Readers like to be touched, moved, by story.

They like to imagine themselves

in worlds and situations that challenge them, that give them opportunity to do
and be something other than what they do or are in their real lives.
Fiction, whether in book or film or games, allows people to not only step into
other worlds, but to experience those worlds. To do what they cant in the
course of a normal day. To feel beyond their normal feelings.
Since readers want to immerse themselves in other worlds and other lives, what
can writers do to make that experience authentic, to make the fictional world
real for a few hours?
One technique the writer can make use of to create reality out of fiction is to
induce emotion in readers, make them feel something of what the characters
are experiencing. Writer and reader know the fictional events arent real, but
the emotion can be. Readers can fear and feel joy and be excited and know
grief. They can laugh and cry, shiver and rage. All from reading a story.
But how can a writer accomplish this? How does a writer make readers feel
emotion?
1. Write in scenes, showing rather than telling. That is, dontreport that a
character is afraid or giddy or grieving. Show the results of character emotions
through the characters actions. Show what fear or giddiness or grief does to
him. Character action and response is a good place to focus.
This is a major key for rousing reader emotions. No one gets emotional over a
report. They do get emotional when they can step into someones shoes and
experience his or her feelings as if those feelings were churning inside them.
Delores was afraid to open the door to the basement steps. She stood at the far
side of the kitchen, debating what to do.
vs.
Deloress hand trembled as she reached for the locked doorknob. Tom had
warned her not to open the basement door when he wasnt around, but he was

due home soon, so what could happen? She bit her lip and tightened her fingers
around the cold knob. A shiver shook her. She inhaled only a shallow breath and
then struggled for another.
And nearly shot through the ceiling when the microwave dinged, letting her
know her tea was hot.
2. Make a character sympathetic, so the reader identifies with her.
If the reader can identify with a characterwith her dreams or habits or choices
he can also identify with her emotionspains and joys and sorrows. (Readers
can also identify with the shared human condition, so sometimes a particular
situation will resonate with readers even before the character becomes
involved.)
Make sure the reader knows/understands/identifies with the character before
trying to connect emotionally. The reader wont be affected by a characters
deep emotions on page one, simply because he has no ties to the character. By
chapter three, if youve put the reader in the characters place in the story, what
touches the character can touch the reader. By the novels climax, the reader
should so identify with the lead character that the characters pain becomes the
readers pain, his triumphs, the readers triumphs. The reader may have a
physical responselaughter or tears or shiversas if whatever happened to the
character had actually happened to the reader.
You know how this plays out in your own life. A death reported on the nightly
news means one thing when its a stranger and something totally different when
its someone you know or a relative of someone you know.
Help your readers know your characters.
Make your character believable and sympathetic so the reader wants to be that
character, wants to go through everything he goes through for the length of the
story.
3. Make a character unsympathetic, so the reader feels anger or
repugnance toward him.

A character who is hated has already created an emotional response in your

reader. Im not talking caricature or stereotype here. Im talking about creating
a character who is soul ugly or evil or unfeeling, but one who belongs in one
story and no other.
Your unsympathetic character might be no one of consequence in another book.
But here, in this particular story, his actions/words are destructive to your
protagonist or to someone close to him.
Cruel characters doing cruel thingscruel in the eyes of the protagonist or the
readercan affect the reader. If the character reacts to the cruelty, the reader
can as well. Or, if the reader feels something because of what a cruel character
does, youve already stirred his emotions.
If, however, your protagonist has no response to the cruel actions of another
character, your readers may feel both bewildered and cheated. Show the
reactions/response of characters to the actions of another character.
Characters must do more than think about the evil of another character. They
must have a response in terms of action and/or dialogue.
4. Dont hold back. If you want to reach the readers emotions, you need to
write emotion-evoking scenes. Killing or injuring a characters child, pet, or
loved one can touch the reader, if the reader has sufficient investment in the
character.
If Sarah gets a phone call, with someone saying her son has died, readers wont
feel grief, even if you show Sarah grieving, unless youve created a tie between
Sarah and the readers, unless youve prepared for the death ahead of time,
showing Sarahs love for her son, perhaps her fear for his life or her dreams for
him.
If hes never been mentioned and we dont know how much he means to Sarah,
an announcement of his death will have no emotional impact on the reader.
If, however, Sarah had been worried for his safety or has been sitting at his
hospital bedside, the reader is connected both to Sarah and her son, and his
death can shake up the reader.

