communication, clueing readers in on the emotional stakes of a situation with maximal efficiency. As such, they deploy unpretentious language and tight plotting to get readers invested in the most bizarre scenarios. Next time you write a story, try channeling their economy of expression for a narrative that packs a punch.

Lucia Tang is a writer for Reedsy, a marketplace that connects self-publishing authors with the book industry’s best editors, designers, and marketers. To work on the site’s free historical character name generators, she draws on her knowledge of Chinese, Latin, and Old Irish —  learned as a PhD candidate in history at UC Berkeley. You can read more of her work on the Reedsy Discovery blog, or follow her on Twitter at @lqtang.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

The Romance Point of View

Point of view (POV) is essential in all forms of fiction to describe the action as the character experiences it, including emotional responses, thoughts, and reactions. Point of view is especially vital in romance fiction as we build a story around two people falling in love.

The hero and heroine cannot talk about everything they see, feel, want, so the point of view describes what is going on. Without it, your reader will not understand the inner lives of your characters. Their inner lives are especially important when the book is all about emotions. By getting inside the character’s minds, you can give the reader the full story. You can show their attraction, even when they don’t act like they are attracted to each other.

The same is true during action scenes, even when most of the focus is on external events. Point of view interwoven with dialogue and action can keep the romance front and center. Often adding a few lines of into a scene is the easiest way to convey pieces of information the reader needs.

Whose point of view is the right one for the scene? Whose head the writer gets into depends on if the hero or heroine has the most to learn or has the most at stake, at-risk, or the most to tell the reader or have the most interesting take on what is happening around them. If you decide both your hero and heroine are equal, you might choose to split the scene between the two characters. As you switch from one character’s point of view to another, use a scene break to make it easy for your reader.

Use an internal monologue to stay in the hero or heroine’s head longer to convey an important point. The most important use of the internal monologue is during moments of great emotional stress, or when the character realizes they are in love with the other person. That is a huge revelation and a key to everything else that will happen. Your reader needs to know how the hero or heroine feels about this sudden realization. Does it make them happy? Perhaps they are furious because this wasn’t in their plan? Do they think their love interest couldn’t possibly love them back? Maybe there have been so many negative things happening between them that they feel it’s impossible to work out the rocky road of their relationship.

No matter what they feel, those feelings are dramatic, complicated, and fascinating, and you need that extra time inside his/her head to tell the reader all about them. You can also use the internal monologue to convey information like what motivates a character or what the character thinks motivates someone else. These don’t fit well into dialogue.  

Choose the character’s point of view carefully. Ensure there is enough at stake to tell the story from inside the hero or heroine’s head. Make their inner life rich enough, so the story is dramatic and intriguing to your reader.  

As a reference for this article, I used Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies by Leslie Wainger.

Award-winning writer, Rose Gardner’s journey toward publication has come in two phases. During the early years, she was a finalist in thirteen contests and won her category in seven, was a 2007 RWA Golden Heart finalist in the Long Contemporary Category, and 2nd runner up in the 2008 Harlequin Super Romance Conflict of Interest Contest. After a break from writing, she returned to writing with a renewed focus on clean, contemporary heartwarming stories about love, hope, healing, and the power of forgiveness. She has won or placed in several contests for unpublished writers since 2017 as she works toward publication. You can find out more about Rose at her website mrosegardner.com or on social media at Facebook at MRoseGardner/, Twitter MaryGardner6, Instagram mrosegardner/ 

Categories
History in the Making

Inanimate Objects as Characters

History in the making

Using inanimate objects as characters can add a powerful, interesting element to your story. I cried when Wilson, a volleyball, floated away in Cast Away. I shuddered when Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings read the engraving that said, “One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”

The Darjeeling Limited is a movie about three estranged brothers in crisis who travel to India to find their neglectful mother. Their journey takes place on a train … until it doesn’t. Then they experience the real India while dragging an enormous mountain of cumbersome luggage, a powerful symbol for their own personal, heavy, and real emotional baggage. At the end—spoiler ahead—they exuberantly toss the luggage away and feel freedom in letting go of the negative experiences from their past.

