One of the most difficult things for me, as a new writer, is to put feelings and emotions down on paper. I started paying attention to other author's and the way they described emotions. I had started out believing emotions were easy to write, they aren't. There are many nuance's of expression that bring emotion to life and make it real. I was missing that subtle difference in shade of meaning, expression or sound.
Most of the time our emotions are reactions. Flares of intense moments. Some are more subtle than others, but how often do you stop to think about what you're doing, how you're moving, the tone in your voice, the look in your eye, the strength in your touch, or your stance? We don't. We simply do what we do in the moment.
Try writing a scene without thinking about all of those things, and you'll have a boring, stilted, emotional scene. I know, because I've written quite a few along the way. However, there are resources for us newbies, and I've found a great one! The book shelf muse. This is a wonderful blog offering a slew of resources for writers on character traits, emotional thesaurus, and others. Check them out. Their hard copy book and ebook will be coming out May 14th.
So, the next time you sit down to write and you can't get the emotion right, well…. I hope you'll take a closer look. Break it down.
As for me, I have a big Easter weekend with my family planned. So, I've been busy, cleaning, cooking, and right now I'm drumming my fingers on the table as I run through my to-do-list, focusing on our family event (anticipation).
Happy Easter to every one! Happy Emotional Writing!
