Advanced Brilliant Writing: Make your Plots Wider and your Characters Deeper (Brilliant Writer Series Book 2) by Warren Susan May

Author:Warren, Susan May
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: My Book Therapy
Published: 2016-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

Writing Character Emotions

I do a lot of traveling. Not long ago, I was sitting in O’Hare Airport when a woman walked into the gate area. She was in her early twenties and carried a backpack, which she held with a whitened fist. She sat down and began to fidget in her seat, checking her watch, looking at the gate, pawing through her bag. She pulled out a book and clutched it to her chest a moment before opening it, and pulling out a highlighter.

The book’s title said, in large black ominous letters—How to Get Over Your Fear of Flying.

Periodically, she wiped her hands on her jeans and blew out a long breath, as if she’d been holding it.

I decided I would call her Darla.

About five minutes before we began to board, Darla called home. I know because she spoke into her cell phone loud enough to be heard all the way over in Detroit. “Dad, I’m getting on the flight now. I’ll see you soon. Yeah, I’m so nervous, I can barely breathe, but I’ll be okay.”

I could almost hear the pleading voice behind her words saying, “I hope, I hope!”

I said a little prayer for her and got on the plane. I had a window seat.

Of course Darla appeared not ten minutes later, checking out the row numbers, and stopped at my row.

Darla had the aisle seat.

She unpacked her backpack, shoving her How to Get Over Your Fear of Flying book and the highlighter into her seat pocket for easy access, and then shoved her backpack under the seat. She buckled her seatbelt, pulling it down tight. She gripped the armrests and did what I considered early-labor breathing. Sweat dribbled down her brow.

She was starting to freak me out.

Then she looked over at me, opened one eye and said, “I’m a little nervous.”

You think?

The short version of the story is that I ended up holding her hand during the takeoff of the flight. More importantly, watching her made me realize that she was a classic example of the four layers of character emotions.

A reader doesn’t want to be told what to think and feel. They want to discover the story along with the characters—embrace the lessons, experience the pain, and rejoice with the victories. The best stories are the ones that invite the reader into the emotional life of the characters, and make a reader invest so much that they can’t put the story down.

But how does an author write emotions that draw the reader in and allows them to experience the story?

As we begin to apply the character’s emotional journey to the page, slowing unlayering them, we need to understand the four layers of writing emotions and when to use each layer. We also need to understand the colors of emotions—meaning the different hues that go into big emotions and how to enhance one hue for greatest emotional impact. Finally, we’ll work on a step by step approach to building the right emotion so as to connect with your reader in a way that resonates, and touches the heart and soul.

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