During the entire movie, I felt the weight of their emotional baggage through the use of the luggage as an inanimate, passive witness of their lives. I experienced with the trio how burdensome and exhausting hauling our past around with us can be. I loved the metaphor and how the writers used the luggage as a character in its own right.

The literary term for this device is called personification. The giving of physical or human characteristics to inanimate objects, yet the reader understands it does not actually possess them. This is different from anthropomorphism when characters, like animals or insects, actually take on the characteristics of a human, such as human speech, like in Charlotte’s Web.

Authors have brought to life diaries, traveling pants, and wedding dresses with great success. In my first novel, my protagonist has an amulet on her arm that keeps her tethered to the false gods of Ancient Egypt. Like the brothers who discard luggage as a symbol of shedding their emotional baggage, when my character rids herself of the weighty shackle, her spiritual eyes open to the one true God.

A writer does a good job with this technique when the reader makes some kind of connection with the inanimate object. Either they begin to feel sympathy (Wilson) or relief (the luggage) but there is an emotive response when its fate is revealed. They care … one way or the other.

But remember, inanimate objects have (or lack) actual capabilities. Make sure your use of the object is believable. The luggage, for example, can’t wave, cry, or hold on to anything. It is a place for your living character to transfer feelings and become a symbol of their inner conflict.

Have you used the personification technique before? Please share how you did it.

Blessings,

KD Holmberg

K. D. Holmberg is an author, blogger, and freelance writer. She is a member of ACFW, Word Weavers International, and a founding member of the Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild. She is represented by Hartline Literary Agency. A retired flight attendant, she has traveled and lived all over the globe. She and her husband, Keith, love to golf and live in South Carolina. You can find more about her: Facebook @authorkdholmberg, twitter @kdeniseholmberg, and website kdholmberg.com

Categories
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

Suspense and the Emotional Element

mystery suspense thriller

Have you ridden a roller coaster and felt the exhilaration or fear of being tossed about while your feet dangled in the air? If so, then you’ve experienced some emotional elements beneficial to writing suspense. Readers don’t physically step into a metal seat and strap themselves in when selecting a suspense novel, but they still expect an adventure in which their emotions become attached to the heroine and the struggle she’s facing.

The opening sentence must capture the attention of your audience, but that’s not all. The story must continue to build with conflict and suspense, teasing your reader’s senses and emotions, and keep them wondering what will happen next.

Raise the stakes. Put your character in a situation where danger lurks and the threat of death hangs in the balance. How will your character handle imminent danger or death?

Allow your audience to feel your character’s uncertainty and fear.

  • Her car breaks down on a deserted road.
  • Imagine the bone-chilling emotion that grips her when a man’s silouette it appears across her window.
  • What about the horror of hanging on a ledge, fingers slipping, muscles cramping, and all hope of survival fading? Will she plummet to her death on the rocks below? Is certain death her only option or will the hero find her in time to save her?

As Lisa Betz stated in her 2018 December article for Almost an Author, “You must add tension by stretching the moment.”

  • Long moments of intensity builds readers’ emotions and sets their desire to keep turning the page.
  • Well-written suspense secures the audience’s attention and keeps them on the edge of their seats.
  • Unresolved tension keeps readers intrigued.

James Scott Bell states in his book Conflict & Suspense that there is more than one type of death that can happen in our novels.

  • Physical death. Make sure your heroine wins in her conflict if she is going to die. Dragging your characters through a quagmire of near-death experiences may pique the reader’s emotions more than physical death. Some readers feel cheated when the main character dies. Physical death is not a requirement for mysteries, suspense, and thrillers. Sometimes other types of death are more frightening.
  • Professional death. Your heroine may fail the test for her promised promotion and is fired instead. She feels all her experience is worthless. There must be something that could make or break your character in her line of work.
  • Psychological death. This type of death stirs an array of emotions for your audience since human behavior can be so irrational one can never assume what might happen.

If you successfully take your readers on an emotional journey all the way through to the last page, most likely they’ll share the experience with other potential readers long after they’ve put the book down.

