Emotions:Can't write them;Can't write without them

[Salmastryon]

Well.. believe it or not. emotions are one of the toughest things for me to right. As my betas can tellyou I have a tendency to end up writing things sounding distance, then I have to go back and edit all the emotional conductivity in.

I'm sure we all have different problems when it comes to writing characters. I've read stories where emotions go over the top, characters are wooden or are just flat out unbelievable. So, let's work together to help each other out.

How do ya'll deal with character's emotions?

What tips and tricks do people use to convey the character's emotions to the paper?

What problems do people have with emotions that they have to compensate for or wish they knew how to solve?

What emotional no-no's have you seen commited in other writings? How can we fix them?

[lazy treneka]

Oddly enough, I think the best handling of emotions is often not to deal with them directly at all. To my way of thinking, a character's emotions will guide his or her actions, so if you depict with proper detail and emphasis the actions that a character takes, the emotions will become obvious. Of course, this applies only to scenes in which action is occuring. It gets harder in purely introspective works. Still, I agree with Miss Eliza Dolittle and her admonition to "Show me!" An emotion shown is more immediate than one merely stated.

Bad Example: Goku was tremendously happy. vs. A brilliant smile lit Goku's face, and he leapt out of his chair with a laugh.

Good Example: Watch the body language of Bogie and Bergman the first time she set's foot in Sam's bar. The characters never need to say "I loved you" for you to feel it radiating from them.

Just my two cents.

[KarotsaMused]

I agree with treneka, although the deplorable condition of some writing is, of course, that even that tell-tale action is just not there. If one is skilled enough to create an atmosphere that easily and accurately portrays a character's inner workings without spelling it out, more power to him. And yet, sometimes simply stating it works just as well.

Emotions such as "happy", "sad", and "angry" are all well and good, but if you get into complexities and subtle nuances (as women are wont to do - the difference between "upset" and "frustrated" is huge) then sometimes behavior can seem unfounded or will need explanation. A little insight into the character's mind can help to flesh out the details of upbringing, moral ideas, et cetera, that not only lead him/her to the emotional conclusion but help to convey the level of reaction. After all, Sanzo frowns all the time, but that doesn't mean he's always angry. Just ... most of the time.

My favorite emotional no-no: The smiley. Good on messageboards; bad in fiction. ;D
Other than that, it is often the case that, after a period of really high emotional stress, characters will either recover in a snap or will draw the situation out for chapter after agonizing chapter. The recovery period is a hard thing to gauge, especially as it is different for everyone, but the real trick is imposing that recovery period and making it believable.
And there, I suppose, is also my major fault. I never know how to gauge

[kellen]

My biggest problem is that I don't know what my biggest problem is. Since most of my writing stems from personal experience, the emotions my characters experience are all too often how *I* reacted to certain situation.

In my LotR story "Faith", the one pivotal emotional scene was when Eldabeth (my OFC) broke down and railed against fate and her uncle about the death of her father. In reality, that was me and my reaction to a friend's suicide. In "Brotherly Love", Aragorn played the part of me and voiced my anger over my brother's inconsiderate action. In "Failed" Kirara's protectiveness stems from my own reactions to my sister's situation. I've been told I have a good handle on character's emotions and that the reactions are believable, but I take th praise with a grain of salt, since I've never written something that didn't stem from personal experience.

I suppose its good practice at least...

cheers,Kellen

[Salmastryon]

Everytime I write a character I ask myself what would I be feeling how would I react. I look at how I would feel when inthat situation and those emotions. By feel I don't just mean the emotions themselves but the physical feelings as well. Emotions are very connected to our physical well being. The old cliche "a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach" works because fear is felt as a tangable thing.

Keeping this in mind though different people feeling things differently. So I try to mix it up a bit. The hard part is being consistant with a specific character.

I guess what I'm saying is that the way you handle emotions is the way most good authors handle emotions.

[Ganheim]

Salmastryon said:

Everytime I write a character I ask myself what would I be feeling how would I react. I look at how I would feel when in that situation and those emotions.

That's usually the only thing we authors can do. As the old saying goes, "Write about what you know..." It just happens to be a maxim that writers don't give great enough credince.

Salmastryon said:

Keeping this in mind though different people feeling things differently. So I try to mix it up a bit. The hard part is being consistant with a specific character.

That part I hear other people having extreme trouble with, but I for the most part don't have that difficulty. I just have this empathy, I sit down and think "okay, I'm writing about this character", then I get the scene in my mind (making sure to include only information the character is aware of), and what experiences the character's gone through. If I had been through this, lived here, and was stuck in the middle of this, what might I do?

I'm not saying that I don't have trouble with certain things. I seem to be really good at writing about the very emotionally distant characters like Koukatsu or Giniro in Life of the Silver Tear, but I have more trouble writing about the "normal", "in-touch-with-her-emotions" Kokeyera...who happens to have a crush on Giniro. That itself is also a problem. How do I properly portray it? Am I exaggerating her actions this time? Is she acting too casual or stiff?

At least with Fan Fiction you usually have a pool of previous actions to go on and hint at what comes next, when you're going out on a limb and writing original fiction (which I consider the most exiting thing I do in my life) you don't always have that guide of someone else having thought it up.