by Rebecca Yauger, @RebeccaYauger
I consider myself a very emotional person. You know, the kind that cries easily during a sad movie, or book, even a sentimental commercial on TV! I know I’m not alone. I also cry when I’m happy, and when I’m angry, even when I’m simply frustrated. Okay, maybe I’m just a one-note with my emotions. I cry no matter what I’m feeling, and I hate being a weepy girl. I don’t like feeling vulnerable.
Perhaps this is the reason I struggle with writing the emotions of my characters. One of my favorite authors once said, “If you’re not crying while you write it, the reader won’t cry.” I’m paraphrasing, but she meant that if I feel the emotion then my readers would feel it, too. However, you have to go deep within yourself in order to bring out a character’s emotions and that’s not always easy to do. It’s all about going to a vulnerable place as an author to bring that realism to the pages of your novel. So, how do we show emotion? How do we make our readers feel what our characters are feeling?
Thankfully, there are many good craft books out there that can help you write emotion. I won’t start listing them here. Just ask your writing friends, or do an Amazon search. However, perhaps there’s another resource you haven’t thought about: Your own journals.
You tend to be real and vulnerable in a journal. If you are one who keeps one, you may be surprised to find that when you read them again, they have the ability to take you back to an exact moment in time. Re-reading can put you in that time and place, in the middle of sights, sounds, smells, and emotions that you wrote about. Using your own experiences, your own words, and your own vulnerability, can help you translate those emotions into your characters.
It’s time to get real with your emotions. Trust yourself to go deep. Don’t be afraid to ask yourself “What am I feeling?” then grab a literary shovel and dig even deeper! Free those emotional moments from inside of you, and place them on the page and into your characters.
Hopefully then, they’ll leap off the page and land in the heart of your readers.
Rebecca Yauger worked for 15 years in radio and television broadcasting, before starting on her writing career. She’s been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul and Guideposts Magazine and continues to scribble away on various projects. She is also a blogger at www.TalkingAmongFriends.com. Becky and her husband live near Dallas, have two grown children, and two beautiful grandchildren.