Loretta Eidson writes romantic suspense. She has won and been a finalist in several writing contests, including first place in romantic suspense in the Foundations Awards at the 2018 Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, a finalist in ACFW’s 2018 Genesis, was a finalist in the 2018 Fabulous Five, and a double finalist in the 2017 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence.

Loretta lives in North Mississippi with her husband Kenneth, a retired Memphis Police Captain. She loves salted caramel lava cake, dark chocolate, and caramel Frappuccinos.

Visit her:
Website: lorettaeidson.com
Facebok: loretta.eidson.7

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Does ‘Sweet’ Mean Boring?

The first reaction I get when I tell another romance writer that I write sweet love stories is often a blank stare, then a small grin and a murmured, “Hmm … is there a market for that?”

The short answer: Yes.

Because sweet doesn’t have to mean boring and flat. There can be plenty of sexual tension in a sweet story. The parameters of what’s acceptable, even in Christian fiction, has widened considerably in the last few years.

I recently read a book by a popular author that left the door wide open during the consummation scene. There was nothing graphic, but also no doubt what was happening. Another of my favorite historical authors took us up to the moment of consummation, slammed the door, then opened it again the next morning to show the reader that the night did not go as expected. (Not coincidentally, both of those books were from the same publisher.)

How do we put passion and tension on the page without graphic descriptions and naming body parts?

It’s all about the feelings. Both physical and emotional.

  • Tummy flutters: yes.
  • Tingling lips: yes.
  • Heightened awareness of the other: sure.
  • Blood rushing: depends on where. 😉
  • Longing for closeness: Yep.
  • Feeling safe or as if coming home: Absolutely!

Let’s dissect a kiss scene.

This is from my novella, BROOKE RUNS AWAY. It takes place near the end but is not the final scene. The plot centers on a reality dating show. We’re in Brooke’s point of view.

I cleared my throat. “You can visit me. I … I’d like that.”

“Really?” He reached for my hand, then pulled me to stand next to him.

His gaze drifted to my lips and my stomach fluttered. (A SMALL PHYSICAL RESPONSE)

We’d laughed. We’d bowled. We’d shared meals and dates.

We’d never kissed. (TAKING A MOMENT TO LET THE TENSION BUILD)

He bent his head and I lifted my mouth to meet his.

Our kiss was soft at first, tentative. (TWO SMALL, LIGHT ADJECTIVES) Then he deepened the contact, pulled me closer, as if after one taste, he had to have more. (A SIMILE TO COMPARE THE KISS TO SOMETHING KNOWN)

I threaded my arms around his neck and met his want with my own. (NOT GRAPHIC, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT SHE MEANS)

After a long moment, we pulled back. He rested his forehead on mine. “Wow.” (A SHORT RESPITE)

I had no breath left, so I smiled. (ANOTHER SMALL PHYSICAL RESPONSE)

His gaze darkened (AGAIN, NOT GRAPHIC, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT HE’S THINKING) and he let go. “Wait here.” He strode back to the house. (WAIT … WHAT?? A COMPLICATION)

I watched Austin’s back disappear through the kitchen door. Was it something I said?

For the first time since we stepped outside, I noticed the camera and its steady red light.

No.

Our conversation, our questions, our kiss … they were private. (UH OH)

My breath caught in my throat and my pulse pounded, urging me to run, run, run. (ANOTHER, STRONGER PHYSICAL RESPONSE) 

Try this exercise on your own.

Dissect some kiss scenes from your favorite books. Figure out what emotions, feelings, and sensations the author conveyed. Then go over your own scenes. What can you add? What can you delete? How can you keep tension on the page?

Because while sweet romance may not “pulse and throb,” it’s never boring.

Carrie Padgett lives in Central California, close to Yosemite, but far from Hollywood, the beach, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She believes in faith, families, fun, and happily ever after. She writes contemporary fiction with romance. Carrie and her Stud Muffin live in Central California with their cat and dog and within driving distance of their six grandchildren.

