Emotion

We don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.

-- Virginia Woolf

Ways to produce authentic emotion

Through description: no description of setting, people, or objects should be neutral--it's always filtered through the perception and emotion of the protagonist (Burroway).

Show emotion through visceral response.

Think of a time you were [fill in emotion, i.e. embarrassed]. Reproduce that emotion. Now pay close attention to what your body does. What does your gut feel like? Does your face feel warm? Does your jaw tighten? Do your eyes unfocus? Use these details in describing what is going on with your character.



Gardner's faults of the soul

1. Sentimentality (sentiment that doesn't ring true: rhetorical cliches, breathless sentences, superdramatic one-sentence paragraphs)
2. Frigidity
3. Mannered writing (distracts from the dream by calling attention to itself, flawed character can have it)


The pattern of emotion (Swain)

1. Character receives motivation stimulus (something happens in the exterior world)
2. The change in affairs changes character's state of mind
3. Character's feelings take overt form of observable reaction

Summed up, something exterior needs to happen that makes a change on the character's interior. This change propels the character into feeling, then action, then speech (in that order). Sometimes the reason people create unconvincing emotion is because the motivation stimulus does not agree with the reaction the character has. To create the right motivation stimulus, make sure it's one that creates the effect you want on your character, make sure exclude extra or confusing details (keep to your point), and describe the stimulus in relation to character's attitude.


Character reaction (Swain) should be...

1. Significant (reflects image you seek to create--be sure to make up your mind!)
2. Pertinent (links character to story, moves character)
3. Motive (character responds actively, brings external change)
4. Characteristic (keep in character)
5. Reasonable (makes sense with the motivational stimulus)

To properly record action, first write a sentence that doesn't have your character in it. This sentence is about the exterior world. The next sentence is about the character--It's a direct reaction to the first sentence.


Proportion (Swain)

Just like time, emotion can be measured on an emotional clock. Some events in your book are going to have more emotional weight than others.

Einstein says: "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours."

So, when you write a high-tension scene, make it last longer by writing more words. Spend time with the sensory details, etc. Wordage is your yardstick of emotion.

When the story has less tension, you can start to summarize. You'll know these low-tension moments because no change will occur within your character--no stimulus, no reaction.