Writing emotional depth

[olmue]

As a companion to LoisP's plot thread (see http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php?topic=31455.0), can we have an emotion thread? There are a couple of threads that go along with this (see http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php?topic=27030.0 and http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php?topic=26814.0), but I guess with this thread I'm thinking of how to stretch the emotional impact of the whole book, as opposed to just a single scene, or writing a single line. (Obviously the smaller aspects are building blocks. And obviously it's part of the whole character arc thing.)

A friend's discussion of this has made me think (again) of how much I struggle with it, too. I'm reading some books right now that are great examples of this working (Flipped, A Crooked Kind of Perfect, to name a couple), and so I'm trying to mentally dissect why. I think a few things to address are these:

What the MC wants most
What they fear most
What their safety nets are

And then, as authors, we need to rip away that safety net so that they can't just act on a surface level--they have to be desperate enough to do more than they thought they could do, sacrifice enough to earn what they deep down most want.

Also, it needs to be detailed and personal. Like how the boy in Flipped decided to fix his problem. (I can't really explain without major spoilers.)

Other thoughts? Some of you are very, very good at this...

[Barbara Eveleth]

All I can say is that I agree with you. The last thing I wrote (a pb and its continuation) is a book like this and I hate to say it...but it kind of just flew out of me. Maybe those rules I've been studying have become permanently embedded in my brain and are a little more automatic??? Probably b/c it is something very real to me; something I could relate to in my childhood (and still I suppose). Something I remember all too well and something that could make a real, relatable story with lots of complementary illustrations.

Now I am dummying it and it is not exactly flying out of me because it is a little more methodical and magical.

Anyway, you nailed it... to my estimation.

[Jen]

Great topic- and one that I struggle with sometimes. I *think* (but am not quite sure) that what I've discovered is that in order for the emotional core of the book to be there and really come across, it has to be an emotion that I know pretty well myself.  The scenario doesn't have to be identical or even similar to something I've gone through, but at the very least, it has to be the kind of thing that I can relate to something I've felt.  So part of writing a book with a strong emotional core, for me, is thinking about my own emotions and experiences and the kinds of problems and conflicts that I can really relate to- and also knowing what my limits are and what scenarios I might not be able to connect with, due to limitations in my own experience.  I don't buy into the idea that you have to write what you know generally, but I do think that it's important to write what you know emotionally. 

In terms of the way that the emotional core of books actually ends up working, I think you've identified what it is for me that works about the books I see as books that are really gripping emotionally.  The character wants something- really, really wants something (or at least thinks they do), and then the author throws a kink into their plan to get it.  When I boil my books down to the most basic emotional arc in them, it almost always takes this form (which makes me feel like a pretty cruel author).  If a character wants, more than anything, to be normal, then I make that impossible for them.  If they want to stay in control, then I chip it away from them.  If they have a comfort zone, I let it erode. 

I'm also really interested in the idea of meta-emotions in fiction, which I think can add a whole other layer to thinks.  A character has emotions, but a lot of depth in books comes from their knowledge (or ignorance) of their own emotions, and the way those emotions make them feel.  When I'm reading, a character who either likes feeling angry, or can't feel angry without feeling guilty about it has a lot more depth than one whose emotion is just "angry."  The same thing goes for goals and desires- I love it when there's something contradictory about what a character wants and the way they feel about what they want. 

[Sam Hranac]

You did a great job of outlining specifics! Bang on the head with that nail. 

As a man who writes with boy protags, I find this an interesting quandary. Just as men are only expected to recognize the colors that come in a restaurant box of crayons, so are our emotional colors expected to be... primary. Sam Spade. Rambo. Indiana Jones. Bruce Willis in just about anything he has done. These are protags that men and boys grasp quickly and enjoy. They don't tax weak emotional muscle. We can save the day and fill our desires using fear, anger, determination, surprise, and just a pinch of doubt.

If a book "bogs down in an emotional swampland," will the average 6 - 65 year old man read it? I'm talking about the average, not the few men who read fiction every day like myself.

