How to Write Better Character Emotions by illuminara, journal
How to Write Better Character Emotions
The following is a technique for writing deeply-felt character emotions, as described by Donald Maass in his book The Emotional Craft of Fiction. It's the single most valuable thing I learned about writing fiction in the last year.
Step One
Pick a moment in your story when your character feels something strongly. Identify that feeling and write it down. Then dig deeper. What else are they feeling? Write down that second feeling. And what else are they feeling beneath that? Writing down that third-level emotion. You should now have a list of three emotions.
Example:
Fear
Vulnerability
Loneliness
Step Two
Work with feeling #3 and examin
1. Everyone found out
2. Outsider
3. Old-fashioned
4. It's always been this way
5. I know you did it
6. Hidden
7. Singer
8. While the music was playing...
9. He smiled, hiding the way he really felt
10. Perfect
11. Blue
12. Map
13. Had I just gone mad, or did I really see that?
14. Expensive
15. Complaining
16. Ship
17. Secret
18. Just let it go
19. Flying
20. The little kid suddenly started screaming
21. Memory
22. Violence
23. Scarf
24. Snowman
25. She raised her voice
26. I'm serious
27. Annoying
29. A dream I had last night
30. Stairs
31. A grin
32. We both knew
33. Curtains
34. Earrings
35. Laughter
36. Everyone was dancing, but no one n
How Not To Get A Mary Sue by KrissyBKillin, literature
Literature
How Not To Get A Mary Sue
X-x-X-x-X-x-X How to Create A Well balanced Female Lead X-x-X-x-X-x-X
For most people, the problems that people will have with a character is the lack of balance they might have.
Mary-Sues are the most popular characters that exemplify this.
Mary Sues are characters that have more good traits than flaws and therefore look perfect for the audience. That can include all sorta of aspects in the character 'life'.
1) You have over-powered Mary-sues who can defeat any and every opponent and therefore are respected and awed by everyone.
2) Realtionship-Sues who are so much of the woman that every man who meets her is obviously struck with lov
Her Name is Mary Sue by LuckyLadyXandra, literature
Literature
Her Name is Mary Sue
INTRO
So you think you know what a Mary Sue is. Who is Mary Sue any way? and what does it really mean? It's a dirty word. It's an insult. It's a critique word. It's a "cheap" word we throw around. With all these things of what it is, it's strange that there is still no set defintion for a Mary Sue. So I thought I'd write a little more on the subject. Now I re-read into a lot of articles for this, so there will be plenty of paraphrasing on my part.
WHO'S A MARY SUE?
Maybe you have heard one of these somewhere before; If your character has bright colors, she's a Mary Sue. If she loves Purple, she's a Mary Sue. If she's a princess, she's a Mary
Murdering Mary Sue
Every aspiring writer has met her at least once, whether in his own works or in those of others. The alluring temptation of a perfect character taunts the author from one side while his muse urges him to keep writing from the other. Who wouldn't love her? She's the most beautiful, talented, fantastic woman in the universe, with not a flaw in sight. Every woman wants to be her; every man wants to marry her, so why would anyone want to kill her? Who would want to murder Mary Sue?
I would. I and many greater authors have been working hard to keep this succubus in her proper place: the trash can. Mary Sue is one of the wors
Advanced Writing:
INTERNAL CONFLICT
Note: this is how the professional authors do it. That doesn't mean YOU have to. As with all advice, take what you can use and throw out the rest.
The scene
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His lips drifted across hers in a warm caress. His hand pressed at waist, the heat of his palm warming her flesh through her corset underlying the deep blood silk gown. His fingers drifted upward, toward her breast.
Desire pulsed within her core, in time with her heart. She wanted to let him tear the red silk from her body, and bury himself in her flesh, but set her palm over his to stop him just below her breast. He was a vampi
"I was just wondering what you think about interior monologues, long passages of reflection?" -- Curious Kitty
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A note on:
-- Interior Monologues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whether you are considering adding a lengthy monologue to a story, or intend the monologue to be the story itself where the focus of the entire story is on one character's thoughts and feelings with very little action -- from my observations and experimentation, the readers either love them or hate them. There's no in-between.
However, it is notable that the internal monologue stories that are sought out most frequently tend to focus on a profound emotion of so