Let’s say you have just met a wonderful person and you are having a wonderful time. You are going to invite them to lunch, but you do not want to spoil the surprise. You want to write a short description of how you feel in order to portray the emotions of the moment, but you also want to keep it short. How do you do that? You use adjectives and you rely on your readers’ imagination. You want your readers to picture in their mind’s eye the person you are talking about and feel the emotion that you are trying to convey.
Use Adjectives
One way to keep your readers involved in the story and also to portray emotions accurately is to use appropriate adjectives. We all like to use a range of adjectives to paint a complete picture of a person or a place. We often use a lot of adjectives, but they are not all descriptive. Some of them are, however, and that is the key to using them effectively in fiction. If you are writing about a person, you should use adjectives that would befit that person’s personality. This will make the narrative more believable and it will help the reader connect with the story. You should also avoid overusing positive and negative adjectives, switching them up occasionally.
Describe the Surprising Twist
You have a wonderful story idea and you are confident that your readers will feel excited about it, but you are not quite sure how to start writing it. You decide to do a little bit of research online and you find a blog with helpful tips for new writers. One of the blog posts provides helpful advice on how to write an introduction, so you follow this advice and you come up with an idea for a story. When you are writing the story, you feel inspired and you keep circling back to the idea, but you can never quite seem to put it down on paper. Suddenly, you receive an email from an agent you have never heard of, but she expresses interest in representing you. You rush to finish the first draft of the novel in time for your agent to read it, but when you finally do finish it, you wonder whether or not it is good enough. You send it off to a few publishers, but you get no responses. A few weeks later, you get a call from an independent bookstore, telling you that they have acquired the rights to your book and they wish to publish it. You rush to sign the contract, but a few days later, you receive an email from the agent, telling you that the publisher has declined to publish your book.
All of a sudden, your story has taken a very surprising twist and you are no longer writing about a subject that immediately excites you. You decide to go with your agent’s suggestion and you shorten the book by about 10%. When you are finished, you feel that your story is indeed underwhelming. You decide not to show it to anyone and you take a long break from writing. A year goes by and you decide that you should follow your dream and you become a full-time writer. You start getting book offers, but you do not feel confident enough to turn them down. Finally, you agree to let an editor from a well-known agency edit the rough draft of your book. When they are done, you feel that everything has been restored and your story sounds new and exciting. Bookstores feature your book on their bestseller lists and you are invited to attend a prestigious award ceremony. You accept the award and you thank your lucky stars that you followed your dream, but you still wonder whether or not you made the right decision. You eventually decide that you should follow your heart and you are grateful for the support of your family and friends as you continue to pursue your dream. This is just a small example of how an unassuming story can take a very unexpected turn, but you get the point.
Keep It Pleasant
Above all else, you must keep your story easy to read. As we discussed, using a lot of adjectives can make a story easier to understand, but you have to make sure that the language you are using is easy to understand, regardless of what age group your story is intended for. Adjectives should not be very complex and you should avoid using words that are not in common use. This will help keep your story accessible to a larger audience. If you are writing for children, you should use pleasant, easy-to-understand words without any obscenities or strong language. This will make your story more inviting. If you want to keep the language arts aspect of your story, you should aim for at least an intermediate level, because children at that level will be able to understand the narrative easily. Having a language barrier can make it more difficult to understand the narrative. Keep the language simple and do not use words that can be confusing or obscure. For example, if you are writing about explorers and you use the word “expedition”, your readers will not understand what you are talking about. People in general do not like it when they cannot follow the conversation or understand the narrative, so you should not rush to use complex language just to sound “educated”. Besides, if you want to sound natural, use the words and phrases that would be commonly used by a person in your situation. This will give the narrative a sense of authenticity.
Use Action
One more thing about how to write a character’s emotions in fiction. The above example shows how using adjectives can help with this issue. Another important point is to show how a person feels through their actions. You can always write about a character’s emotional journey, but you should not forget about the physical side of things. You should not leave your readers guessing as to what a particular character is feeling or thinking and you should not deprive them of the physical side, either. If you want to write a realistic story, you should take your time with the description of action. You should use as much detail as needed and you should describe everything clearly. When writing about physical actions, you should use the active voice, because it makes the narrative sound more natural. You should avoid using the passive voice, because it can make the story sound like it is not your own. You should not hesitate to inject a little bit of humor into the story, because nothing is more believable than a humorous narrative. Humor should not be used to the extreme, though. You should use it to the extent that it makes the story more enjoyable and you should avoid making the reader laugh, if that makes the story more difficult to understand. The main thing is to make sure that your readers feel like they are right there with you, experiencing everything that you experience and feeling what you are feeling.
Writing about a character’s emotions is a lot easier than you might think it is and it can help you bring your story to life in a way that will engage your readers. Do not be afraid to explore subject matter that you are passionate about, because writing is a form of self-expression that gives you the ability to communicate your thoughts and feelings to others. Ultimately, you want your readers to feel that what they are reading is something that they could relate to, because that is the most effective way to ensure that your story will stay with them. You can always find an audience for your stories, whether they be children or adults, because everyone can relate to a story about a character’s journey, regardless of their age. This, in turn, can make your story more relatable and it can help your readers understand the world you have created.