Dont be afraid of killing off someone close to your main characters or

of taking away something else dear to them. If they are crushed, the
reader can be as well. This is fiction; youre not really hurting someone if you
write them into a car accident.
Death or injury arent the only ways to hurt your characters. Misunderstanding,
betrayal, and forced choices that hurt their friends are all ways to agitate
characters. And when characters are agitated, readers can be as well.
5. Tease the reader with hints of whats to come. You see this in romantic
comedies, the backward and forward dance between a couple just falling in
love. The tease, the delay, the anticipation makes the payoff dramatic and
satisfying.
In mysteries and suspense, anticipation increases tension and therefore
increases the emotional impact. Fear drawn out to just the right degree gives a
satisfying snap when hell breaks loose.
6. Recognize that word choice can greatly affect reader emotions. Some
words are triggers in themselves and can be used to set off the reader.
Putting an especially nasty cuss word in the mouth of a character who doesnt
curse can jolt the reader. Its a strong signal that something is very wrong.
Verbs or nouns that are socially loathed or that remind readers of hated people
or abhorrent practices can be used to instantly rouse the reader. Of course, you
cant use this technique too often because the reader will feel manipulated and
feel anger toward you, the writer, rather than with a character or the story on
the page. You canmanipulate readers; you shouldnt let them feel the
manipulation.
Some words convey lightness or humor or passion. Other words have little
emotional shading. Choose your words with their impact potential in mind.
Even common actions can be influenced by word choice. Do characters cross a
room or lope or shuffle? Do they race across town or merely make their way
through traffic? Do they demand or ask for something? Do they heave or lift or
haul or pick up an object?

Know the power of word choice in eliciting emotions. Use words throughout a
scene to express your exact meaning so a scene is cohesive and the emotion
consistent. Dont mix light and fluffy words into a dark, heavy scene unless
youre doing so for effect. That is, be aware of your word choices and what they
can do to the scene and the overall tone of the storyincrease tension because
you choose the right word combinations or diffuse tension because youve used
ill-matched words.
NoteEven though you want the words to create a tight scene, one with
cohesion and consistency, this doesnt mean that all characters in the scene will
have the same agenda and speak to the same end. That is, you may have a
character quite at odds with the other characters and whats happening. Your
antagonist may not care that hes caused negative events in the protagonists
life. He might not feel remorse or pain at whats happened. And therefore he
may talk at cross purposes with other characters. This, of course, creates a
tension all its own and can set the reader on edge.
7. Create a situation thats important, vital, or life altering, if not life
threatening. Make sure theres something at stake for the character, make
sure his actions reflect the importance of this something, and make sure he
tries to do something to change this intolerable dilemma. Produce in the reader
both the emotion from the situation and the hope that the character can
triumph.
8. Put your characters under time constraints to increase tension, to
cause them to make decisions they might not ordinarily make, to set themand
the readeron edge.
9. Force your character into making a decision between a bad choice
and a worse choice. This kind of situation pulls the reader in whether he
knows the reason for those bad choices or not. The reader feels for the
character, for him having to make bad decisions that both character and reader
know will cause even more problems.
10. Move the story. Dont dwell so long on an event that the reader loses
interest or the urgency wanes.

11. Write realistic scenes with realistic problems, problems that are
conceivable for the characters and world youve created. Events, characters,
and setting must be logical for your world. Dont give your reader a reason to
doubt the truth and possibilities of your story and story events. Dont give them
a push out of your fictional world.
12. Surprise the reader by turning the story in an unexpected direction.
Keep the reader off balance, unsuspecting, so he can be blindsided and thus feel
more unsettling emotions.
13. Write conflict into every scene. Conflict can be character to character,
character to himself, character to events, and character to setting. An agitated
character can pass that agitation to the reader.
14. Adjust the pace for the emotion you want to create. Use short
sentences and paragraphs to speed the pace, to encourage suspense and fear.
(Readers read faster and feel the story is moving at a faster pace when theres
more white space on a page.) Use longer phrases and paragraphs to slow the
momentum, to ease off the forward rush, to create a sense of relaxation or
calm.
15. Choose words with deliberation. Use harsh or sharp words for the
harsher emotions, soft-sounding and soft-meaning words for gentle emotions.
(Or, cross up your words and emotions to create confusion. But remember that
you want the reader confused in the same way the characters are
confused, not unable to follow what youre saying.)
16. Reduce the use of unnecessary and unrelated detail to keep the focus
on one emotion. Characters involved in chases dont notice the flowers or the
store fronts decorated for Christmas. Lovers in their first sex scene dont notice
every object in the room; theyre far more interested in one another.
Stay in the moment and only turn the readers attention to whats important for
this moment and this scene and the characters involved.

There are, of course, exceptions to this piece of advice. Yet, when youre trying
to build emotion, dont dilute it or distract the reader with unrelated details. Use
your details in other scenes, when its appropriate to introduce them.
Do use detail that will heighten emotion.
17. Use setting to influence the reader and deepen his emotional
response. Paint your rooms, put sounds in your outdoor spaces, add smells to
your attic. Imagine how these elements would influence your readersdark
rooms, dark colors, enclosed spaces, echoing spaces, wide-open fields, silence,
the living room of a house where someone was murdered, the living room of the
house owned by the lead characters enemy, a courtroom, a boardroom, back
stage during a concert, back stage three hours after the concert-goers have all
gone home.
Play with setting so you put your characters in the best locale for each scene.
Need to ramp up unease? Move the scene to a deserted office at night. Need
something lighter than the bedside of a comatose patient? Take the scene to the
hospitals cafeteria. Or chapel. Or business office.
18. Use sense details to mire readers in the reality of the scene. What
can the character hear and smell? What does a change in sound mean? What
does the absence of sound mean for the character and the reader? When a
character reaches into a dark hole and feels something brittle, does the reader
break out in goose bumps? What if the character felt something soft and silky,
something like springy curls? Does the readers pulse jump?
Play with all five senses to keep your readers involved, maybe off balance, but
always interested in whats coming next.
*******
Use each of these methods, not just one, to raise an emotional response in your
reader. Touch the reader often, noting that each scene doesnt have to register
higher on the emotional meter than the scene before. (Though emotions do rise
through the climax, the rate of the climb isnt consistent and emotional impact