You can find her online at:

Twitter: CarriePadgett
Instagram: carpadwriter
Facebook: WriterCarriePadgett
Amazon Author Page: Carrie Padgett

Categories
Talking Character

Five Questions for Portraying Anger

Anger comes in many shades, from miffed to murderous. Each shade looks and feels different. When a person is miffed, he might roll his eyes or make a snarky comment. When a person is enraged to the point of being murderous, adrenaline is pumping through his body, making him tense, flushed, and ready to punch someone.

Anger expresses itself differently in different people. No two people respond to anger the same way. Some tend towards melodrama while others keep a tight rein on their emotions. For example: Some teachers constantly yell at their students in order control the classroom. Others rarely raise their voice. I remember being more terrified the one day my normally serene homeroom teacher raised his voice than I ever was at the threats of the constant shouters.

[bctt tweet=”With all this variability, writers must take care to describe anger in convincing and imaginative ways.” username=””]

Here are five questions to ask when a scene calls for anger.

  1. Where am I in the story? A story builds tension as it moves towards the climax. You want to slowly increase emotional intensity, and peak during the climax. That doesn’t mean your characters can’t be angry in earlier scenes, but do keep the overall arc in mind. You should allow your characters room to let their emotions grow and deepen, especially those that will be significant in the climax.
  2. What nuance am I looking for? Look up anger in a thesaurus and scan the synonyms. Select one that best captures the nuance of the emotion your character is feeling. Next, determine what sorts of physical and mental responses suit that specific emotion. A good resource for this is The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.
  3. How does my character’s personality affect how she responds? Some temperaments are naturally more expressive than others. Some characters have volatile tempers while others have learned to stuff their emotions (until the clever writer forces them into a corner and suddenly they can’t hold them in any longer). Like in the school example above, one character’s shout may indicate frustration while another character would only shout when furious. Try to keep your characters’ responses consistent and appropriate for their personalities. And always keep in mind that your characters’ responses to anger are probably different from your own.
  4. Is the response appropriate for the situation? I remember a girl in high school who acted by using stock emotions that she put on and off like a mask. All angry scenes had the same intensity, regardless of the situation. If I had the emotional sophistication to detect this two-dimensional acting in high school, your readers can detect similar lack of authenticity in your characters. A character should not become irate when someone cuts in front of them in line—unless you have built the story to explain why the character reacts so out of proportion to the offense.
  5. What emotion(s) underlie the anger? Sometimes anger is just anger, but often the root of anger is some other emotion, such as fear, guilt, or shame. Humans often use anger to conceal other emotions, intentionally or unintentionally. Consider a character’s backstory and their inner issues. When is their anger response actually hiding something deeper? Do they realize it or not? How can you bring that deeper emotion to play on the page?

Anger. It’s a powerful emotion. Use it wisely.

[bctt tweet=”What other emotions does anger hide in your characters? #writer #amwriting” username=””]

Categories
Talking Character

Developing Your Character’s Voice

I was once in a bus full of high school students when I heard a boy behind me read a single sentence. I immediately recognized the author.

That’s voice.

[bctt tweet=”A strong voice is distinct, memorable, and intriguing. #writetips ” username=””]

It can grab a reader like little else. A few examples:

One day soon they hang me for a rogue. Fair enough. I have earned it a hundred times over, I reckon, and that’s leaving out a lot of acreage. Stephen Lawhead in Scarlet

I am the most tolerant of women, but to join my husband, my son, and my butler in a discussion of our evening in an opium den … was really a bit too much. Elizabeth Peters in The Deeds of the Disturber

When it came to shopping for something that required as much hope and longing as a beautiful dress, I was like a child raised by wolves—or some other, more nervous animal. Rabbits, maybe.   Alyssa Harad in Coming to My Senses

So where does voice come from? The character? The writer?

Some of both, actually.

Three layers of discovering character voice

Layer one—the basics

Consider all you know about your character. His physical description, temperament, background, and demographics can all affect how he speaks. A well-educated or socially elite character will use different vocabulary and grammar than someone from the servant class. A character may be terse or chatty. He may favor colorful metaphors or concrete descriptions. He may use specific words or phrases that provide a hint of dialect, ethnicity, or historical setting.

