Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Using emotions. #MFRWauthor

"Feeling is the place where every story begins."  Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain.

Each time you begin a story an event is the trigger but the real start is how the hero or heroine responds to the situation. Their emotions are involved. So knowing your characters is a key to bringing the reader into the story. Just what do they feel. Not everyone reacts in the same manner and this is one way to develop the characters in your fictional world. Contrasting their emotional reactions can set up a conflict. Exploring the reason for their reaction can give you the reason they react the way they do.

For example say your hero learns of a death of a relative. How will he react? Depending on his closeness and the state of the relationship to this character. Say the person who died was his favorite brother. He will react in one way. Or the death could be of a brother who had tried to destroy him. The reactions would be different.

What if your heroine discovers the man she loves and hopes to marry has married another just a few weeks before the date of their wedding. She would have different emotions toward the man and toward the woman. Exploring these emotions could help give your readers a real view of the heroine.

So decide how each of your characters will display their emotions gives the reader a hook into the character. One of the characters may react rather with indifference. Another with fury. One might evidence understanding. The key to making your characters live and breathe is to give them feelings, and not your feelings necessarily. Saying I wouldn't react in that manner might not be true to the character. So deal with the character's feelings and leave your own ones at the door, except for this you need to feel something for your characters be they hero, heroine or villain.