can be variable; both character and readers need variations in intensity. Downs
are as important as ups.)
Dont hesitate to mix emotions. A heroine in a suspense thriller cant be
frightened all the time. Use humor or lust or exasperation or anger or joy to
change the type of tension for her and for the reader. Take the reader up and
down and then up again. Readers like ups and downs, not a flat line of no
emotion, of zero affect. Keep the reader engaged by making her feel. Stir up
your readers.
Tap into emotions to give your readers a read that satisfies on all levels.
http://theeditorsblog.net/2011/01/30/creating-emotion-in-the-reader/

Character ReactionMake Your

Characters Respond
October 20, 2011 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill
last modified October 20, 2011
Ive written a lot about characters at The Editors Blog, but Id like to take a
deeper look into character reaction, the response of a character to the actions
or words of another character or to a story event.
A characters reactions can reveal facets of his personality that cannot
be revealed by action or dialogue initiated by that character. The actions
and words of others that draw a response from a character tell what bothers
that character. They indicate issues that are important to the character, issues
including those hot-button topics that are guaranteed to set off a character each
time theyre visited in the story.
Reactions reveal issues that mean something for a character.
If a character goes after the man whos gone after his dog, readers know that
the dog means something special to that character or that he is
possessive/selfish, unwilling to let others touch or hurt what belongs to him.

When a character responds to the actions or words or intentions of another

character, the reader notices. She focuses on that response and on what causes
it and thinkssomethings going on here.
Writers direct readers into key revelations by showing character
response.
Conversely, when there is no response, the writer has shown that words or
actions or event have little meaning for a character.
If one character confesses a deep and long-held secret to another and the
second character has no responseno reaction in action or thought or dialogue
then the writer is saying that such a confession holds no meaning for that
second character.
A character does not need to reveal his response overtly to other characters, of
course. But if he has no responseif the reader cant see a response of any
kindthen there isnt one. Characters can keep their emotions hidden from
other characters but not from readers. A response hidden from the reader is
the same as no response.
While the lack of a response might actually reveal a facet of a characters
personality, that personality should also be revealed by what he does respond
to.
How Characters React
Characters respond to events and other characters through what they say or
dont say, what they do and dont do, what they think, and what they feel.
Dialogue
A character may respond with dialogue, lashing out with angry or passionate
words. Or, his words might be torn reluctantly from a character.
Kelly, hand held low on her belly, said, Hes not yours, Paul.
Paul, hands tightening, stepped away from her. Kel He clamped his lips
together, took another step back. Damn you.

Dialogue as a response can be deliberate, allowing one character to steer other

characters in the direction he wants them to go, leaving him in charge. Or, the
words of his dialogue can be involuntary, pulled from him against his will as a
response to what hes seen or heard from others.
When you consider a response for your characters, think about using dialogue,
keeping in mind how it can raise the level of conflict in a scene. Consider using
a response thats out of character for your character. When a character no
longer holds back, when he reveals a true response through dialogue, hes
showing who he is and whats important to him.
Dialogue as a response can thus be quite powerful.
Know that reactions through dialogue can be short and to the point or long and
drawn out. Use the method that fits the scene and reveals your characters mind
and heart.
Characters can also hold back a response, but readers should see what it costs
the character to refrain from speaking.
A teen boy may promise his sister he wont tell that she snuck out, may instead
end up taking the blame when she scratches the family car coming home at
three in the morning. His silence in response to his parents interrogation can
reveal his love for his sister.
Or it may reveal his desperation to protect her secrets because shes
protecting his even darker secrets.
What a character doesnt say can be just as powerful as the words he speaks.
Yet the reader must know what hes not saying or must be aware that hes
holding something back. Otherwise silence is only silence.
Action
Characters reveal themselves through action as well as dialogue. So a character
can fling his phone across the room when he doesnt like what hes just heard.
Or he can put his fist through a wall. He can kiss the forehead of his sleeping
son, tears held back, at the news the infant doesnt have leukemia.

