Emotional Dragons Eating Authors: Emotions and YOU!

Peter Leavell

Peter Leavell, a 2007 graduate of Boise State University with a degree in history, was the 2011 winner of Christian Writers Guild's Operation First Novel contest, and 2013 Christian Retailing's Best award for First-Time Author. Peter and his family live in Boise, Idaho.  www.peterleavell.com.

I heard dragons devour authors who write boring books. Or maybe dragons burn the books. I can't remember.  

Repeat after me—my writing will not be boring.

Jesus wasn't boring! (Jesus juke!)

You know what deflects boredom? Not reading a boring book. 

But even better, add this key ingredient:

Emotion.

Galadriel: "The quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail to the ruin of all." LotR

Your quest is to evoke emotions in readers. 

Emotions and Me

I hate waiting. Groans, pleadings, cries for mercy come from my side of the car at every red light. Why? Anger covers my boredom. Makes the dull moments manageable. I’m not emotionally engaged in the bored moment until I’m angry. 

David Banner: "Mr. McGee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." TIH

Love can work the same way. Humans are intolerable. We're writers, so we can admit that little secret. But love makes me want to be with my wife every second of every day. 

Miracle Max: "Sonny, true love is the greatest thing, in the world-except for a nice MLT – mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe. They’re so perky, I love that." PB

Credits: Relatable.com 

Getting Philosophical

Postmodern America. Emotions reign as king. Emotion is truth. Science is proved and disproved and proved again with no answers to the meaning of life. Philosophy is depressing, and worse, confusing. Religion builds massive structures then erects signs to advertise like banks, promising huge rewards for deposits. How can that be truth?

To most, how I feel is the only motivation that matters. It's the only truth we can verify. We’re told we can’t control how others feel, only ourselves. So if we control our stimuli, or situations, then we can have a pretty good time. 

*Special INSERT: Christians

The truth is Christ. But if Christ is king, then emotions are prince. We look for joy and peace from Christ. God delivers. Beware of guilt, though. We work to assuage guilt, then the lack of guilt is pleasure. Is lack of guilt true joy? For some.

Col. Jessep: ''You want answers?"
Kaffee: "I think I'm entitled to."
Col. Jessep: "You want answers?"
Kaffee: "I want the truth!"
Col. Jessep: "You can't handle the truth!" AFGM

Practical Writing Tips

Readers desperately want to feel their pain reflected back through our work. They want joy. They want boredom squashed. They want to learn so they can feel as if they are getting smarter. Evoke emotion!

These are extraordinarily boring for today's readers:

Endless Flashbacks.

Narrative longer than Tweets.

Mindless monologs.

Action with no point.

Kissing and sex with no point.

Clichés. 
Gardening. Just kidding. Gardening is awesome. 

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. -Greek Proverb

Last Tidbits of Advice You Can Skip But Shouldn't:

Sometimes we see the world in a problem/solution kind of way. Society and religion, yes, they have problems. But we use our fiction to dispense solutions. That’s not art. That’s propaganda. Stop it. It’s boring. The line is too fine to walk. Focus on story, and if there's a statement in there somewhere, great!

Tension on every page? It’s a cheap emotion and readers grow immune. Vary emotions like you would vary sentence structure.

What’s exciting for some is boring for others. Vary the thrills.

Conclusion:

Counterpoints can be set out like drinks for every problem that enters the café. But there's one truth we can't get around. Boring doesn't sell well, unless the professor assigns it. Emotionally engage your reader. Give them something to feel. And maybe, just maybe, they'll feel alive.

Doc. Frankenstein "It's Alive! IT'S ALIVE!" YF

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Hit and Run Emotions by DiAnn Mills

by DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

While driving back from the grocery store, I was hit by a truck and the driver took off. The emotions I experienced were shock, anger, and a twinge of fear. The latter one was probably because I write suspense, and my mind always goes into story mode. But the truth is, fear often results from the unpredictable and suspicions from those who harm us.

Are you guilty of hit and run emotions?

The same applies to the characters in our stories. What happens when a writer has a character encounter a traumatic incident and there’s no reaction? Or what happens when a character responds to a minor incident with drama-queen emotion?

Both scenarios can destroy a reader’s reality check and toss the reader out of the story. Future purchases from that writer are nil. Sad, but true. Not much opportunity for a second chance when there are so many writers competing for our attention.

