₦airaland Forum

You're most welcome, divepen, I appreciate the opportunity given me to participate, for it was a good learning experience for even myself. I wish you the best in your endeavors and many more great ideas as this one.

daveP:
Repogirl erm.... Okay il say it like it should be- i love your lecture. Audreytimms was right, become a lecturer!!

thanks very much, DaveP, glad it hit the right notes, dancing sekem!

AudreyTimms: Wow! Repogirl, go and become a lecturer na! I totally loved it- concise and straight to the point. Weldone girl!

lol, thanks oooo, but its one thing writing and one thing speaking, am more of writer than speaker.... Glad U found it comprehensive.

hi divepen, I see you....

Make sure your characters feelings progress realistically. map out the emotional journey within the scene to avoid unintended melodrama. Extensive emotional scenes should be long enough to convey the appropriate information but not so long that you lose your audience. Write the emotion well, develop empathy for the reader, maximize the words you do use, but don't overstay your welcome.

Do not over rely on dialogue or thoughts to express what a character is feeling as it will lead to problems. you will be reduced to weak techniques like telling the reader what is being felt and then using exclamation mark to show it's intensity. Without any action to break the dialogue, the conversation will also sound stiff. Its about balance vary your techniques for maximum impact.

Also try not to misuse back story when enhancing reader depth. Every character is unique, largely influenced by past events. one sure way to gain reader empathy is to reveal why a character is the way he is, people are products of their past and as author,its important for you to know why your characters are the way they are and to pass that information along to readers. The difficulty is in knowing how much of the past to share. Do not reveal too much in an attempt to gain reader empathy. It will slow the pace of your story and then bore readers, tempting them to skip ahead to the good stuff. Determine which details from your characters past are necessary to share and dole them out through the context of the present time story to keep the pace moving. balance is key, remember!

HELPFUL TIPS WHEN DESCRIBING CHARACTER EMOTIONS

How do you keep the emotional reactions fresh without resorting to the same words and phrases over and over?

1. Don’t worry about it during a first draft

You can use a lot of place holder words for your first draft. Smiled, frowned, and gulped are all words that encapsulate the reaction. They require no brainpower, leaving you open to focus on the scene itself.

Use as many placeholder words as you want while drafting. They’re like writing shorthand and are easy to find and edit later.

2. Do a reaction revision pass

After the draft is done, try searching for all those common words you know you use a lot. For example, search for all instances of smiled, then decide if smiled is the perfect word for that situation, or if you can show that emotion or reaction in a better way.

Possible options include:

Can this emotion be expressed through a synonym?

Swap smiled for grinned, or trembled for shuddered.

Can this emotion be expressed through internalization?

A quick What a jerk might convey the same idea as a frown.

Can this emotion be expressed through dialog?

“You're hysterical!” can replace a smile or laugh.

Can this emotion be expressed through movement?

Her lip twitched and her eyes sparkled might work better than a smile.

Can this emotion be expressed through bodily functions?

Tears wet her cheeks like diamonds could work instead of she cried.

Can this emotion be expressed through involuntary reactions?

She jerked away, eyes tight, might show more than she cringed.

Can this emotion be expressed through other senses than usual?

Fear is often shown by how the stomach or throat reacts, but what about sounds or smells? Ears might ring, or things might sound distant and muffled. Scents might trigger memories that evoke the emotion you want to show.

Can this emotional be expressed through subtext?

Sometimes what we don’t say is more telling. “Why of course you can stay,” she said, ripping her napkin into small pieces

4. Don’t feel you have to change everything

do not eliminate these words completely from your manuscript there’s a good chance it’ll sound overwritten and feel like you’re trying too hard. If one quick word works, don’t worry about it. Don’t mess up your pacing just because you’ve used she frowned a lot.

Look for spots where you can layer in more than just simple reactions. Those moments where delving a little deeper in that reaction will also show an aspect of the character or allow for description or world building. Someone who’s nervous might play with things around them, or notice more than they normally would, or think crazy thoughts.

A scene that is designed to bring out a particular emotion is a great place to elaborate the details of a reaction. If you’re building on a character’s fear, you might start out with simpler physical reactions (like a gulp or racing heart) and then move closer into more visceral emotional responses.

Keep the importance of the emotion in mind. The more critical to the scene, the more you can flesh it out. For example:

The floor above creaked. She tensed.

The floor above creaked. Her hand flew to her throat, fingers trembling though the rest of her coiled tight. What was that? Was someone in the house?

If the next line in this scene is “She relaxed—just the cat” readers might find the overreaction a bit melodramatic. But if there is someone in the house, and this moment has been building for six chapters, then a larger reaction is both justified and appropriate (and probably expected).

5. Take the character into consideration

Like i said above, people react differently to things, and you and use that to maintain variety in your descriptions. Maybe someone is very physical and notices how their body reacts, while another is more cerebral and thinks through their emotions. Someone might hide what they feel while another announces it. Use the emotions to reflect the personalities of your characters.

Okay, so this is where I drop my golden pen, lol, I know it's a bit lengthy but worth the read. Thank you for the opportunity, dive, it was a good learning experience, even for me. Writers, i implore you to add more depth to your writing using these techniques, I know I definitely will. There are also resources that could make your work easier, Do check out these links, I couldn't have written all this without them.

http://www.writershelpingwriters.net

blog.janicehardy.com

Thanks.