Like dialogue, a characters actions in response to the words or actions of

others can be deliberate or involuntary. And the choice of a deliberate
action over an involuntary one, or vice versa, will direct the story in a particular
direction.
A character whose responses are deliberate is in control, at least to some
extent. He seeks to influence other characters by his response. On the other
hand, a character who responds because he cant help himself is a character
controlled by others or by his feelings or by a stand he has taken or by his
integrity.
An involuntary response reveals the depths of a character, his psyche or his
passions. His core being.
When a character cant help but respond, especially against his will, the reader
knows that hes seeing the true character. He knows at least a part of what
moves that character, what drives him. What the character is apart from the
trappings that he presents to the people of his world.
A reaction thats withheld is also key to a character.
If a woman doesnt reach out to her lover when he confesses his love for her, if
she steps away instead or shakes her head at his confession, she can be
revealing that she doesnt love him or that she doesnt believe him or that she
feels unlovable and doesnt deserve to hear such words from him.
Again, keep in mind that a lack of response speaks not only to other characters
but to the reader. When the reader knows theres a reason for an absence
of response, that reveals something about the character that other characters
might not be privy to. But a simple lack of response without context or insight
simply shows that what has been said or what has happened means nothing to
the character.
And if words or actions mean nothing for the character, especially for antagonist
or protagonist, what purpose do they serve in your story?
You could be using an event or dialogue to reveal the motivations of a
secondary character or to establish tone, but be sure they do something, these

events and the words of dialogue you write. They shouldnt be purposeless.
They should affect characters and compel them to react.
Thoughts
A characters thoughts in response to the actions or words of others are
obviously a key to that characters personality and to those issues most
important to him.
When you let readers see into a characters mind, you permit him
access to that character that no one else has. Character thoughts instantly
reveal the essence of the manhis motivation, his dreams, his
disappointments.
Let readers see a characters thoughts when you want to present a clear insight
into that character. Characters can lie to themselves, but for the most part, a
characters thoughts are an honest reflection of what hes thinking. If you need
a true character reaction untainted by what others think about or feel for a
character, present the characters thoughts as reaction.
Because character thought is so revealing, unless you want to keep him
exposed, limit the amount of time spent in a characters head.
Readers dont want to know everything about a character in a single moment;
leave them something to discover as the story progresses. Even in first-person
narration, dont spill the characters thoughts in a steady stream from first page
to last. Take time for story events and dialogue. Get out of the limited confines
of a characters thoughts and broaden the story to include what happens in a
characters outer world.
Emotions
Like thoughts, character emotions can instantly reveal a characters personality
and what he finds important. Yet emotions can be faked or manipulated by a
character to direct the response of others.
That is, emotions can be deliberately released or deliberately held back. But
even the manipulation of emotion can reveal character.

A man who allows an emotion to show when hes with his girlfriend but who
withholds emotion when hes with his wife tells us something about the man.
A man who doesnt control his emotions but lets them fly as he feels them
reveals that man.
A man who always holds back his emotions tells us something about the
manner of man he is. Keep in mind that at least the reader must have some
understanding of whats being held back in order for this technique to work. An
emotion thats held back can be a reaction. But if the reader doesnt know
whats held back, if the reader sees no emotion, then that translates to a lack of
reaction.
___________________________
Character action and reaction propel the forward motion of a story.
Response and reaction and the response to that reaction are what take readers
from opening page to resolution. If characters didnt react to what other
characters were doing or saying or feeling, then thered be no cohesion, no
story threads drawing disparate story elements together.
Consider other characters reactions when you write a first characters actions.
What will Janelle do when Walter forgets to stop by the bank to make a
payment on their credit line, a lapse that costs them $225 that they dont have?
What is Janelles response when Walter tells her he forgot to stop by the bank
because hed been fired earlier in the day and now they have no money coming
in to pay their debts?
What kind of response would Janelle show if Walter confessed he robbed the
bank on the way home, taking money out instead of paying the bank back?
The reaction you give a character will direct the story. Each time a character
responds, you take characters and readers deeper into your fiction.
Character reaction will also affect the tone of a scene, the conflict
between characters, and the tension in the reader.

Reactions must make sense for the moment, for the character, for the genre,
and for the depth of response necessary for the scene.
Work and rework the connection between action and reaction in your stories so
that conflict rises and story events come together to drive characters to the
inevitable end you have planned for them.
Give character reaction the proper emphasis for each scene. Vary the level of
responseone character shouldnt always react with the same degree of
emotion, and scenes would feel flat without a variety of intensities.
Dont neglect reaction and its importance for both revelation of character and
forward movement of plot.
Give your characters the reactions the story demands, responses that fit their
personalities and the adventure youve crafted for them.
http://theeditorsblog.net/2011/10/20/character-reaction-make-your-charactersrespond/

Character Emotion Makes the Plot

By Martha Alderson, M.A.
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Some writers excel at pithy banter. Others create dramatic action. The writers I most admire are the ones
who in their own natural style convey a character's emotional personality in scene through active, nonverbal communication with just the right frequency and intensity.
I have written extensively about how moviegoers and readers identify with stories through the characters'
emotions. When we connect with the characters on an emotional level, the interaction become deep and
meaningful. Well-written scenes that include characters' emotions allow the audience to viscerally take
part in the story and bond with the characters.
In my work as a plot consultant, I developed the Scene Tracker Kit to help writers track their scenes oneby-one. To reinforce the significance of emotion in creating compelling scenes, two of the seven essential
elements on the Scene Tracker template revolve around emotion.
1) Character Emotional Development: The character's emotional development as she moves toward
transformation at the overall story level.

