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Weird Question
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Author:  K. C. Gaunt [ February 9th, 2011, 10:25 am ]
Post subject:  Weird Question
Getting inside a characters head and portraying their emotions has always been a challenge for me. When I do, the prose is always awkward, and a bit repetitive. I've been told this is because I myself lack drama, where my preferred, and most common, mood is that of contented indifference. Thankfully, my MC's (Susyn's) is fairly similar in this respect, the only difference being is her life is a lot more traumatic. But, she's not my only character, and she does have them, everyone does, she just keeps them in check.

Any suggestions?

- Terra
Author:  RedWing the Purple [ February 9th, 2011, 12:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wierd Question.
Observe me, your overly dramatic twin sister. :P

I can't say I'm exactly sure how to give advice on this subject. >.O I'd say the key is to empathize. Sit back for a moment, stick yourself in their shoes, while blocking out the rest of the world. How would you act? Then, how would /they/ act?

Every character reacts to different situations differently. They'll feel different emotions based on circumstances, and it's sometimes hard to pick out exactly /what/ their emotions/reactions will be.

Which is why it's essential to know a character inside and out, from their personality, past, where they grow up, who's around them, etc. All these things will have monumental impact on your character. I highly recommended character fractalling.

Once you've got that down, just empathize.

(Though, I will say, from what I've read of your stuff, I haven't noticed anything particularly awry with your characters...seemed fine to me.)

Hope that helps. :D
Author:  Evening L. Aspen [ February 18th, 2011, 11:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Weird Question
Hmm...it's hard to give a blanket answer, but I'll try. ;)

First of all, your characters don't have to be really dramatic. They can be subtle, and sometimes subtle is better. They don't need to be loud and flamboyant, wearing their hearts on their sleeves.

That said, how much have you developed your characters? It might help for you to sit down and write some journal entries as your characters, or maybe write a letter from one of your characters to another. Like RedWing said, get inside your character's head. I'm probably just weird, but I like acting as my character with my sisters; sometimes we'll play a pretend game together and take on the personalities and histories of some of my characters. This gives me a chance to explore what they would do, feel, and think in specific situations outside of my stories.

You said that your MC has a traumatic past. Does she try to hide her emotions for fear of being traumatized further? Of course, the effect of her history on her present personality depends on what kind of trauma she experienced...

As for showing your MC's emotions, physical mannerisms are great for this. It comes down to showing rather than telling; don't tell me that she's upset, show it. It's hard, but it gets easier with practice. It might help to make a list of her physical reactions to different emotions. (Eg: she sighs loudly when she's frustrated, her lips twitch when she's happy, she taps her fingers when she's nervous, etc.)

I hope that was at least somewhat helpful. It's hard for me to give suggestions since I don't have much trouble displaying my characters' emotions. Oh, one final suggestion: if it's strictly portraying your MC's emotions in the narrative of your story, editing can usually fix that. It especially helps to have other people look at your work (as scary as it is :shock:) and tell you if they got the right signals from your character's thoughts and behavior.

In Christ,
~ Evening
Author:  Rachel Newhouse [ February 23rd, 2011, 3:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Weird Question
All of the suggestions given about character development are good. Those can help you determine what your characters' emotions are and how they might express them.

But, if you have an idea of what the emotions are and you're just having trouble getting the words to flow... try switching writing styles or mediums.

I suggest this because my writing sometimes flows more smoothly in one medium or another. If I can truly get inside the character's head, I can write a transparent 1st person narrative without issue. If I'm not getting into the character, however, 1st person becomes incredibly hard to write. A more distant 3rd-person might work better, where I just have to observe the character instead of write from inside their head. Sometimes, when I can't get my narrative in any person to flow, switching to screenplay frees things up. Because the narrative of screenplay doesn't have to have as much "flavor," in a sense, it's a very direct process. Instead of worrying about how to make the sentences sound nice, I just describe what's happening bluntly.

You might find that the reverse is true. If you're having trouble describing the character through 3rd person, try 1st person. Write from inside them, let them do the talking, instead of you trying to translate.

I agree with Evening - show, not tell. The narrative doesn't necessarily have to have a lot of drama, but you can imply a wealth of emotion by character's subtle actions.
Author:  Svensteel Mimetes [ June 21st, 2011, 3:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Weird Question
TerraRandom wrote:
Getting inside a characters head and portraying their emotions has always been a challenge for me. When I do, the prose is always awkward, and a bit repetitive. I've been told this is because I myself lack drama, where my preferred, and most common, mood is that of contented indifference. Thankfully, my MC's (Susyn's) is fairly similar in this respect, the only difference being is her life is a lot more traumatic. But, she's not my only character, and she does have them, everyone does, she just keeps them in check.

Any suggestions?

- Terra


To get more inside the character's head try developing the character SO MUCH to where you know more about them then they do themselves, try at viewtopic.php?f=36&t=319 . That should help! :)
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