Hello everyone. I've decided to start a blog, partly because it sounds amusing, and partly because I want to remind myself of everything I should be doing while writing. This blog will dispense whatever sage advice I happen to have to offer, along with the side tangents and other thoughts that come to mind while writing these things. I will have space at the end of each blog for a more condensed version of the advice, for the sake of clarity and really making sure I get all this stuff. I'm still working on making it look pretty, and I probably won't have it super fancy until sometime in January. Let's face it, I'm never going to get around to it.
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Emotion

Posted January 15th, 2016 at 9:08 PM by Bardothren

Hello however many people read this thing. I've been operating on an every-six-day schedule for some reason. Anywho, I'm going back to Madison tomorrow, and my classes resume in a few days. My schedule looks extremely light, but that's because I have two 600 level courses that don't show up on it :| Ah well, I should be fine, since the rest is all English fluff and orchestra.

Okay, with that out of the way, it's time for the topic of the week: Emotion. How do you put a character's feelings on the page? I've been grappling with this question a lot lately, and while this is very similar to character development, there's a few deeper points I want to hit this time around.

Emotion

There's three main factors prompting me to address this. The first: I saw Inside Out for the first time yesterday and it blew my mind. I have never watched a movie before that could make me cry. Ever. Not Titanic, not Shawshank, not Schindler's List.
Spoiler: Inside Out Spoiler
But watching Bing Bong fade away actually brought tears to my eyes.


The second: there's been a crop of new anime popping up that I sampled. Some were promising, while others... yuck. And one of the biggest turn-offs for me is how they handle character emotion.

And the third: my latest fan-fic chapter, which was my attempt at harnessing that mixture of despair and comfort. I think it turned out well.

Alright, so, for this week, I'll break down the first two of these and express my thoughts on the matter.

So, if you haven't seen Inside Out yet, I suppose it's a bit late for that spoiler alert. I'll put it in spoiler tags above. Ah, the magic of computers. Anyways, I'll be breaking down that one scene, so I'll tuck that into spoiler tags as well.

Spoiler: For the love of god, go see Inside Out now!
What makes this scene work so well in my mind is how it blends together hope and inevitability. The scene in the forgotten chasm starts with showing Bing Bong's missing fingers, pretty powerful foreshadowing. However, it slipped my mind when they found the wagon and started their various attempts. Well, wait, plot summary won't help. Hmm... breaking it down, there's the foreshadowing of Bing Bong's missing parts mingled with their determination to escape and the forcefulness of their singing that gives the scene its emotional charge. The tears really start to flow when Bing Bong cheers and says his last words. His joy, then that last bitter-sweet request to make Riley happy hammers home how much of a loss it is.


And now to compare it to the anime I've seen. No spoilers here, I think, just comments on how horribly they fail. Let's see... there's Divine Gate, with its pretentious monologues and point-blank backstories. Both instances tried too hard to get their point across and broke any sense of realism. And there's Schwarzesmarken (had to look that one up) and its over-the-top, cliche characters, such as the "I must have revenge at any cost" girl. I cheered when one of them died - not a good sign - and then I stopped short of the episode's ending when they introduced someone ten times worse.

Alright, let's summarize all of that and see if I can get a nice, condensed version of what I'm trying to say.

Summary

There's two major ways to fail at projecting emotions onto your characters: via direct narration, and by making the emotions too extreme. The best way in writing to make a character's emotions is partly through their dialogue subtext, actions, and setting a scene. So, here's some good questions to ask yourself:

Would anyone ever actually say this?
What would this character do if they were feeling this way?
How would the characters around them react to this emotion?

And lastly, I'll try to demonstrate what I mean through example. I'll write two short scenes, the one where everything goes wrong, and one where hopefully it clicks. I'll wrap them in spoilers so you can see them one at a time. If you can't tell them apart, let me know so I can drop my English major.

Spoiler: Exhibit A
Bonnie sipped the wine from her glass, took a deep breath and, in her head, counted down from thirty. She stopped five numbers short.

"Let me get this straight. Did you just say that the shipment went missing?"

Her hand trembled, and a few drops of wine sloshed onto her hand.


Spoiler: Exhibit B
Bonnie absolutely seethed with rage. The wine glass in her hands exploded into a million tiny pieces, and she threw the bloodied shards against the room.

"Aargh, I'm so furious!" she shouted. "You're making me freaking pissed off!"

She overthrew the table next to her, flinging the contents against a wall. Then she picked up the table and smashed it against the floor.


So, you should note how one of them makes the emotion blatantly obvious and exaggerated, while the other leaves the emotion subtle and shown only through subtext and subtle physical cues. Maybe not everyone will think this way, but I think that the most interesting characters have the most subtle emotions.

Alright then! I'll presumably be back at this next Saturday (since I'm gonna be busy in the week, duh). If you're wondering what new anime I would recommend, I would say Boku Dake ga Inai Machi without any reservations. Absolutely solid so far.
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