Character Emotion

When you raise the stakes in the story, don’t forget to also show the POV character’s emotions grow more intense. Whenever there’s more on the line, there’s more weight tied to the feelings being experienced.
If your character wants to give up, give them a reason to go on. What core beliefs do they hold that they will go to the mat to defend? What injustices or atrocities are just too morally painful to bear?
Body cues should create a strong mental picture. If the movement is too drawn-out or complicated, the emotional meaning behind the gesture may be lost.
A ticking clock can ramp up the emotions in any scene. As the character hurries to complete a task or meet a need, mistakes caused by rushing might open the door for a richer emotional ride.
To add another layer to an emotional experience, look for Symbolism within the character’s current setting. What unique object within the location can the character make note of that perfectly embodies the emotion they are feeling inside?
To add tension to a scene, include someone who carries emotional weight with your character. Who frightens them, creates anxiety, or makes them more volatile?
Pay special attention to the events leading up to an emotional response. If the plotting feels contrived, the character’s reaction will seem contrived as well
Don’t be afraid to challenge your character’s morals. Putting them in situations that are outside their comfort zone will make them squirm, and the reader will too.
Don’t get caught up on the eyes to convey emotion. While eyes are often the first thing we notice in real life, they provide very limited options for description possibilities. Instead, dig deeper, showing how the character behaves through their body movement, actions and dialogue.
If a critique partner voices confusion over the emotional reaction of one of your characters, check to make sure the stimulus trigger is prominent. Showing the cause-effect relationship is vital when conveying authentic emotion.
For each scene, identify the emotion you need to show and think in terms of three…what three ways have you reinforced the character’s feelings through verbal and nonverbal communication?
Emotions aren’t always pure or beautiful; sometimes characters feel things that will reveal their dark side. Don’t be afraid to show these moments when it’s important to the story. Readers will recognize they come from a place of truth and appreciate the author’s honesty to write them.
The emotional spectrum is vast, yet often we only see more prominent “core” feelings being described. Go off the map! Incorporate a variety of feelings to provide a richer experience for your readers.
When you’re describing a character’s emotional reaction through the eyes of another character, think about the depth of their relationship. If it’s close, a simple hair tuck or half-wave could be steeped in meaning which the point of view character can then share with the reader.
All people, and therefore all characters, make associations when exploring their world. For each setting, think about any emotional attachments a character may have to it based on their past experiences. Then, use these associations to evoke mood.
With emotion, get personal. A tragic situation like a news story about a lost child on TV will affect everyone, but if the child is someone special to the character who is watching, the effect is tenfold.
How a character views their world should always be filtered through their emotions. What they are concerned about, desire, fear, and what impacts their self-identity will steer emotions and change how they perceive each setting.
To check if your emotional showing is on point, ask WHY: Why does the character care so much? Why does this moment impact them so deeply? The answers should be clear through your description and narrative.
It is natural to hold back or hide our true scope of emotions in the presence of others. When writing a conflicted protagonist, it is critical to show through action the emotion the character wants to convey to others while also expressing their true feelings to the reader.
In scenes where information must be shared, characters should still be moving, acting, and revealing emotion to keep the pace flowing smoothly.
Men and women often experience and express emotions differently. When writing a character of the opposite sex, consider getting a second opinion to ensure a character’s reactions, thoughts, and feelings are authentic.
Another way to help readers understand the character’s emotion better is to tie it to a universal experience. For example, a character could compare their frustration to a recurring dream where they must make a critical phone call but keep dialing the number wrong.
When revising, look for instances where emotions are NAMED. Nine times out of ten, this indicates a lack of confidence that the emotion is shown clearly through thought, sensations and body language. Strong verbal and nonverbal cues negate the need to explain the emotion to the reader.
Smell triggers memory. Take advantage of this sense and build olfactory description into the scene. This will draw readers in and make them feel part of the action.
To reveal quieter emotions, try using contrast. For example, pairing an easygoing character with someone who is highly volatile will help their own milder body cues stand out clearly.
