Body language is super easy to add into dialogue tags to boost or contradict the words your characters speak. I don’t know how accurate that is, but the idea is an important one. You’ve heard that body language is 90 percent of communication. Later the fleeing character’s partner asks, “How could you just leave me there to face that monster alone? Did you want me to die?” We understand the character is feeling betrayed. More often the dialogue will indicate emotion in some indirect way. At times it’s appropriate for a character to label their own emotions, but this can be as flat as labeling emotions in narration. Dialogueĭialogue is another outward indicator of emotion. When confronted with a fire-breathing monster the character turns and runs. The character’s actions are an outward indicator of inner feelings. So, by what means do we show emotion? The Five Elements of Emotion in Fiction Actions One of the first rules of writing good fiction is ‘show, don’t tell.’ ‘Telling’ the emotions present in a scene, would only distance the reader from the very emotions the author intended her to experience. She wondered if he was alive.Īlthough Hannah’s emotions are never explicitly identified in this passage, it is hard not to experience the agony, guilt, and fear of a mother whose child has been abducted.
![emotion wheel for writers emotion wheel for writers](https://i0.wp.com/leadskill.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/il_fullxfull.3138974255_8ue6-scaled.jpg)
She wondered if he was cold, if he was frightened, if he was thinking of her and wondering why she hadn’t come for him. In the blink of an eye Josh was gone from their lives, taken by a faceless stranger to a nameless place for a purpose no mother ever wanted to consider. Ignoring the mess, she folded herself in two, hugging her knees, dry sobs racking her body. Her hand trembled violently as she set her mug back on the tray, sloshing coffee over the rim. Let’s take a look at a scene from Night Sins by Tami Hoag:
![emotion wheel for writers emotion wheel for writers](https://www.kiddycharts.com/assets/2021/06/my-emotions-wheel-1087x1536.jpg)
The emotions must be as carefully crafted as any other element of the story. In character-focused fiction, emotions drive the story as much, if not more, than the plot.
![emotion wheel for writers emotion wheel for writers](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/AkgAAOSwNXtl7UpQ/s-l1600.jpg)
By the end of a good novel, I’ve grown close to them and experienced their joys, fears, and passions. I often forget the titles of favorite books I’ve read, but I never forget the characters. In modern fiction, emotion is critical to good storytelling. In school, facts are often preferred over subjective feelings, reactions, and interpretations. The most common mistake beginning fiction writers make is focusing on what happens, or external plot, while neglecting emotion.