Often in real life and news reports, we witness spontaneous and raw emotion. Not something we’re privy to much in our everyday lives, having been taught to control our emotions as demonstrated by our show of emotional development and maturity.
Many shy away from bearing witness to some of the most raw and painful shows of emotion — rage, sorrow, jealousy, aggression, grief. Some judge shows of spontaneous and raw emotion childish / dangerous / uncomfortable. Buck up, we’re taught. Everyone feels pain. Grow up. Get over it.
Yet, in those shared moments of emotional truth rather than skimming along on the surface of life, the spontaneous and raw emotion pulls us deeper and connects us primally and universally to all of life.
Convey that universality through the truth of your character’s emotional reaction in such a way as to elicit the shared emotion in your reader and move your audience and you’ve create fans for life.
Plot Tip:
Feel what you need to feel.
Let your characters feel what they need to feel.
Remove the mask. Feel. Identify what and why and how that feeling shows itself in you and in others. When you’re in the throes of true emotion, jot down the physical and emotional and spiritual reactions the emotion draws up in you. With your findings, create your own emotional notebook. Search beyond the cliched emotional reactions to the truth of what you see and feel and hear and touch and taste and know to be true when experiencing real emotion.
Today I write!
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For more: Read my Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.
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- Looking for tips to prop up your middle with excitement?
- Wish you understood how to show don’t tell what your character is feeling?
- Are even you sometimes bored with your own story?
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