But I would love to reach those men and boys. My efforts have been to show men who react like men I know, which often limits the emotional range. The other side of this is to rely on the females in my stories (as so many men do in real life) to emote the complex colors that make for a richer experience. I'll never forget the point of view gun from Hitchhiker's Guide...

Egad, I've rambled. See what happens when men try to discuss emotions?

[Alex Bracken]

I love this topic!

To be honest, when I get an idea for a story, one of the first things I try to think about is the emotional arc of it--that is, after I develop my main characters, I try to find that emotion that's going to haunt the story and the characters.  With the story I'm currently revising with my agent, I knew right away that that feeling was going to be a sense of hopelessness, and I was able to develop my characters and the story with that in mind.  The "emotion" behind my latest story is a sense of paralyzing tragedy and it's reflected not only in the MC's actions and words, but also in the setting of the story itself. 

I realize both of those are a little depressing, but I truly believe that some of the most effective examples of emotional depth have a very tangible touch of sadness.  (Sometimes I wonder if Harry Potter would have been half as affecting if his parents hadn't been killed.  Yes, I ruminate frequently on HP. )

Sam, I agree with you.  I don't think emotional depth is necessarily found in scenes that are gushing and overflowing with them, but in subtle moments and actions, in what the character wants and how he's unable to achieve it. 

Sorry that was ME rambling.  I have a hard time describing my method because I think it tends to be very intuitive in a sense. 

[Debby G]

My agent recently gave me an incredible revision letter for a YA manuscript that needed more depth. She said that every character should seem like a real person that the main character relates to in a real way. I tried to think of motivations for all the secondary characters-- why the parents fought so much, why the older brother was such a player, why his friend would try to seduce him. And I then had these characters interact with the main character in a meaningful way. I found that to be really helpful, and my agent liked my revision.

[Jenny Moss]

I don't buy into the idea that you have to write what you know generally, but I do think that it's important to write what you know emotionally. 

This is true for me. I occasionally analyze why my first novel didn't work (because I have dreams of rewriting it). My MC *was* on an emotional journey, too, along with her adventure, so I thought I had that depth. But now I see that I was just skimming the surface. I wasn't really committed, I don't think.

[olmue]

Sam, I think you're bang on in your comments, and it's not just for male readers. Emotional depth/resonance isn't gushy sentimentalism; it's giving worth and meaning to the choices your characters have to make. Sometimes that's bravery in the face of fire; sometimes that's kissing (well, sometimes those are the same thing ). I don't think HP is mushy, and I suspect boys as well as girls felt the emotion when Harry walked into that forest at the end. That's what I want to write. A book with a plot that's entertaining, but with a kaboom! that takes a character apart and puts him back together again, only better than he was. And that puts a reader right there with him.

[sarah_create]

Thanks, Olmue!

What a character wants is critical and the writer might not know this until a later draft. I also feel that a character who has contradictions will have more compelling emotions.
As writers we can layer in setting, imagery, figurative language, dialogue, backstory, word choice and sentence construction, action, thoughts, physical sensations as we write our character's internal (or emotional) journey.

But knowing the techniques is only part of the battle.
It is very hard for me to show or share emotions in real life or on the page.

I tend to be too subtle. Perhaps. Or maybe I'm not allowing my characters to experience their feelings.

Emotions are HARD!!!!
Maybe I'll go hide under a brick wall:

[Stephanie Leeth]

I have struggled with this, too.  I think that you have to have felt the emotion and pull from that, but you may not have felt it in the same situation.  For example, I have a story about a child who is shipped to live with a relative because of family difficulties.  That certainly never happened to me, but I have gone into situations where I felt alone, where I didn't know who I could depend on, when I felt abandoned by those I'd left behind (even though I left them behind to pursue my own life -- how dare they go ahead and have good times and substantial lives without me!).  I pulled from that, and have received opinions back that the voice is "wow" and that the story has honest naked emotion in it.  I haven't sold it yet, so maybe the opinions that I got aren't right, but I sure got closer than I ever did before.

