Setting up the mood in a scene requires the right words, but it also requires a setting that can boost your mood impact. Think of all of the scary movies where the heroine is walking down the dark basement stairs and someone is waiting there. We are all screaming, ‘No! Don’t go down there!” Of course she doesn’t listen. Then there is the moan of old stairs. The electricity goes out. The music or noises send shivers up your spine. Is this by accident? Absolutely not. How about the moment when the hero is going to propose? The candle light, roses, and soft music. Warmth and light fill the scene with a building sense of joy. All of these tricks are used by movies every day. We should use these […]
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Conversations: 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, […]
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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 RestConversations: How to use Action to show emotions!
Sally is on vacation this week, so I had some reading time in the coffee shop this morning. Since we’re talking about Showing versus Telling this week month, I picked out one of my favorite passages in an old novel that I thought might help her understand this concept. I stressed last week the fact that Showing versus Telling centers around the Emotion of the story. You tell actions, of course, and you can tell backstory, (but it’s much better delivered in dialogue) but the rule “Show don’t Tell” deals specifically with the subject of emotions. You want to let the reader feel it, and the best way to do this is to bring them into the world and especially into the character’s skin. We’ll be covering emotional layering later […]
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