This blog has now reached one hundredth of the page views of my other blog hosted on this site. What a milestone! Eighty-five to eighty-five hundred. Normally, I might make some sort of celebratory post or something of the sort, but it would be the most boring celebration. I don't even have cake.
No, instead I wanted to talk about writing again.
Another difficulty for me is to write about emotions. That sounds strange, I know. But writing about feelings is so tough for me. I don't know how to tell what other people are feeling, or how to explain what I'm feeling. I know I think "I wish I could punch them" about someone before I realize I'm angry about them. I feel things and can only put them into other words before I can understand the feeling. I suppose that makes it fine in writing, where I'm showing instead of telling something, but it feels like it's horribly inconvenient.
I think it's more of a problem in fiction writing, when I'm better at saying what happens than wanting to write about emotions. I don't like writing about feelings since I never know how! I know what people should feel and I know what makes sense, in some case, but I don't think I can fully grasp that humanness to emotions, that feeling of change and not always being right in emotions and the discrepancies among people when it comes to emotions.
I try to put everyone in the same state of mind and I suffer as a writer for it.
Does anyone have tips on this? I really need help.
I think I'm the opposite-- my brain has an overflow of emotion and I want everyone to know exactly what I'm trying to say rather than having it open to interpretation.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how to help the other side though, where it sounds like you're just not positive about how characters might react in certain situations. I think my only suggestion is to try and show what is happening and let the reader put in the emotion as they interpret it.
I seem to be running into the same problem! My most recent creative nonfiction essay showed little emotion. When I went back into my story, I tried to pay closer attention to what I was truly trying to portray. Instead of focusing on the characters actions, I dug deeper and showed their personalities and emotions through dialogue. When readers pick up my story, I want them to feel as though they personally know the person I am describing.
ReplyDelete