Leeth

[Mike Jung]

Sam, I agree with you said, but I think there's been something of a shift in the depiction of male emotional lives in popular culture. To continue with the movie analogy, we do (and probably will always) have characters in the mold of Bruce Willis, Rambo and Indiana Jones, but there's also the eight hundred movies Judd Apatow has written, directed or produced in the past few years, which feature schlubby guys with a very different kind of emotional range than your standard bulletproof action hero. The two guy best friends talking about how they love each other at the end of "Superbad" - which is also one of the most raunchy, potty-mouthed movies of recent vintage - is a stellar example.

Personally I come from the school of sensitive new age guys, those weepy artsy-fartsy types who try hard to be in touch with their emotional centers. This doesn't mean the societal expectations are different, because for the most part they're not - guys are still expected to be stoic, determined, pillars of strength, impervious to emotional "weakness," etc. But the REACTION to those expectations isn't the same for all men (or boys), and I think that's something which can be effectively used in all art forms, including children's literature.

That having been said, there's nothing like a bulletproof action hero. I stood up and screamed with joy when "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was first announced.

[Maggie S]

I think there's a tip of the iceberg thing going on with this too. In one of LAMENT's first baby iterations, back when I was 19, I thought I had an emotional plot arc in there. Girl is shy. Girl has self-doubt. Girl gets unshy, girl gets esteem. But it didn't really go deep enough. I didn't know why she was shy or why she had bad self esteem. I needed to know more about her parents, her friends, her school, her aunt, etc., to understand why she was the way she was.  I still know a lot more about her background than readers find out, but I think it FEELS more like a tip of the iceberg character. That she's got real depth. And then the fairly simplistic plot arc became more meaningful.

Because isn't that the trick? Readers want simple, organic plots but complicated, sympathetic characters.

[allreb]

Regarding what Sam Hranac said, for me -- as a female writer who writes and reads protagonists of both genders -- what I find fascinating about that non-emotion is...How does the character keep himself that way? When you've got so much chaos and scariness and whatnot being through at a character, I don't think it's entirely natural not to respond emotionally, so I tend to see it as a struggle on the part of that kind of bulletproof character. And that struggle is something people can empathize with in and of itself. (Though I think this is more true a) in YA/MG than adult-level things -- for a lot of people, I think non-reacting is something that's learned as much as it is natural, and people settle into a lot of behavior patterns when they're younger -- and b) in books rather than movies -- I enjoy the Bond movies for the "stuff blows up" factor, but am a bit more interested in the emotion in books, and so I had a hard time getting into the only Bond novel I tackled!)

I *think* (but am not quite sure) that what I've discovered is that in order for the emotional core of the book to be there and really come across, it has to be an emotion that I know pretty well myself.  The scenario doesn't have to be identical or even similar to something I've gone through, but at the very least, it has to be the kind of thing that I can relate to something I've felt.

I 100% agree with this, Jen. I read/write mostly in scifi/fantasy, so I rarely relate to the situations due to the very nature of the genre. But the best books, IMHO, are the ones where I can relate to what the character is feeling. I just hope I manage to make use of that in my own writing. 

[Barbara Eveleth]

Sarah Create, the technique is the fun part. To me half that is done in the writing and now I work with the other half in how I present the visual aspect. It is is fun and deliberate challenge.

[sarah_create]

AE, I agree. The technique is a fun part of writing.
This just happens to be the weak link in my writing at this moment and I'm working hard at making it a strength.

[mirtlemist]

When I was working on my first ms, I was convinced I'd really nailed the emotional aspects of it. One of my CPs read it and gave it right back, along with a benevolent lecture on how she thought I was skittering away from deep emotion, afraid to take the plunge. She told me to dig deeper. "Make me cry," she said. I resisted, because she was absolutely right. I was reluctant to go into the same dark place as my character, but how could I send her there without me? So I sat down, dug deeper, cried my eyes out and managed to get it down on paper.    Those two scenes turned out to be the best ones in the ms. 

