Without emotion, a character’s personal journey is meaningless. Readers pick up a book so that they can have an emotional experience. They want to escape the real world and become someone else.
People read so that they can connect with a character that can entertain them and whose exploits may add meaning and excitement to their own life.
As emotional beings, feelings drive us to make choices. They influence us when deciding. And though it may appear that most connections happen through conversation, studies show that 90% of all communication is nonverbal.
Even when we try not to show our feelings, we are still sending messages through body language. Because of this, each of us becomes skilled at reading others without a word being said.
As writers, we must take our innate skills of observation and transform them on to the page. The reader doesn’t want to be told how a character feels; they want to experience the emotion for themselves. To make this happen, we must make sure that our characters express their emotion in a way that is both recognizable and compelling to our readers.
Know your character inside and out. As individuals, we all do things differently. Emotions are no exception. One character may shout and throw things when they are angry, another may speak in a quiet voice. Other may go silent. Many, for various reasons, will cover their anger and act like they’re not upset at all. Whatever your character is feeling, describe the emotion in such a way that it’s specific to him or her.
Make sure your character’s feelings progress in a believable way. But have the emotional journey within the scene to avoid unintended me/drama.
Include action to break up the dialogue. Too much dialogue can become overwhelming. Make sure the conversation does not sound stilted. Develop distinct voices for each character to ensure easy recognition and a natural-sounding conversation.
Each character is unique. Life events influence them from the past. Show the character’s background through conversation to make readers understand and sympathize with them. After all, people are products of their past. As the author, it’s important for you to know why your characters are the way that they are and to pass that information along to the reader.
To avoid using too much back-story, decide which details from your character’s past are necessary to share with your reader. Too much back-story can make the story idle, which stops it from moving forward.
Writing back-story is tricky to write well. As is true of various areas of writing, but balance is the key.
Introduce backstory in bite-sized, meaningful pieces:
- Through dialogue
- Via flashbacks or memories triggered by current events
- In narration or introspective thoughts
- With subtle hints and revelations that tease rather than explain
The best backstories are those that arise in moments of stress or decision, where the past informs the present.