Directory Writing Workshops

Writers Workshop: Write Realistic Emotions

Dancing Word Writers Workshop

With Rosey Dow

11/21/2000

Hosted by: Marcia

Dancing Word Guest Host

*This chat has been edited for clarity

Marcia: Welcome to CWWC chat! Tonight's guest is Rosey Dow, who will share about writing realistic emotions. But first, I would like to open our meeting with prayer.

Father, we just thank you for this opportunity to gather together in Your presence with Rosey to learn about writing and sharing our emotions with our readers. We pray that You will especially bless Anne and her husband as they celebrate their anniversary. Amen.

Rosey, would you like to give a brief intro?

Rosey Dow: Thank, Marcia. Do you mean about myself or the subject tonight?

Marcia: You can do both. :)

Rosey Dow: Yikes! I still feel funny talking about myself. Anyway, I'm a best-selling author. I do inspirational romantic mysteries in a historical setting. That's a mouthful! I enjoy teaching and am currently teaching an email class for ACRW. If you don't belong to ACRW yet, I encourage you to join. It's a very helpful group.

My latest release, Reaping the Whirlwind , is the true story of the Scopes evolution trial of 1925 which has been badly represented by Inherit the Wind . Please visit my website: www.roseydow.com

I'm really happy to be here tonight. Thanks to everyone for coming! My lecture tonight is rather lengthy. I'd appreciate it if you would jot down your questions and ask them at the end. I'll ask a few questions as we go. You may submit a one-line answer without asking permission. Okay, let's go!

Emotion brings a story to life. Think of an actor reciting his lines in a monotone. That's a story without emotion. Every scene should convey some feeling-joy, fear, anxiety, curiosity, and a host of others. I've read poorly written stories that stay on the best-seller's list simply because the writer knows how to portray emotion.

The entire story should convey an overall mood. Mood is just another word for emotion. Is the writer's style sarcastic, humorous, lighthearted, heavy? Think of Catherine Marshall's all-time great, Christy . What mood does the story maintain? The wide-eyed wonder of the innocent. Christy comes of age in that story and the reader does as well. No wonder it's a classic.

Create mood by careful word choice in every sentence. Is the story lighthearted? Then the house is bright with dancing sunbeams on the windowpanes. Is the story scary? Then the house is gaudy white with a railing like the jagged teeth of a crone.

Careful word choice is essential for writing that rises above the crowd. Characters who constantly over-react mark a writer as a novice. I had a problem with this myself. One idle remark and the heroine succumbs to hysterics, one minor setback and the hero is ready to smash someone. Be very careful to play the story out in your mind to get a realistic slant on your characters' emotions.

After several false tries, I patterned the heroine in my first novel after myself so that I could be certain of her reactions. It was very difficult for me to gauge what was realistic and what wasn't. This is one area where critiquers are very valuable. They can clue you in when you're clueless.

In emotion-packed scenes such as the death of a loved one or the culminating scene in a romance it's important that the writer actually feel the emotion while he's tapping words onto his keyboard. Have you ever cried while writing a scene or an essay? Have you giggled at the antics of your characters? Somehow the emotional intensity of the writer spills onto the paper. It's an ethereal transfer.

Some writers use music to get them psyched for a particular mood. I mull the story over and over, even in my sleep, until it becomes real. Then I fly to the keyboard and type furiously.

If you've never experienced this, don't lose heart. I didn't either at first. This exercise takes a good dose of courage. You have to dig deep inside yourself and expose those tender feelings that you may usually keep buried. It can be painful, but it is also cathartic at times.

When portraying the emotion of a character, be very careful not to TELL how he's feeling. SHOW it instead. "John was furious" is bland. Compare to: "John's head lowered while his jaw jutted forward. His eyes blazed, and his fists drew upward toward his chin." Which sentence transports emotion into the heart of the reader?

We must express feelings in terms that touch an inner chord with every human on earth. To bring this home further, I've prepared a few excerpts from some emotional scenes. The first is from Partisan by Alistair MacLean. This is a scene where the hero Peterson is trying to make one of the villains tell their secret.

"I'm afraid I'm not very good at this job." Peterson's conversational calm was more terrifying than any sibilant threats could ever have hoped to be. "If you're careless an air bubble could get in and an air bubble in the blood stream can be very unpleasant. I mean, it can kill you. However, in your case I don't think it's going to make very much difference one way or the other."

Alessandro's eyes were staring, his whitened lips drawn back in a rictus of terror. Peterson touched the inside of Alessandro's right elbow. "Seems a suitable vein to me." He pinched the vein and advanced the syringe.

Rosey Dow