2) Emotional change: The character's more fleeting emotional reactions at the scene level.
Rather than get stuck in the character's head "telling" what the character feels, show the character's
authentic feelings in action. Emotion has a strong physical component and is primarily felt in the body.
"Show" emotions through the character's relationships and reactions to conflict.
Character Emotional Development versus Emotional Change
A) Character Emotional Development
The #1 Essential Element of scene on the Scene Tracker is Character Emotional Development.
Every story sends a character on an outer journey (dramatic action plot line) that ends up causing the
character to undergo an inner transformation (character emotional development plot line). This ultimate
character transformation is shown step-by-step through their Character Emotional Development.
Emotional development is cumulative, based on all of the scenes over time, and is long-term and
transformative.
* The protagonist is introduced in the Beginning (1/4) of the story with an emotional flaw.
* Each action taken by the character reflects her emotional development. In the Middle (1/2), as the
stakes rise, the protagonist shows who really is in how she reacts emotionally under more and more
pressure.
* Emotional development implies new emotional behavior and growth emerging overtime toward longterm mastery or transformation which is shown at the Climax at the End (1/4).
Plotting out the protagonist's emotional development over the entire story and tracking character's
reactions to the dramatic action scene-by-scene on aScene Tracker ensures a smooth and believable
emotional transformation in the character. The character's transformation takes place in scene step-bystep and spans the entire story.
If conflict, tension and suspense drive the reader to turn the page or send the viewer to the edge of her
seat, the character emotional development inspires and connects her to the story. Readers read stories
and viewers go to the movies to learn about a character's emotional development. Therefore, character
becomes a primary layer in the overall story.
The Character Emotional Development operates under the assumption that when a character is
transformed by the dramatic action over time the story means something or, in other words, is
thematically significant.
Character Emotional Development symbolizes the character's emotional transformation at the overall
story level.
An example of Character Emotional Development at the Overall Story Level
In the first three chapters, which represent the Beginning (1/4) almost exactly to the page, Nobel Laureate
William Golding's Lord of the Flies introduces 12-year-old protagonist and leader Ralph. We learn that the
never-before-tested leader of the boys is sensible and self-confident and out to have fun.
Civilized life disintegrates in the Middle (1/2). Now thoroughly immersed on the island and the exotic world
of life without parents or girls, Ralph is challenged by outer and inner antagonists: domestic order

breaking down, the group of boys as they lose control, fear, Jack, the beasties, hardship, and primitive
life. At the Crisis, the savagery in himself and the other boys strip Ralph of his innocence, a place to which
he can never again return.
In the End (1/4), Ralph is able to alter his behavior due to a matured mastery over his emotional state.
Now that he understands life and himself in ways he never could have without having experienced the
dramatic action on the island, Ralph is changed forever.
Step-by-step, the character's emotional developmental is introduced in the Beginning, deepened in the
Middle, and permanently changed in the End. The emotional growth the character undergoes throughout
the entire story is represented scene-by-scene in abbreviated notes under the 1st column of theScene
Tracker template.
B) Emotional Change
Just as the dramatic action affects the overall character emotional transformation, the dramatic action
also affects the character's temporary emotional state, too. Based on her authentic personality, the
character's mood fluctuates depending on what is said and done within a scene.
A character jumps from one emotion to another within a particular scene, depending on the drama, while
still retaining her personality consistency from one scene to the next until she undergoes the ultimate
transformation at the End (1/4).
The dramatic action that takes place in each particular scene causes an emotional effect(s) on the
character. The emotional reaction(s) the character experiences or emotional change(s) the character
undergoes within a specific scene is often fleeting and temporary and fluctuates in intensity.
In the 6th column of the Scene Tracker template, abbreviate the character's change in emotional
intensity within the scene at the scene level only.
Two Ways to Show Emotional Change
1) Following each turning point or setback scene (cause), the character experiences an emotional
reaction (effect) or shows an emotional response as an action (which is also an effect and causes another
action).
In real life, most of us are capable of handling ourselves when things are going well or working in our
favor. Throw in some sort of disaster, conflict, roadblock and we find out who we truly are. This same
principle applies in stories. Moviegoers and readers benefit when dramatic action causes an emotional
effect in the character both superficially and at a deep developmental level. How characters respond
emotionally when things turn messy, challenging and stressful, when all is lost demonstrates where the
character is in her emotional development.
Storytelling involves more than lining up the action pieces, arranging them in a logical order and then
drawing conclusions. Yes, dramatic action pulls moviegoers to the edge of their seats. And yes, conflict,
tension, suspense and curiosity hook moviegoers. Yet, no matter how exciting the action, the character's
emotional reactions and emotional development provide fascination. Any presentation with a strong
human element increases the chances of audience identification.
In a compelling story line, the characters grow and change step-by-step because of the dramatic action.
This growth is not meant to be only on a physical level. Often, in their zeal of showing off high-tech