DESCRIBING EMOTIONS

Hi guys, good day and welcome, so.... I'm talking about how one can effectively describe emotions in one's characters. Now, a few days back, my colleague and friend audreytimms talked on showing and not telling your readers bluntly everything your character experiences. This is because like a painter, we writers are meant to paint a picture for the readers, where they visualise the setting and all that is going on in there. Just putting it bluntly out there is lazy and amateur and to have one's writing taken seriously, then one has got to put in the hard work!

Now I'm going to try to make this as easy as possible for everyone, cos I believe writing should be easy, it should flow through one with ease, even though most times the inspiration might be lacking and then, it's the numerous requests for an update that gets us off our lazy 'you know where'!

THE POWER OF EMOTION

Believe it or not, all successful novels have one thing in common, that's emotion, no matter the genre. It lies at the core of a character's decision, action and words. Without emotion a character's personal journey is pointless, no stakes exist and the plot line becomes dry. Readers pick up a book to have an emotional experience, laugh, cry, doubt, some might even get angry on behalf of the character. Readers read to connect with characters who provide entertainment and whose trials may add meaning to their own life experiences.

We as humans, are propelled by our feelings, they drive our choices and dictate our values. Emotion fuels our communication, allowing us share our beliefs with others. It may seem that most exchanges happen via conversation but studies show that 93% of all communication is non verbal, wow!

As writers, we must take our innate skills of observation and transfer to page.

NOW....

VERBAL AND NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Dialogue is often used for expressing a characters thoughts but it cannot deliver a full emotional experience by itself. A writer must also utilize nonverbal communication. This can be broken down into three elements:

Physical signals (body language, actions)- How our body responds outwardly when we experience emotion. because our characters are unique, they will express themselves in a specific way.

mental responses - This is a window into the thought process that corresponds with the emotional experience. Utilizing thought as a way to express emotion is an excellent way to convey to the reader how a character sees their world.

Internal sensations - These are the most powerful form of nonverbal communication and should be used with the most caution. These visceral reactions i.e breathing, heart rate, light headedness, adrenalin spikes, etc, are instinctive body responses and because people experience them, they will recognize and connect to them far too easily. Relying too much on it can create melodrama.

Since visceral responses are limited, a writer can use clichéd phrasings when describing them. A little goes a long way when using this type of non verbal communication, so do use with a light touch.

THE BALANCING ACT

It is easy to see the power of emotion and how it connects with a reader to the story and characters. the difficulty is in writing it well. Each scene must achieve a balance between showing too little feeling and showing too much. above all, the emotional description needs to be fresh and engaging.

WRITING NON VERBAL EMOTION

Firstly be wary of clichéd emotions, they're a sign of lazy writing, a result of settling on the easy phrase because coming up with something new is too hard. Clichéd emotions like 'the grin that stretches from ear to ear' implies happiness and 'a single tear pooling in the eye before coursing down the cheek' most certainly indicates sadness. Unfortunately these phrases lack depth because they don't allow a range of emotions. that single tear tells you the person is sad, but how upset is she? Sad enough to sob? Collapse? Will she be crying five minutes later? To relate with the character, the reader needs to know the depth of the emotion being experienced.

When writing a certain emotion, think about your own body and what happens to it when you're feeling that way. Excitement for example, the heart races and the pulse quickens. The speech of the person can become fast paced, the voice is higher and louder. You must observe, watch people - real flesh and blood specimens, lol, at the market, at school, work, park everywhere. Note how they act when they're overwhelmed, confused or irritated but please do not become a stalker. The face is the easiest to notice but the rest of the body is just as telling.

Next, you should endeavour to know your character, divepen makes a sort of character trait list which helps him build the attributes of his characters. A character trait list is a comprehensive positive and negative trait guide to your characters attributes and flaws. Individuals do things differently even mundane activities and emotions are no different. not every character will shout or throw things when angry, some might go completely silent, many for various reasons will cover their anger and act like they are not upset at all. Whatever your character is feeling, describe the emotion in a way specific to him/her. Now, also try to be consistent with your characters emotions, for example, a person who shouts and brawls when provoked should not be sitting quietly with anger brimming in the depths of his eyes in another scene, it is inconsistent with the characters emotions and might leave the reader wondering, waiting for him to explode while he seems to be managing to control himself pretty well.

Now, if all emotions were of average intensity, they would be much easier to describe, but emotions vary in strength. For example, fear, depending on the severity of the situation, a person might feel anything from unease to anxiety to paranoia to absolute terror. Extreme emotions require extreme description or descriptors, while relatively subtle emotion can be described as such. emotion must notbe dramatic all the time. Sad people needn't burst into tears all the time, happy people needn't jump for joy all the time, this type of writing results in melodrama and creates disbelief in readers because in real life its not all the time you are happy that you jump. It all depends on the intensity. Extreme emotions call for extreme indicators, temperate ones should be expressed subtly, while indicators for intermediate emotions will lie somewhere in the middle.

Lol @ integrity, divepen, how nao? I will be here unfailingly to post on my assigned topic but question and answer might be 'iffy' as today is my off day from phcn, forreal.

I promise to do my utmost bestest, see you at the assigned time.

Divepen: Repogirl, White mosquito and all NLsuper writer (Whatsapp) I miss you all...alot...

lol, missing your presence also, great work divepen.

TrishaP: Jeez when are u dropping a new story for us @repo. Really missed reading ur kind of stories.
And for the "one that awaits" been waiting for that. Literature section has been boring to me without ur stories.

yeah TrishaP, not been able to coordinate myself yet, my hands are full at the moment, and writing has been relegated to the back burner...but I will be back just not sure when exactly.

Good one Audreytimms, taken notes!