Layer two—the deeper stuff

Next consider the character’s inner self. Bring together her two-word thumbnail, backstory, wounds, inner issues, and story goals. From this information, identify five or six key emotions that drive the character toward her story goal. Is she determined, bitter, and desperate or melancholy, yearning, and in love?

Layer three—the writer’s connection

Now that you’ve identified the style of a character’s speech and bored down their emotional essence, you need to find a way to connect with this particular character. Her story may be worlds away from anything you have experienced, but that’s OK. In this case, “write what you know” isn’t about having the same experiences, it’s about experiencing the same emotions. Come up with specific incidents in your own past where you experienced each of the emotions you identified in layer two. If you tap into those memories, you will be able to relate deeply to your character as you write.

Putting it together

You might think of layer one as informing the structure of a character’s voice, while layers two and three inform the content and attitude. Experiment with the voice by free-writing in first person, keeping in mind the style attributes of layer one and your emotional memories from of layer three. Push the character to ramble on about his inner fears or his wild dreams until you begin to sense his distinct voice. Don’t be timid. The more passion, the more risk, the stronger the voice. And don’t forget to have fun.

Voice is born from a lot of words and a lot of work — but not just any words or any work will do. You have to bleed a little. You have to shiver a little. You have to love a lot… Holly Lisle

[bctt tweet=”Where does voice come from? The character? The writer? or some of both? #writer” username=””]

[bctt tweet=”You have to bleed a little. You have to shiver a little. You have to love a lot. Holly Lisle #quote #voice” username=””]

Categories
Talking Character

Body Language: What Your Character Is Really Saying-Lisa Betz

If actions speak louder than words then a character’s body language is an important part of dialogue. And yet writers often waste the potential, using body language merely to reinforce what is already evident, such as a character who both nods and says, “Yes.”

Studies show that body language, including gestures and facial expressions, make up over fifty percent of communication. (Tone of voice makes up another thirty-five percent or so.) That means our characters can give away all kinds of information without saying a word.

When harnessed effectively, body language can be a powerful tool—because it tells us what’s really going on inside a character’s head.

4 ways body language can add useful information

  1. Revealing an emotion the character wants to conceal. The heroine is facing her nemesis in a meeting. She wants to appear calm and in control, but under the table her leg is bouncing or her hands are clenched in her lap. Although her dialogue and tone may give the appearance of complete confidence, the body language tells the reader the whole truth.
  2. Indicating the character is lying. Fictional characters don’t always tell the truth, but without a non-verbal clue, the reader may not realize when a character is being less than forthright. A bit of body language can show the reader what’s really going on, for example: a character refusing to meet someone’s gaze, rapid breathing, or covering the mouth while speaking. If the POV character notices these telltale signs, the reader will get the hint.
  3. Showing that all is not as it seems. In a scene where both reader and character expect a certain response, body language can tell a potent tale. For example, a husband arrives home from work on the day he was to get a long-awaited promotion. When he walks in the door and slumps on the couch, the wife realizes something is very wrong. And the more the husband claims everything is fine, the more out of kilter things obviously are. In a similar fashion, when the felon under interrogation acts smug, we begin to suspect he knows something the police don’t.
  4. Hinting at a character’s motives. When a hostess greets a guest with a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes, we suspect there is something between them. Perhaps the hostess is merely acting polite, or perhaps she has ulterior motives for treating the guest with a kindness she doesn’t feel. Of course, the POV character may misinterpret the clues, reading ulterior motives into a situation where there are none—which might be exactly what the plot requires.

Are you using body language to the full potential?

[bctt tweet=”How can your characters’ non-verbal cues help the reader read between the lines? #writetips #bodylanguage” username=””]

Categories
WARFARE!

Out of the Heart the Mouth Speaks, Part 2

Have you ever hit “send” for an email, or “publish” for a blog post, only to realize within a split second that you shouldn’t have?

Me too, more times than I can count.

I think we all know…I mean, know…when what we’re about to write is tainted with wrong attitude or judgment. We feel emotions rise up, and the thoughts we’re having aren’t quite “bless you, my friends.”