When writing a character’s emotional response, consider their comfort level. Characters are more themselves in the company of people they feel safe with. But if they feel vulnerable or uncertain, their reactions will change.
When drafting, if you are unsure of how to show an emotion, use a telling placeholder like She shivered in fear. Then, look for the named emotion when revising, remove it, and write something fresh to show. This way, you will not be pulled out of the creative flow.
Make a list of your body language crutches (frowning, smiling, shrugging, head shaking, etc.). Use your word processor’s search and replace feature to highlight these so you can pinpoint where the emotional description needs some freshening up.
It isn’t enough to show emotion; a writer needs to make the reader feel it. Think about the core visceral sensations you experience when feeling strong emotion, and if appropriate, utilize them to convey a similar experience to the reader.
Emotion should always lead to decision making, either good or bad, that will propel the story forward.
Visceral sensations are powerful, but if used too often, they can lose their strength. Save them for when you really want to make a big emotional impact in a scene.
Clothing choices are individual and project an image of one’s personality. When creating unique emotional body language, think about how a character’s clothing can be utilized to reveal their insecurities or vanities and show feelings of self-worth.
Never underestimate the power of texture. The way an object feels against the skin can create a powerful reaction (positive or negative) and add to the reader’s emotional experience.
Opening up about difficult feelings signals an important breakthrough for a character on their journey of change. To be realistic, it won’t be easy; emotional pain is hard to face and harder to talk about. Show this stress and struggle using vocal cues and body language.
Characters experiencing raw emotion often react without thinking—either through dialogue or action. Rash behavior creates the perfect storm for increased tension and conflict.
While melodrama is usually a bad idea in fiction, it can be used effectively to characterize an over-the-top character.
Disappointments will happen throughout a story to your characters, creating an opportunity to showcase different behaviors. What will each do if things don’t go their way: talk it out, get angry, wallow in self-pity, something else? Pull from their personalities, and experiment!
With extreme emotions that trigger an immediate fight-or-flight response, it’s important to know which “side” fits best with your character’s personality. All actions should line up with this choice.
Make sure to show how a character’s emotions escalate or shift in a tense scene. This causes anticipation for what is to come.
To show a character’s emotional growth and maturity, provide a situation early on that will cause them to overreact. Then, when a similar circumstance arises later, they can handle it in a much better way.
When steering your character through scenes that allow for emotional growth, don’t forget to also provide setbacks. The path to enlightenment isn’t smooth for anyone, including our characters.
Maintain an overall perspective of the character’s emotional range. A strong manuscript will always expose the reader to several contrasting emotional experiences that fit within the context of the protagonist’s growth.
To generate friction in dialogue, give the participants opposing goals. A heightened emotional response is the natural result of not getting what one wants.
Make a list of the body parts you incorporate when expressing emotion. Are there ones you don’t use at all? Challenge yourself to come up with a unique cue by using one of those parts and substituting it for a gesture that is overused.
When emotionally charged, does your character think before acting, or act without thinking? Whatever their default is, put them in a situation that causes them to do the opposite.
Be wary of showing emotion too readily through the act of crying. In real life, it takes a lot to reach a tearful state, so it should be the same for our characters.
In some situations, your character will be emotionally steady while in others, they will be a hot mess. For the latter, ask yourself why this is. If it is the result of an unresolved emotional wound, how can you can use this to further the inner conflict of the story?
When crafting the details of a fight scene, remember that less is more. Too many detailscreate a play-by-play feel which can come across as mechanical
Whenever you are using thoughts to show the character reflecting on what they feel, make sure the language you use fits their voice, age, worldview, education, and life experience.
If you’re stuck on how to show an emotion, form a strong image of the scene in your mind. Let the scene unfold, and watch the character to see how they move and behave.
Prime readers for an emotional experience by describing the mood of a scene as your character enters it. If your character is antsy, the reader will be too.
A character’s emotional responses reflect their deepest self. Take the time to explore their past and understand how their backstory will steer specific behaviors and actions.
