Without emotion, a character’s personal journey is devoid of meaning. 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 lives.
As emotional beings, feelings drive our choices. They influence us when deciding. Although most connections may occur through conversation, studies show that 90% of all communication is nonverbal.
Even when we try not to show our feelings, we still convey messages through our 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 onto 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 ensure that our characters express their feelings 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 angry, while another may speak in a quiet voice. Others may go completely silent. Many, for various reasons, will conceal their anger and act as if they’re not upset at all. Whatever your character is feeling, describe the emotion in such a way that it is specific to him or her.
Make sure that your character’s feelings progress convincingly. But have the emotional journey within the scene to avoid unintended me/drama.
Include an 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. One sure way to acquire the reader’s sympathy is to reveal why a character acts a certain way, which means include a back-story as it builds a reader’s compassion. 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.
The back-story is tricky to write well. As is true of so many areas of writing, balance is the key.