To avoid hit and run emotion in our stories, we can take steps to ensure our characters’ reactions to events are met with responses that are in character, realistic, and slide into genre.

In Character
For credible emotion, we writers must thoroughly understand our POV characters. This means taking time to develop their personality, unique traits, and backstory. A character who handles anger by stuffing it may logically end up with an ulcer. A character who deals with anger by breaking noses may need anger management classes. The first key to overcoming inappropriate reactions lies in characterization.

Realistic
Many writers keep a journal of the happenings in their lives and how they reacted. It’s been said that if a writer is unwilling to seek resolution to life’s explosions, then the writer will never be able to write about those same emotions effectively.

Dramatic reactions to small incidents initiates skepticism in the reader, unless the writer is gifted in humor. Even those stories must be crafted with care. When a hero or heroine appears callused to tragedy, displays an absence of wit or logic, or is over-the-top in dialogue, readers no longer care about the character or the story.

Don't hit the reader with a drama queen!

Genre 
The many genres provide us an opportunity to show our stories through a variety of techniques. The criterion dictates the story world’s dialogue, culture, goals, setting, and symbolism. The seven universal emotions stated in Tonya Reiman’s,The Power of Body Language are surprise, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, happiness, and contempt. Every POV character experiences these emotions according to genre guidelines. Here are a few examples:

Contemporary: Today’s world is filled with instant information from various communication devices. Problems arise from dealing in a world where change is the norm. A character is continuously assaulted with situations that involve coping devices according to traits and backstory. Contemporary characters filter a whirl of happenings through their personal data bank of their past.

Historical: The past is known for its slower pace of living. Communication from local,
national, and worldwide events shape the future many times before the character learns about them. Culture and gender often dictate how a character receives and processes emotion.

Romance: Romance is an emotional adventure. This aspect of novel writing can be woven into any genre. A thread of romance invites a reader into a dreamlike world of fresh and breathless love.

Create emotions for your fantasy world.

Speculative:This genre has a broad range of categories from fantasy to sci-fi. Here the setting and culture blends with character to show how emotion is received and processed. Because the story world is unusual, how a character views emotion is according to the writer’s discretion.


Suspense: Suspense can be written into any genre, much like romance, but the character’s reaction to a state of anxiousness or uncertainty with a blanket of fear leads the character down a path of uneasiness and often apprehension. Heroes and heroines walking through suspense are survivors who have learned to manage and compartmentalize their emotions in a way that is healthy and believable.

Hit and run emotions. We writers don’t have to be labeled with this criticism because we understand the power of character, reality, and genre.

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure.
She combines unforgettable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels.

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Library Journal presented her with a Best Books 2014: Genre Fiction award in the Christian Fiction category for Firewall.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers; the 2015 president of the Romance Writers of America’s Faith, Hope, & Love chapter; a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, and International Thriller Writers. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on any of the social media platforms listed at www.diannmills.com.

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Insert Title Here

by Thomas Smith
No, that's not a note to the editor. The title of this month's missive is just that: Insert Title Here.

Why?

Because I'm hoping what you’re about to read will spark something different for each of you.
This is not a how-to article, although I’d be willing to bet it will show some of you how to improve some aspect of your writing. It is not a lesson on point-of-view, though I imagine something in here will flip the “a-ha” switch in your head and help you solidify your voice. And it is not a lesson in the use of effective description techniques, thug I won’t be a bit surprised when someone emails me and says, “…after I read your column, something just clicked, and I was able to see a scene and make it pop for the first time.”

So what is this miracle column you hold in your hands (or see on your computer screen)?

It’s a meandering walk through my head with a single, simple message.

So, lets meander.

I have two stones in my office. One sits on my desk and the other sits on a bookshelf against my copy of When the Water Smokes (by Bob Simpson). The one on my desk is about the size of a baseball. It is rough and jagged in places and it looks like it would cause some real damage if someone threw it at you. It came from a field in Zebulon, NC. It is, I think, much like the stones that a crowd of men held just after they brought a woman and threw her down in front of Jesus. They had caught her in the act of adultery and were ready to stone her. So Jesus said, “OK, you caught her fair and square, and the law says you can stone her. So the one of you who has never sinned, YOU go first. Then everybody else join in.  Soon, there was just Jesus, a grateful woman, and a field full of stones. Like the one on my desk.