special effects, moviemakers and writers forget the power of character emotional development. The
challenges a character faces must effect the character emotionally, and the deeper and more honestly the
better.
An effective way to keep track of these incremental steps is with the use of a Scene Tracker. A scene
tracker asks you to fulfill seven essential elements in every single scene. Emotional Change is the one
essential element that deals with the ever-changing and even contradictory character emotion at the
scene level only.
Example:
In the Beginning (1/4) of Lord of the Flies, after surviving a crash on an island with Piggy (cause), Ralph
strips off his clothes and runs and jumps (effect). When Ralph learns Piggy's secret (cause), his reaction
(effect) shows his emotional development at the beginning of the story. He shrieks with laughter and
taunts Piggy so openly and innocently, Piggy grins himself.
Ralph shows his free spirit by these two actions he takes in reaction to what happens externally in the
scene. He does not think about his freedom or talk about it. He takes action. Plot and track his emotional
change from one action to the next and building in intensity in each scene on the Scene Tracker.
2) Temporary emotional change within each scene is shown through facial expressions, body language,
gestures, posture, vocal cues, tone, inflection, pitch, quality, rate, and touch that are genuine and
appropriately motivated. Each movement conveys an emotional message that is authentic to each
individual character.
Telling how a character feels through internal monologue and the use of clich'd actions is easy. More
difficult, though much more effective, is the showing of character emotion though character action that is
fresh and innovative and reflects the authenticity of the character herself.
There can be no doubt in the reader's mind as to what the character is feeling. The fresher and truer the
character's unique personality is shown through her non-verbal communication, the more unique the
character becomes. The clearer the character conveys her individual emotion, the more closely the
audience identifies to her.
Example:
"'You. Hide here. Wait for me."
[Ralph] found his voice tended either to disappear or to come out too loud."
Ralph's dialogue is delivered as clipped orders, using vocal cues, tone, inflection, pitch and rate.
Seven lines later, Ralph's "mouth was tight and pale. He put back his hair very slowly. 'Well. So long.'"
Each of these changes in emotional make-up is plotted and can be critically tracked scene-by-scene on
the Scene Tracker to produce a pattern of exactly right emotional behavior unique to the protagonist.
The more viscerally the audience experiences every expression and gesture and attitude from the
character's point of view, the better the development of the character personality and the deeper the
connection of the audience to the character.

Walt Disney made his stories real by translating the feelings of imaginary characters into personal actions
authentic to the character's personality traits. Readers and audiences are adept at interpreting posture,
body motions, facial expressions, eye movements, mouth gestures, and arm and leg movements in
relationship to the dramatic action and, based on those interpretations, making judgments about the
character's emotional development overall.
Try tracking scenes both for the characters' step-by-step movement toward and away from their ultimate
overall story transformation and for their more fleeting, temporary emotional reactions within each scene.
In each rewrite, attempt to hone and deepen the emotional non-verbal behavior for every character until
each emotional gesture is high-powered and uniquely different.
Do not worry if tracking the emotional components within your story is difficult for you. Most writers have
strengths and weaknesses in their writing. For instance, many writers are particularly adept at creating
quirky, likable protagonists who feel emotions strongly. However, more often than not, these same writers
have difficulty creating dramatic action and coming up with lots of conflict and, thus, fail at portraying the
ultimate character transformation.
Other writers are just the opposite. These writers can create all sorts of amazing action scenes, but break
down when it comes to developing characters who feel emotions and react and respond emotionally and
who are ultimately transformed emotionally as caused by the dramatic action.
Whatever your strengths and weaknesses, be aware of them. When you are feeling brave and energetic
(if, at this point you were tracking yourself in the "Change" column on the Scene Tracker template, you
would receive a "+" for the positive emotion you were experiencing) spend time in the area that is the
most challenging for you as a writer. When your energy is low (here you would receive a "-"), stay in your
area of strength.
Read a screenplay or novel for the overall character emotional development transformation and the
moment-by-moment emotional reactions within each scene. Determine what moves you and why. Try
using similar techniques in your own writing as you plot and track each emotional component of your
characters scene-by-scene on the Scene Tracker template.

https://www.writersstore.com/character-emotion-makes-the-plot/

Connecting with Audiences Through Character Emotions

By Martha Alderson, M.A.
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Moviegoers and readers identify with stories through the characters. The most powerful way to reach an
audience is through the characters' emotions. For only when we connect with the characters on an
emotional level, does the interaction become deep and meaningful. Well-written scenes that include
characters' emotions allow the audience to viscerally take part in the story and bond with the characters.

