Writerly Ways
Oct. 6th, 2024 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessI've been thinking about how to convey complex emotions in fiction. How do you all approach it? It's often more than one feeling/action that we should see. I'm thinking about it for a few reasons today 1) I'm having the weird symptoms again, feels like asthma but isn't. Is it GERD? Is it my heart? This is when I should go to the urgent care to be checked out and there is all the emotions, the 'you're blowing it out of proportion' you're too busy' the I'm afraid it is something serious, the I'm afraid of wasting time, the is this just anxiety?
That is a lot to try to communicate in a character without bogging down the narrative.
Also thinking about it when I opened FB this morning to see my friend's halloween party was yesterday which is why none of my steampunk friends were at the thing yesterday. Oh. I didn't get an invite. I'm not mad but I am disappointed, a little sad, again with the complex emotions. How would I convey this in a character? Me not being invited wasn't malicious. He usually just puts up the invite in the chat/on his FB and that is SUCH a broken forum. I didn't see it, didn't get a notification. I put up the query earlier in the week to the group about yesterday's thing but most of them probably didn't see it either. (one of the ones who usually goes to the party did say she'd meet me at the winery but that was the last I heard so possible she didn't get an invite or didn't remember) So there's the complex emotion of disappointment, the sadness and being left out, the annoyance that I didn't think to check because I KNOW when it is yearly.
FB gave me more complex emotions today as well. The person heading up Rainbow Snippet a weekly group I've been active with for years, died last week. When I went to look for the weekly post last week there was no new posts showing. Today I go back as well to look for the post and found out that were posts saying she had died. Here I come in a week late and a dollar short with sympathies. So the complex emotion here is guilt-annoyance -sadness which feels different from the similar. Emotions are strange and hard to write.
OPEN CALLS (REALLY good paying ones this time)
Ten Manuscript Publishers Open to Submissions in October 2024
Penstricken: Now Seeking Submissions
Were Wolf Short Stories
The Orange & Bee Issue #4 Original works of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction that engage in a significant way with the long history of fairy tales
Silent Nightmares December 2024 Window Dark holiday horrors
Silent Nightmares will be open for submissions the month of December, 2024. This anthology of dark holiday horrors will be co-edited by Chuck Palahniuk and Michael Bailey, who will be eagerly sifting the slush for Haunting Stories to Be Told on the Longest Night of the Year. Bolding this because of who is involved. Holy crap.
Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing January 2025 Open Novel WIndow
Once Upon a Moonless Night Suspenseful stories about what goes bump in the night
Sundog Literature 2024 Window #2 Writing that attempts to salvage something pure from the collision of warmth and cold, that says what it can about the world it finds itself in.
Plott Hound Magazine Speculative stories about animals where animals are the protagonists
Into the Dark Dark fantasy and fantastical horror
From Around the Web
How and Why Authors Should Write for Other Websites and Their Own
The Golden Era of Writing & Reading on Twitch Has Begun!
What I've Learned After Publishing My First Book
How Do You Know if Your Writing is Getting Better?
What’s the Difference Between the Main Character and Protagonist?
How to Get a Self-Published Book into Bookstores
How to Add Research for Your Next Book Project
From Betty
Five More Underused Settings in Spec Fic
What Does and Doesn’t Make a Signature Weapon Cool
Twelve Sources of Wish Fulfillment for Your Story
Why a Villain POV Isn’t a Good Source of Tension
The problem with “fantasy races” (and what to use instead!)
How Small Setting Elements Can Pack Big Emotional Hits
The Golden Era of Writing & Reading on Twitch Has Begun!
Write Fight Scenes The Comic Book Way
How to Identify Your Writing Business Relationship Type
Character Thesaurus Entry: Uses a False Identity
Genre Expectations: Writing Gothic Horror and Standard Horror
How We Use Weather in Our Writing
How to Add Deep POV in a Scene You're Writing
How to Write First Person POV: Flashback
Face Your Fears and Don't Let Blogging Scare You
That is a lot to try to communicate in a character without bogging down the narrative.