Terri

[olmue]

I ran across a link to this interview with Stephenie Meyer in Entertainment Weekly, and I really liked what she says right at the very end. She is talking about her feelings regarding the rather rabid fan reactions to Breaking Dawn, and the leak of Midnight Sun, and how hard that was. But what she says has to do with writing emotions, too, and dovetails nicely with what mirtlemist just said about "not skittering away from deep emotion." It's at the very bottom of this page, the last question: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20234559_20234567_20238527_3,00.html.

I think what she's saying is not that we need to be easily affected by everything, but rather, just not to seal ourselves away from our feelings, even if they aren't particularly fun ones.

[JR]

 
but simply loving this thread!!
Jean

[angela]

Great thread Olume.
I agree with your picks for books that are good emotional reads.
I love what Jen said about making it difficult for the MC.

I just watched PIECES OF APRIL and the emotions were so high in this movie.
- Can the event be any more important (first time MC the blacksheep of the family reunites with her mother - might be last time Mother is dying)
-Can anything else go wrong - tryting to prepare a thanksgiving dinner under the worst possible circumstances
-Can everything else go wrong?
-HOPE*** It's possible it is going to work out - the thrft store threads wil pass, the bedspread can be a table cloth, the kind neighbors craft a turkey leg out of dough to make up for the one the mad neighbor fed his dog, there are even streamers and balloons...and "family' is finally there.
-HOPE DASHED - and before she gets down the stairs to unite with them - they take of
They never loved her to begin with and they never will
And then you have to tie it all together in the end keeping all of those emotions strong - the hope and the recent rejection are still there both weighing in when the reunion does happen.

I think HOPE and taking away ALL HOPE are key.


As far as 'the writing process' goes, I try these two things....
1. If I know a certain part of the story is going to make me cry when I write it, I hold off on it for a time I can really write and cry at the same time and look for other places in the story that work up to that scene / substantiate it.
2. On revision I look to see if I can add details - that can carry through the story before an after that have an emotional connection to the MC / event

Really enjoying this thread!

[brainbliss]

How timely...for me.


My current WIP deals a lot with this.  I kind of stumbled onto a new theme when I was revising last night.  His perception of other people's emotions is very different than the reality. 

For him, the other characters are 2-dimensional.  They're all bit-parts, if you will, in the movie featuring him.  So, my job has been difficult.  I need to flesh out the characters, and let the reader see how they are real people.  But, then again, as the narrator of the story - I need to show them how he sees them

 

Here's to hoping this all works out for me....lol

Anyway, great thread.

[brainbliss]

This part of your post stuck with me as I read...

Personally I come from the school of sensitive new age guys, those weepy artsy-fartsy types who try hard to be in touch with their emotional centers.

And then I read this:

That having been said, there's nothing like a bulletproof action hero. I stood up and screamed with joy when "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was first announced.

And I couldn't stop laughing, thinking about bullet proof heroes and screaming for joy, etc.   

Not that I don't agree, or that this isn't definitively ME....the whole comparison just made me laugh.

[lurban]

For him, the other characters are 2-dimensional.  They're all bit-parts, if you will, in the movie featuring him.  So, my job has been difficult.  I need to flesh out the characters, and let the reader see how they are real people.  But, then again, as the narrator of the story - I need to show them how he sees them

I write middle grade and I think this is one of the key themes of the genre, actually.  Or at least, it is a key theme I keep returning to in all of my work.

[redheadedali]

Because isn't that the trick? Readers want simple, organic plots but complicated, sympathetic characters.

Yes! This exactly!

My husband and I are big Heroes fans, and I think that show is a perfect example of how important this basic idea is. Because during season 1, they pretty much nailed it, and lately they've moved away from it in a big way, and as a viewer, it is driving me bananas. 

[brainbliss]

I write middle grade and I think this is one of the key themes of the genre, actually.  Or at least, it is a key theme I keep returning to in all of my work.

Interesting...I haven't read much middle grade.  Maybe I'm missing out.  My wife always says I'm kind of like a junior high kid...maybe that's what she means?