I could see Sally’s breath crystallize in the air as she jogged up to the coffee shop door. Bruised and soggy leaves layered the parking lot – red, gold, purple. The sun had just baked the frost from the pink chrysanthemums blooming outside. Our little town crouched at the edge of winter – we could feel it in the air. The crisp tension of autumn, when any day we’d wake to a snowfall. The door jangled as Sally opened it. She caught my eye. “Sorry I’m late.” She dropped her backpack onto her chair. “Field trip day at school and I forgot to sign a permission slip. Congratulations on the game Friday night. I heard your son ran for a touchdown, and the other made a sack. I’ll bet it […]
Read the RestTag Archives | How to write a novel
Techniques for Layering Emotion into your scene: Action
“I’m getting the feeling you don’t love me anymore.” Sally sat down, smiling, into her chair at the coffee shop. “I love you. I just love my friends at ACFW and MBT too,” I said from the coffee counter. Between school starting and the various writers conferences over the past two months, we’d barely had time to chat. “Prove it,” she said. “Show me the love.” “I’m here, aren’t I?” I was dressed in a football sweatshirt, wearing my Uggs and old jeans. “On my way to a football game. Doesn’t that say love?” She raised an eyebrow. “Which brings me to the topic of our conversation today – showing emotions through action. And I’m not talking about facial expressions or even physical reactions. I’m talking about […]
Read the RestConversations: Techniques for layering emotion into a scene – Storyworld!
“So, I see that you missed me last week, now, tell me how to write those emotional layers.” I sat down at the coffee shop and Sally was already there, pen in hand, drinking a tall latte. “You read my blogs from last week?” “I don’t appreciate you having coffee without me, but yes,” Sally said, but she wink. “You talked about the different layers of emotions, and drilled down to the last layer, the Soul Deep layer, or a Word picture/Symbolic layer. So…how do I write that?” She lifted her pen, poised it over her notebook and raised an eyebrow. I laughed. “There are 3 ways to work in that symbolism into a scene. Today we’ll talk about the first: Storyworld! Here’s is a passage from my current historical, […]
Read the Rest
Conversations: How to write Emotions part 2
Yesterday, I told you the story of Darla, and how she showed us 2 of the four layers of emotions. Today, let’s talk about the final two layers. Just as a review: The first layer of writing emotions is simply that surface emotion – the name of the emotion. The sectond layer is called: Just Under the Skin Layer. This layer names the emotion and pairs it with a physical response. But let’s go deeper: Sweat dribbled down her brow. She gripped the seats with whitened hands. She practiced early labor breathing. Even if I hadn’t heard her on the phone, seeing her actions, I would have gotten it. I don’t need to know the emotion to know she afraid. The next layer is simply the physical response only. […]
Read the Rest