Sometimes a character will fight the emotion they are feeling. If this is the case, think about how their body language and dialogue may be at odds, and show that struggle.
Use a character’s intuition to draw the reader more fully into the scene. If you show what has primed it clearly, the reader’s own gut will respond, and they will pay extra close attention. Remember that the flash of intuition must pay off in some way to complete the circle.
Make it a goal to offer the reader something unexpected in every scene, be it an emotional reaction, a roadblock to trip the character up, or a snippet of dialogue that sheds new light on the events unfolding.
When showing emotion, spend more airtime on describing whatever the POV character is most focused on. What has their attention will have the reader’s attention, too.
Character bibles can help you keep track of hair, eye and clothing choices for each character, keeping the continuity from the first page to the last.
To increase tension in a scene, think about what is motivating your character, and which emotions could get in the way. Introduce an event that creates the very emotions the character wishes to avoid.
One way to create emotional intensity is to have the character remember the stakes on the cusp of taking action. Worry over the outcome can add a slice of desperation to any scene and create a compelling emotional pull for the reader.
Character emotion can be shown to great effect through how they view the world. What attitudes, observations, and judgments can be tied to what they are currently feeling?
Force your characters to make choices between bad and worse. Readers will empathize with your character, remembering their own past when they faced a similar dilemma.
Too much self-awareness can hurt emotional descriptions. Rarely do people think about the mechanics of what their bodies are doing (I felt my lungs swell with unspent breath), so weigh description more on showing a character’s reactions and behaviors naturally as they happen.
Does your character have a bad habit, mannerism, or tic that occurs when they’re trying to hide emotion from others? If so, show this when they’re working to hold back their true feelings.
Add conflicting emotions for a richer experience. A character might feel excitement and pride at purchasing their first car, yet worry that they might be extending themselves too far financially. This inner conflict helps to humanize a character to the reader.
A natural way to describe a character’s appearance is to show them interacting with their environment. A sense of movement also allows this type of description to flow with the scene as it progresses.
Characters in a heightened emotional state have their senses dialed up. Describing an awareness of a sound, smell, taste, etc. they may not otherwise notice is a good way to show this
Never let the reader notice the writing. Overusing metaphors, similes, descriptive terms, and repeated body language can pull the reader out of the story
Restraint is something characters shed when their emotions are fired up. Showing a character’s progression as they lose control of their behavior and words makes for great reading.
To create a fluid, emotional arc in your story, make sure your character’s feelings build in intensity and complexity as the novel progresses.
Scenes do not happen in a vacuum. Don’t forget to include setting, thoughts or verbal cues that allude to the passage of time
Common gestures and expressions such as shrugging or frowning are easy to interpret but can lead to lackluster description if they’re written “as-is” too often. Customize responses based on the character’s personality and comfort zone to paint a fresh image for readers.
If you need to show a wide personality divide between clashing characters, try to show them responding with vastly different emotions to the same situation or event.
Make body language unique to the character. Creative emotional mannerisms help characters leap off the page.
In each scene, think about the lighting. Full sunlight, muddy clouds washing everything in grey, the onset of sunset or even darkness…light and shadow can affect a character’s mood, amp their stress level or even work against their goals.
Body movements should never be random. Everything a character does should have a specific intent: to achieve an end, reveal emotion, or to characterize.
When characters are distracted, they miss the obvious, creating perfect pathways to conflict and disaster. Think about how overlooked aspects of a setting, the behavior of others, and important bits of dialogue can lead to complications down the road.
Sentence structure is especially important when writing descriptions. Varied sentence length keeps the pace moving and makes the flow of sensory detail feel more natural, avoiding a “dry report” feel.
Curiosity is perfect for revealing deeper layers. What draws one character in may be different for others, so use this feeling to shed light on their personality, interests, and desires.
If a character is pretending to feel something to fit in or because it is expected, make sure to show hesitation, initial awkwardness, or internal thoughts to emphasize this forced emotion.