In real life, we meet and interact daily with other people. Unlike in stories, many of these interactions are
fairly superficial. Though some audience members rather enjoy a more distanced, intellectual challenge,
most want to engage with characters in books and movies on an emotional level, too. Therefore, as a plot
consultant, I developed the Scene Tracker Kit to help writers track scene-by-scene their characters'
emotions. To reinforce the significance of emotion in creating compelling scenes, two of the seven
essential elements on the Scene Tracker template involve emotion.
1) Character Emotional Development: The characters' emotional development as it leads to their ultimate
transformation at the overall story level.
2) Emotional change: The character's more fleeting emotional reactions at the scene level.
Often writers get stuck by staying in the character's head and "telling" what the character thinks. An
emotion, on the other hand, has a strong physical component and is primarily felt in the body. The writer
is able to "show" emotions through how the character relates or reacts to conflict.
Definition of Emotion
Emotion literally means "disturbance." The word comes from the Latin emovere, meaning "to disturb."
Characters who reside more in the mind and their thoughts than in their body and their emotions put
distance between the story and the audience. Thoughts can lie. Dialogue can lie, too. However, emotions
are universal, relatable and humanizing. Emotions always tell the truth.
Most of us in real life are capable of handling ourselves when things are going well or working in our
favor. Throw in some sort of disaster, conflict, roadblock and we find out who we truly are. This same
principle applies in stories. Moviegoers and readers alike want to participate in dramatic stories to learn
how characters respond emotionally when things turn messy, challenging, and stressful, when all is lost.
Storytelling involves more than lining up the action pieces, arranging them in a logical order and then
drawing conclusions. Yes, dramatic action pulls moviegoers to the edge of their seats. And yes, conflict,
tension, suspense and curiosity hook moviegoers. Yet, no matter how exciting the action, the character's
emotional reactions and emotional development provide fascination. Any presentation with a strong
human element increases the chances of audience identification.
In a compelling story line, the characters grow and change step-by-step because of the dramatic action.
This growth is not meant to be merely on a physical level. Often, in their zeal of showing off high-tech
special effects, moviemakers and writers forget the power of character emotional development. The
challenges a character faces must effect the character emotionally, and the deeper the better. An effective
way to keep track of these incremental steps is with the use of a Scene Tracker. A scene tracker asks you
to fulfill seven essential elements in every single scene. For our purposes here, we will focus on the two
essential elements that have to do with emotion.
Character Emotional Development versus Emotional Change
1) Character Emotional Development
The #1 Essential Element on the Scene Tracker is Character Emotional Development. Every story sends
a character on an outer journey (dramatic action plot line) that ends up causing the character to undergo
an inner transformation (character emotional development plot line). This ultimate character

transformation is shown step-by-step through their Character Emotional Development. Emotional

development is cumulative, based on all of the scenes over time, and is long-term and transformative.
Emotional development implies permanent growth or long-term change or transformation in the character
in reaction to the dramatic action scene-by-scene throughout the overall story. The transformation the
character undergoes takes place step-by-step from the beginning and spans the entire story.
If conflict, tension and suspense drive the reader to turn the page or send the viewer to the edge of her
seat, the character emotional development inspires and connects her to the story. Readers read stories
and viewers go to the movies to learn about a character's emotional development. Therefore, character
becomes a primary layer in the overall story.
The Character Emotional Development operates under the assumption that when a character is
transformed by the dramatic action over time the story means something or, in other words, is
thematically significant.
Character Emotional Development symbolizes the character's emotional transformation at the overall
story level.
2) Emotional Change
Just as the dramatic action affects the overall character emotional development, the action also affects
your character's emotional state at the scene level. In other words, the character's mood changes within a
scene in reaction to what is said or done in that specific scene. Characters can jump from one emotion to
another within a particular scene, depending on the drama, but the character's emotion must remain
consistent from one scene to the next scene.
The dramatic action that takes place in each particular scene causes an emotional effect(s) on the
character. The emotional reaction(s) the character experiences or emotional change(s) the character
undergoes within a specific scene is often fleeting and temporary. Emotional Change symbolizes the
character's emotional reactions within the scene at the scene level only.
Three Ways to Use Emotion
1) Within each scene as a response to the dramatic action in that particular scene itself
Example:
Using Rick Bragg's memoir "Ava's Man" as an example, Charlie, the grandfather of our protagonist, starts
a scene angry that Jerry hurt his friend, Hootie, "just for the sport of it." The more he thinks about "how
this man had come to his house, bringing the threat of violence to where his wife and children lived," the
angrier and more determined Charlie becomes.
Anger consumes Charlie. When Jerry says he is coming inside the house, Charlie becomes furious (an
emotional change in intensity within that particular scene itself).
2) Following each turning point or setback scene ("cause"), the character experiences an emotional
reaction ("effect") or shows an emotional response (which is also an "effect")
Example:

Based on the possibility of an attack ("cause") in the previous scene, the next scene begins when Charlie
shows his emotional response ("effect"):
"Then Charlie did one of the bravest things I have ever heard of, a thing his children swear to. He opened
the door and stepped outside to meet his enemy empty-handed, and just started walking."
3) Overall emotional developmental transformation
Not all characters undergo a transformation, but by the nature of what a protagonist embodies, that
character must go through an emotional development transformation.
Example:
Charlie is not transformed based on the overall dramatic action in the story. However, the narrator, his
grandson and the protagonist, does transform based on what he learns about his grandfather's life. The
above scene that shows Charlie's commitment to his family and his bravery profoundly affects the
narrator and leads him yet one step closer to his ultimate transformation.
In Folly, a stand-alone mystery by Laurie R. King, the protagonist is introduced as fragile, doubtful,
exhausted, and fearful upon her arrival at the island where the story takes place.
Feeling fragile and fearful and on the edge introduces the state of the protagonist's emotional
development at the beginning of the story and would be noted in the "Character Emotional Development"
column on the Scene Tracker. Feeling fragile and fearful and on the edge is her state of being in her
overall lifetime emotional development due to what has come before (her backstory). The ultimate
transformation she undergoes in the overall story based on all she experiences through the dramatic
action changes her from fragile and fearful and on the edge to strong and brave and able to fight for
herself. (This is her ultimate "Character Emotional Development" for the story overall.)
The daughter and granddaughter are with the protagonist as the boat takes her to her ultimate
destination. The protagonist is anxious about how her daughter and granddaughter will react to the setting
where she is dropped off. The daughter is judgmental of her mother and already believes her to be crazy.
The protagonist knows that her goal of rebuilding a burned-out house on a deserted island in the middle
of nowhere will only strengthen her daughter's belief about her mother's lack of sanity. As the boat takes
them nearer and nearer to the island, the more nervous the protagonist grows. (Each incremental rising
shift in her emotional state at the scene level is her emotional "Change" within the scene itself.)
In a recent plot consultation, a writer relayed a project that was filled with dramatic action and, thus, made
for an exciting story. I found myself anxious to hear what happened next, and what happened after that.
The writer masterfully provided more and more compelling action, and did so seamlessly through
consistent dramatic action cause and effect. In other words, one scene's dramatic action led to the next
dramatic action, causing the Dramatic Action plot line to rise quickly and effectively.
Still, amid all the intrigue and mystery, suspense and fear, the characters became more and more like
cardboard action figures who allowed the dramatic action to happen to them rather than characters who
were emotionally affected and emotionally responding to what was happening to them. The more exciting
the action, the more the characters were ignored. The less I found out about how the characters,
especially the protagonist, were being affected by the dramatic action, the less I cared about the story.
Without the help of the character to draw me closer, I found myself separating further and further from the
story.
The dramatic action in a story helps reveal who the character is. Dramatic action revolves around goals the character's overall story goals and the character's goal within each particular scene. How and what

the character goes after reveal their character. How they respond emotionally to successes and failures
reveal their character even more.
Characters are invested in the success of their goals so when setbacks occur the reader must "see" the
effects of those on the characters in their emotional reactions and responses. Dramatic action without
something equal or comparable happening within the character's emotional state causes scenes to fall
flat and the overall story to lose its heart.
Movies often rely on star power alone without taking the time to develop the characters in the story. Even
so, the audience may feel an emotional attachment to the star. Ultimately, however, unless they
emotionally identify with the main character as a character, the audience will ultimately detach from the
film.
Try tracking your scenes both for the characters' step-by-step movement toward and away from their
ultimate overall story transformation and for their more fleeting, temporary emotional reactions within each
scene.
One writer, after having tracked her scenes on both the levels, found that her piece was "a rather dour
story about a dour character." In other words, she neglected to develop her protagonist in such a way as
to be emotionally affected, both short-term and long-term, by the tension within each scene. As long as
this writer works on integrating a variety of emotions to show more of the protagonist's strengths and
hopefulness and show more sides to her as she moves toward her ultimate transformation, this writer will
ultimately flesh out the character.
Do not worry if tracking the emotional components within your story is difficult for you. Most writers have
strengths and weaknesses in their writing. For instance, many writers are particularly adept at creating
quirky, likable protagonists who feel emotions strongly. However, more often than not, these same writers
have difficulty creating dramatic action and coming up with lots of conflict and, thus, fail at portraying the
ultimate character transformation.
Other writers are just the opposite. These writers can create all sorts of amazing action scenes, but break
down when it comes to developing characters who feel emotions and react and respond emotionally and
who are ultimately transformed emotionally as caused by the dramatic action.
Whatever your strengths and weaknesses, be aware of them. When you are feeling brave and energetic
(if, at this point you were tracking yourself in the "Change" column on the Scene Tracker template, you
would receive a + for the positive emotion you were experiencing) spend time in the area that is the most
challenging for you as a writer. When your energy is low (here you would receive a -), stay in your area of
strength.

https://www.writersstore.com/connecting-with-audiences-through-characteremotions/