Conveying Emotions

A few days ago, my 14-year old son came to me for some writing advice. How, he asked, can I make the characters so real that their experiences will affect the reader?

My first piece of advice is the one I share frequently, especially with new writers. Don't worry about the first draft. Just get the story down on paper. After that's done, you can go back and add the finishing touches.

Also, I told him that I empathize with my characters. When I'm writing, their struggles, even their thoughts, become mine. It's hard to draw the line. I imagine their voices. I can picture them. When I'm writing, they are real to me.

And add physical description. In Rebounding I wrote a major fight scene. In order to get the scene written correctly, I silently acted out some of the easier moves--when no one was looking. Later I asked my boys to actually pantomime the fight, which they were eager to do. I needed to see where a right jab would land in order to imagine how much damage would be done, especially if the fight continued over several minutes. Again, I want to emphasize, my boys only pantomimed the scene. No one was hurt.

My biggest challenge, when writing emotion, is finding different ways to convey 'smiling' or 'crying.' I need to be careful that my writing doesn't become redundant. Other body language helps. Though, once, I was writing about an African-American reacting to shocking news and, in my first draft, I said, "She turned white." Later, of course, I changed it--after I had a good laugh at myself.

Emotions are complex, and we want our readers to feel them. I love to hear someone say I made her cry. That means I did my job well.