Is your character more introverted or extroverted? Knowing where they are on the spectrum can help indicate how expressive they will be, especially when they’re with other characters.
Do you know your character’s emotional wound? Whatever difficult trauma is in their past, the emotion surrounding it will act as a trigger, awakening their pain and causing them to overreact.
Body movement and external reactions alone will not create an emotional experience for the reader. Pairing action with a light use of internal sensations and/or thoughts creates a deeper emotional pull.
When introducing and describing characters, parcel out personal details in small bits. Anything that isn’t pivotal to plot or characterization can be left to the reader’s imagination.
When it comes to emotion, humor can have many uses. For some, it is a way to work past a situation with optimism intact. Others use it to deflect or distract. What purpose does humor serve your character’s state of mind?
When delivering emotional description, it’s easy to rely too much on facial expressions. Instead, look down and describe what the arms, hands, legs, and feet are doing.
To dig deeper into a character, think about shame. What makes them feel this painful emotion? Drill down to important backstory to understand what happened, and then make them face their shame on the page.
In Dialogue, it’s not always what a character says that’s important, it’s how they say it. (And sometimes it’s what they are trying hard not to say!)
Choose verbs carefully. The meaning of a sentence can be altered through the words used to describe action.
No matter how resilient your character is, some things will get under their skin. Look for emotions that force them to be vulnerable so they’ll seem more realistic to readers.
Gratitude is a powerful emotion for self-protective characters, since it lowers their emotional shield. Think about including an event that causes them to experience gratitude so they can see that not everyone is an enemy. This will help them grow and move past their own fears.
If you want readers to connect with a point-of-view character’s emotions, make him or her likeable, relatable, or vulnerable. This allows for empathy bonds to form.
How comfortable is your character with the full range of emotions? Are there certain feelings they’re afraid to show? Explore this possibility to add nuance to your character’s emotional responses.
As your character reacts emotionally to circumstances within the environment, don’t underestimate the importance of sensory details. Do textures bother them because of a heightened state? What sounds do they pick up on that they might not otherwise notice?
Watch for possible description crutches. Is the color green used too much? Does a sensory sound (like wind rustling through the trees) happen in multiple scenes? Keep track of these details to avoid overuse.
When a character is hiding an emotion, the cues are not as noticeable. In this circumstance, it’s often more effective to show the emotion through change—altering a speech pattern, falling back on habits, posture shifts, etc.
Avoid brand-dropping to characterize. Brand names come and go and can date your writing. Instead, use other clues to convey your character’s personality, strengths or shortcomings.
Description is clearest when a writer adheres to the real order of events in a scene. Show the action (stimulus), then the reaction (response), and a reader will clearly see how A leads to B.
When you’re exposing the reader to a new scene, person, or object, it can be useful to have some description or opinion delivered through a secondary character’s dialogue. What they notice and how they respond provides an opportunity to characterize.
Too many emotional internalizations in a scene can slow the pace considerably. If the character’s reflections are key to readers understanding what is being felt, try shifting some of these inner thoughts to active, realistic dialogue. It will increase the pace and still reveal the character’s feelings
In dialogue ,be on the lookout for where your character “thinks” instead of responding verbally. This leads to unnatural, one-sided conversations.
One emotion to include in every story is hope. Without it, even the most carefully crafted fiction will contain a void that readers will notice and cause them to disengage.
Loners and their lack of social interaction present specific writing challenges. To break up long stretches of introspection, maintain some character relationships. Remember that a person can be lonely even when surrounded by people; use the dialogue, dysfunction, and drama that go along with those relationships to keep the pace moving forward.
When you’re trying to write a specific character’s emotional reaction to a situation, remember that their core personality traits, past experiences, and deepest fears will steer their actions
When describing a character’s emotional state, pay attention to their voice. Does it rise or drop in pitch? Get louder or softer? Grow rough or silky smooth? Changes in pitch and tone are great indicators for when a character is trying to hide their feelings from others.
