(This post is just a preview of the introductory reading.)
Emotion means energy in motion.
Emotion at its core is a feeling(a flow of energy, conscious or otherwise) inside one’s body, mind, or heart. Every emotion arises from an action, either done by yourself or by others, or the world.
Now, the more intense an emotion, the more physically demanding it will be to contain it. Bottled-up emotions, whether they’re positive or negative, will lead to the release of stress hormones. When an emotion turns extreme, it can significantly affect physical and mental health. For instance, too much thinking or even laughing can be a source of headaches; too much bitterness can cause a burning sensation in your stomach, etc.
Emotions make people respond in one way or the other. They can easily force or inspire people into doing different things. Love develops selflessness and kindness, whereas hate encourages selfishness and violence.
Emotions may be obvious to understand or can get quite complex. For example, you saw someone crying, but you don’t automatically know why they are crying and whether they lost something or got treated badly by someone or they’re actually trying to gain sympathy and arouse pity in you, thereby causing you to approach them.
Whatever may be the case, emotions, whether they are of ours or others, bring responses through reflection.
Reflection is the way of responding to the emotion at play. Every character has their own ways if not unique ways of reflection. And without proper reflection, it can be confusing to understand the emotions at play. Humans, especially adults, are masters at hiding their emotions and saying or doing things that they actually don’t mean. So, proper conveying of emotions plays a crucial role in letting readers understand the characters and their motivations.
There are three types of reflection:
- Physical Reflection
- Mental Reflection
- External Reflection
Physical Reflection Example:
- Someone kissing you on the cheeks may cause you to blush
Mental Reflection Example:
- When you see your enemy, your recollect all the bad things they’ve done to you or your family or friends, and your blood boils
External Reflection Example:
- When Harry met Sally, all he saw was a blackboard with no chalk anywhere on it. He had nothing to read; nothing to get to know her at least on the surface, for words could easily be faked. He had to try ten times harder to get an expression out of her face compared to a word out of her mouth. (Though the blackboard or the chalk has nothing to do when Harry and Sally are talking, you’re showing Harry’s perspective through reflection.)
As you can see, these three types of reflection cover the whole way of expressing oneself in a profound manner.
By using these three ways, either individually, or in varying degrees of combinations, you can play with readers' emotions by giving them different degrees of satisfaction, just as you, the author, have intended.
It’s important to use the right type of description and reflection for the right emotion at the right time. If the emotion is soft, then you have to write description/reflection that’s gentle on the reader’s mind. If the emotion is positive, then you ‘generally’ need to use a positive description/reflection. We’ll cover such relevant aspects—mood(timing), pace, distancing, overloading, and overexpressing—in the full tutorial.
Keeping things simple often pays-off, but surprising the readers(in a good way) also helps in a big way by letting special moments stick in readers' minds for longer times if not until they grow too old to remember their own name.
All in all, every writer must learn to express emotions either through telling or showing or a mixture of both in an efficient way that captivates your readers and makes them care for the characters.
What can you learn in the main tutorial?
- The main three types of reflection to describe emotions
- A special fourth type of reflection
- Writing 'apt' description & reflection using mood, pacing, etc
- Expressing emotions through telling or showing or both
- Understanding characters and their emotions
- Emotional Array
- Emotional Progression
- Earned Emotions
- Making readers care for your characters
- Showing and hiding emotions
- Using emotions efficiently
- Avoiding being 'trivially' melodramatic
- Expressing emotions through dialogue and narration
- Expressing emotions through character and setting
- Expressing emotions through actions
- Leaving room for readers' imaginations
- Some simple facts about emotions
This is just a preview.
If you want access to full-length reading, please visit my Patreon.
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