I keep it there to remind me not to throw stones.

The other stone, the one on the bookshelf, is small, round, and well worn. I picked it up near a pond I Chapel Hill, NC. I picked it up n one of my father’s occasional outings. From the time I started elementary school until I finished high school, I could count on seeing my father standing in the doorway of my homeroom class waving for me to go with him. He would take me out of school for the day and we would just go off together. I never knew where we were going. Often he didn’t either. He’d just decide it was a good father and son day and he’d come get me and off we’d go. In fact, the first piece of pizza I ever had from a real restaurant (Shakey’s Pizza Parlor) was the byproduct of one of those trips. Cheese. Ad we lived dangerously and added mozzarella cheese and a few red pepper flakes from real glass shakers. But on one of those trips, we went to a pond near where my father grew up and spent the afternoon skipping rocks like he did when he was a little boy. And while we skipped rocks,
he told me what it had been like back then.

The stone on my bookcase? It reminds me to slow down and remember the good days.

I have a press pass that Charlie Daniels signed for me after I had spent the better part of an afternoon hanging out with him on his tour bus just before a show in Aiken, SC. Charlie Daniels is a gracious man who has a strong faith, a great view of life, and is loyal to his friends.

I have books signed by writers I am fond of, many of them are friends and acquaintances of mine, and the majority of them have spent time on the NY Times Bestsellers List. An each one of tem reminds me that it is a noble thing to do what you love. But it is also a hard thing. A lonely thing. And that’s OK.

Over the past year I have been involved in some interesting projects. A couple of my short stories have been made into audio dramas. I’ve written greeting cards, book chapters for various projects, had 2-3 short stories published, done some ghostwriting, have completed the first 3 parts of a 2 year curriculum project for a major Christian publisher, and have a novella under consideration by the 2014 Horror Publisher of the Year. I’ve written some magazine articles, been published in Writer’s Digest (twice), and Chicken Soup for the Soul. That’s just what I remember off the top of my head.

Oh yeah, and I developed a character for NY Times Bestselling writer, Jonathan Maberry to use in his award winning Joe Ledger series. Montana Parker is one tough girl, and from what he tells me, he is having a blast writing her into the series.

As I look around me, I see dozens of pictures taken on my various travels. There’s my wife smiling as we take an ATV trip across the island of St Maarten. And below that is a picture of Pedro and his “horse” (and I use the term loosely) Dynamite. We hired him to take us on a tour of Cozumel. But we didn’t want a tourist tour. We wanted to see the real Cozumel.

So he hitched up his cart and took us to the places the tourists don’t see. At one point he turned to us and said, Would you like to see my community?” we said yes, and fifteen minutes later we were moving through a poor section of the city. And in the midst of the community was a squat, cinderblock building. It was painted pearl gray and had a colorful painting of an eagle on the side of the building.  He stopped across the street and drew our attention to a group of children walking across the lawn. The girls ere dressed in khaki skirts and blue blazers. The boys wore khaki pants and blue blazers.
“See those uniforms?” he said as the children entered the building. “We bought those last year. We’re the only school in this area that has such beautiful uniforms.” And as I listened to him tell the story of the American church group that came and helped them build the school, and watched his face light up as he related the hard work and wonderful community suppers that had brought in the money for uniforms over a period of a year, I realized that there’s nothing in the city where I live that is as magnificent as their little school. They have such great pride in what has become the center of their community.
We have no edifices as grand as a little gray school building built with pride.
And not the kind that “goeth before a fall.” No, this is the kind that says even in the midst of poverty there is great treasure.

In my office there is a poster (America’s Team…Just the Beginning) signed by the artist: Apollo Astronaut Alan Bean. He
is one of only 12 people to ever walk on the moon. The caption says, “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

It reminds me that anything is possible.

So much so, that you can even go back in time.

I know, because I’ve done it. When I was a reporter for the Aiken Standard, I was a witness to an amazing event. I drove out to a little Anglican church outside the city limits, got out of the truck, and prayed that the church door was unlocked because it was cold outside.  Fortunately it was, and we went inside. The church was warm, but the only light came from candles in the windows. The photographer was trying to find enough ambient light to take a picture. As I watched him, a figure emerged from the darkness, planted his staff on the floor, and said, “I am Nicholas. Bishop of Myra. What you call modern day Turkey.”