Regret is a difficult emotion, one that is felt both in the moment and in the long-term. What old regrets have power over your character, steering their actions and decisions? Think about how these can become part of the story so your character can learn to let go of them.
When working to evoke an emotional response from readers, choose words with care. Language choices will color the mood and influence what readers feel as they read.
There are dozens of physical, internal, and mental responses to use when conveying a given emotion. Filter possible cues through what you know about your character. “Would my character react this way?” is a great question to ask to stay on the right track.
Sometimes an unexpected emotion creates a gateway to a revelation, showing the character a deeper truth about a past event or offering them clarity in a current one. Spend time describing these moments because they often lead to growth and transformation.
Don’t make it easy for your heroes. Pile on the difficulties. Overwhelm them. Make it seemingly impossible for them to succeed so that when they do overcome, the reader will be properly impressed.
When describing a character’s feelings, the word “felt” is often a cue for telling emotion, not showing. Run a search for this word and challenge yourself on its use
If your scene includes a small dip into the past to retrieve information that has direct bearing on the current action, make sure there is an emotional component. Emotions are triggers to memory and help tie the present to the past.
To make a villain relatable and layered, have them experience an emotion that shakes apart their hard exterior and briefly causes them to see life through an unbiased filter of hope.
With emotion, never be afraid to try something new. Individual expressions should be genuine but unique.
While it’s tempting to let a character speak openly about their emotions in dialogue, it will raise a red flag for the reader. If you wouldn’t say it in real life, don’t let your character.
Emotions usually don’t jump from mild to extreme in a short period of time. To gain the reader’s trust, lay the proper foundation and show how stressors can lead to a greater intensity.
When conveying high emotion, keep the metaphors to a minimum. No matter how flowery or creative a character might be, in the midst of strong emotion, most people don’t think in those terms. Keep it simple to maintain believability.
If you want readers to connect with a point-of-view character’s emotions, consider how to make them likeable or sympathetic. This allows for empathy bonds to form.
With emotions, a natural reflex is to try and maintain control. See how far you can nudge a character to the edge of restraint. When it’s important, shove them beyond it.
Maintain an overall perspective of emotional range as the story progresses from scene to scene. A strong manuscript will always expose the reader to contrasting emotional experiences that fit within the context of the POV character’s growth.
To create a stronger reader reaction to emotion, remember to focus on showing what triggers the feeling, rather than only showing the character’s response to it.
If a tense situation occurs and your character remains unmoved, you risk causing readers to disengage because it won’t feel realistic. Make sure characters always respond—even in a surprising way—to show they feel something. If they don’t react, be prepared to adequately show why.
To engage a reader’s emotions, put characters in real-world scenarios they may identify with: sibling rivalries, telling the truth but not being believed, unreturned affections, etc.
To put readers on edge, key into their own fears. A loved one not checking in when they should, finding the front door open and unlocked, an airplane crash on the news when one has to travel…these types of shared fears can impact a reader more deeply.
Some emotions, like confusion, should be shorter-lived or paired with another feeling. If the POV character is disoriented for too long, readers may struggle to follow what’s happening in the scene.
If your character holds in emotion, at some point, these pent-up feelings will take a toll. Make sure that you follow-through with an explosive reaction or show the detrimental fallout in other ways
With more subtle emotions, a “tell” can be an effective way to show that your character is uncomfortable or out of their element. Set it up early with a bit more detail so readers will recognize its importance.
When writing emotion, pull from your own past. Even if you haven’t experienced what the POV character is going through, chances are you’ve felt the same emotion about something else. Draw on your personal experience and bring life to the story
Does your character have a trait they take pride in? If so, create an emotional situation that causes them to doubt that trait or skill, leading to internal conflict.
Weather details can add texture and meaning to a scene. Consider how a character’s mood can shift because of the weather. It can also stand in the way of their goals, providing tension
If you aren’t happy with an emotional response, change the setting. If the character is alone, put them around people. If they are with others, isolate them or take away their comfort zone.

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Character Emotion

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