I believe that as Christian writers, we have a responsibility to set an example with everything we write; to lead the way with truth written in love. Since we know that out of the heart the mouth speaks – our true feelings will show through in our writing – we need to check our hearts before we push the button to release our words. (Read Part 1 here)

Out of the Heart the Mouth SpeaksHere are a few questions you can ask yourself before hitting “send” or “publish”.

  • Is my heart more passionate about my belief than compassionate for my readers?

Have I put myself in the other person’s shoes and read from their perspective? Would I feel respected or judged…valued or put down?

  • Do my words reflect a right or a righteous attitude in my heart?

Am I trying to impart truth in love, or trying to prove I’m right? Am I writing to point others to Jesus, or to boost support for my opinion?

  • Should someone else read this before I send it – is this topic too emotional for me?

For me, the final step before I hit send on a difficult topic is to have someone else read what I wrote – someone I trust to be brutally honest with me. Maybe more than one someone if it’s controversial.

  • Do I think I am an expert on the topic – do I have pride in my heart?

Is my writing humble and open to being imperfect…or even wrong? Did I remember that we all understand and see only in part?

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:9-10, 12; NIV)

And finally…

  1. Have I prayed for God’s words on this topic – does He want this written?

Am I writing His message, or just what *I* feel is important? Will what I have written stir up strife?

But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. (Titus 3:9, NIV)

As Christian writers, God has a mission and message for each one of us. Let’s all resolve to continually check our hearts as we share our words. [bctt tweet=”Remember that out of the heart the mouth speaks, and we want our hearts to speak love.”]

Categories
A Pinch of Poetry

5 Tips to Jump-Start a Poem

Have you ever struggled with blank page disorder?  I have.  Most writers face this issue at one time or another.

Sometimes we just need a little inspiration.  Here are five tips you can use to jump-start a poem today.

Find a spot where you can sit and observe. Observation is an effective tool for any writer. You might want to visit a coffee shop and listen to the conversations stirring around you. Or you may need to find a quiet place outside to experience nature. Regardless of where you choose to observe, be sure to find a place that will take you away from your normal routine. Take notes on everything you observe in that location, using all five senses.

Skim the recent news headlines for anything that catches your attention. Scientific discoveries, world news, and even weather reports can inspire a poet. Look for extreme events, rare occurrences, strange happenings, or moving stories that capture some unique aspect of life. Skim the article(s) for key words about the subject and then add a few of your own thoughts.

[bctt tweet=”Find inspiration for poetry everywhere–the news, Facebook, or your local coffee shop. #poetry #writing “]

Check your social networks for interesting conversations. Find a news topic or conversation that strikes your interest. Write down key words, phrases, descriptions, images, and personality traits that you observe through the interactions. Next, start writing a poem in response to that topic or conversation. For example, you could begin with “So, you went to Hawaii for a vacation…” Continue writing in a voice that is commenting on or responding to whatever people are discussing on the social network.

Try to find an unlikely comparison, also known as metaphor. If you already have an idea in mind, write down everything you can about the subject of the poem. Then think of a concrete object (one that appeals to your five senses) that is dissimilar to your subject. Write down attributes of the differing object. Once you have all of the ideas out on the page, look for connections. Is there a way to describe your subject as if it were the other object? I recently wrote a poem where I compared automobiles to snail shells—two very unlike items until you are caught in horrendous 5:00 traffic on your way home.

Get in touch with your emotions. Over the past week, have you experienced any joy? Or maybe you encountered someone who angered you. Capture the details of your experience on paper and either write about it or focus on how the emotion affected you most. For example, if you had a fearful moment, describe what fear did to you. Was it like a monster ripping you to shreds, or was it more like a cockroach scuttling about your feet? When you use personification or metaphor to characterize emotions, they become very powerful characters in poetry.

Now it’s time to get writing.  After you take notes, simply start writing on that white page.  I know it’s difficult, but once you start writing the poem out, it will begin to take form.

[bctt tweet=”Combat blank page disorder with 5 Tips to Jump-Start A Poem.  #poetry  #writertips”]

Do you have any other creative tips to jump-start poetry that you can share? I’d love to hear them below.