For the next hour we were in the presence of Saint Nicholas. The predecessor of Santa Claus. And as he told us about his life and his subsequent desire to help others, the event was so powerful and so real that the photographer took only one picture, and all I could say at the end of the hour was, “Thank you.”

We returned to the newsroom in silence, and I still get goose bumps when I think about it.

I’ve watched people die, watched them being born, I’ve seen them at their best, and at their worst. I have sailed the Caribbean and walked country roads. Had my heart broken and broken the hearts of others. I remember seeing my new bride for the first time a half hour before the service when someone brought her into the room where I was waiting. She was stunning (still is) and I was so happy that we had decided to see each other before the service and not during. That moment was just for us and not meant to be shared.

As I look back over my life, I see that I have been blessed. Fortunate. And my guess is, if you take an honest look at your life, you have been too. Your life has been different, certainly. But it has also been one experience after another. Some memorable, some not so much.

So what is the great writing lesson buried in all this foolishness?

Some of you have already figured it out.  Some of you have always known it.

The best lesson guaranteed to make your writing sing is living. Draw on the deep well of your experience. Mine the feelings. Relish the giggles and the tears. Then bring them to the page.

Because the color in every good story is the color of life.

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Jet-Fuel Backstory by DiAnn Mills

Jet-Fuel Backstory
By DiAnn Mills

Backstory is your story’s history. Some parts of it will never be visible to the reader. Like jet fuel, it’s the power behind every novel, the motivation propelling every character into action. Backstory reveals the why to unexpected behavior and adds punch to the unpredictable. The result is a believable story with characters who resonate with the readers long after the book is finished.

A jet moves ahead because it's fueled with power.

When developing story that’s fresh and engaging, a writer strives to understand the character’s goals, fears, desires, strengths, and weaknesses. This task is impossible to navigate without knowing where the character has been, which means discovering what happened in the character’s life before chapter one, line one of the story.

The what-ifs of plot are easier to create when the writer understands the extreme challenges of the point of view character, whether that character is the protagonist or antagonist. Backstory takes the writer into that zone.

Consider yourself: You are the total of all life’s happenings since the day you were born. You inherited genes from your parents that set the stage for how you thrive mentally, physically, emotionally, and possibly spiritually. You’ve been seeped in culture, education, and a span of time called life. Nature and nurture combined with experiences, and there you are.

Which way is your story headed?

  Discovering a character’s personality is a similar process. Fortunately for the writer, the items needed from backstory are those that apply to your story, specifically scene by scene. But the writer still has a lot of work to do. Interview questions help, but writers have to know what to ask.

I’m a fan of Donald Maass, and often his teachings challenge me to stretch my imagination so my creativity can take a leap. The following prompt comes from a Maass exercise in Writing the Breakout Novel. The responses give you a solid foundation for your character’s motivation—and a few things you might not have already known.

1. What happened in your character’s life up to age 12 that affected who she/he is today?
2. What happened in your character’s life from ages 13 - 20 that affected who she/he is today?
3. What happened in your character’s life from ages 21 - 30 that affected who she/he is today?
4. What happened in your character’s life 1 year ago that affected who she/he is today?
5. 6 months?
6. 6 weeks?
7. 24 hours?
8. 1 hour?
9. 10 minutes?

Are you ready to dive deeper into backstory? You can develop the character’s personality, vocabulary, career choices, emotions, attraction to the opposite sex, opinions, purpose, social concerns, problems, mental handicaps, and so much more, giving the story more intimacy because the writer has touched the character’s life. The exciting part is the writer is better equipped to predict behavior, no matter how eccentric.

A writer’s greatest joy is when a reader becomes engrossed in story, living the adventure of the character in unforgettable moments. You can do this by discovering the backstory.

Go ahead.

I dare you. 

Add some jet-fuel backstory.

 DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She currently has more than fifty-five books published.
Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers; the 2014 president of the Romance Writers of America’s Faith, Hope, & Love chapter; and a member of Inspirational Writers Alive, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, and International Thriller Writers. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country. DiAnn is also a craftsman mentor for the Jerry B. Jenkins
Christian Writers Guild. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas. Visit her website at www.diannmills.com and connect with her on Facebook
(www.facebook.com/DiAnnMills), Twitter (@DiAnnMills), Pinterest (www.pinterest.com/DiAnnMills), and Goodreads (www.goodreads.com/DiAnnMills).

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