Also thinking about it when I opened FB this morning to see my friend's halloween party was yesterday which is why none of my steampunk friends were at the thing yesterday. Oh. I didn't get an invite. I'm not mad but I am disappointed, a little sad, again with the complex emotions. How would I convey this in a character? Me not being invited wasn't malicious. He usually just puts up the invite in the chat/on his FB and that is SUCH a broken forum. I didn't see it, didn't get a notification. I put up the query earlier in the week to the group about yesterday's thing but most of them probably didn't see it either. (one of the ones who usually goes to the party did say she'd meet me at the winery but that was the last I heard so possible she didn't get an invite or didn't remember) So there's the complex emotion of disappointment, the sadness and being left out, the annoyance that I didn't think to check because I KNOW when it is yearly.
FB gave me more complex emotions today as well. The person heading up Rainbow Snippet a weekly group I've been active with for years, died last week. When I went to look for the weekly post last week there was no new posts showing. Today I go back as well to look for the post and found out that were posts saying she had died. Here I come in a week late and a dollar short with sympathies. So the complex emotion here is guilt-annoyance -sadness which feels different from the similar. Emotions are strange and hard to write.
OPEN CALLS (REALLY good paying ones this time)
Ten Manuscript Publishers Open to Submissions in October 2024
Penstricken: Now Seeking Submissions
Were Wolf Short Stories
The Orange & Bee Issue #4 Original works of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction that engage in a significant way with the long history of fairy tales
Silent Nightmares December 2024 Window Dark holiday horrors
Silent Nightmares will be open for submissions the month of December, 2024. This anthology of dark holiday horrors will be co-edited by Chuck Palahniuk and Michael Bailey, who will be eagerly sifting the slush for Haunting Stories to Be Told on the Longest Night of the Year. Bolding this because of who is involved. Holy crap.
Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing January 2025 Open Novel WIndow
Once Upon a Moonless Night Suspenseful stories about what goes bump in the night
Sundog Literature 2024 Window #2 Writing that attempts to salvage something pure from the collision of warmth and cold, that says what it can about the world it finds itself in.
Plott Hound Magazine Speculative stories about animals where animals are the protagonists
Into the Dark Dark fantasy and fantastical horror
From Around the Web
How and Why Authors Should Write for Other Websites and Their Own
The Golden Era of Writing & Reading on Twitch Has Begun!
What I've Learned After Publishing My First Book
How Do You Know if Your Writing is Getting Better?
What’s the Difference Between the Main Character and Protagonist?
How to Get a Self-Published Book into Bookstores
How to Add Research for Your Next Book Project
From Betty
Five More Underused Settings in Spec Fic
What Does and Doesn’t Make a Signature Weapon Cool
Twelve Sources of Wish Fulfillment for Your Story
Why a Villain POV Isn’t a Good Source of Tension
The problem with “fantasy races” (and what to use instead!)
How Small Setting Elements Can Pack Big Emotional Hits
The Golden Era of Writing & Reading on Twitch Has Begun!
Write Fight Scenes The Comic Book Way
How to Identify Your Writing Business Relationship Type
Character Thesaurus Entry: Uses a False Identity
Genre Expectations: Writing Gothic Horror and Standard Horror
How We Use Weather in Our Writing
How to Add Deep POV in a Scene You're Writing
How to Write First Person POV: Flashback
Face Your Fears and Don't Let Blogging Scare You
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no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 12:45 am (UTC)"So there's the complex emotion of disappointment, the sadness and being left out, the annoyance that I didn't think to check because I KNOW when it is yearly."
"Darn it!" he said, hitting the table with his fist. "I should have done this before!"
Feeling disappointment sicken his stomach, he turned away, his head hanging low. It didn't matter, really, did it? There were other ways to meet people.
His thought sounded unconvincing, even to him.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 02:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 02:42 am (UTC)Thank you. That was the result of my forwarding your "prompt" to my Muse. I'd never before sent him a challenge like that.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 12:51 am (UTC)When I do which depends partly on whether the character themselves realizes how they feel. A character who is in denial isn't going to come out and admit they're happy to see their friends together but also kind of jealous. They don't know that about themselves. So they might think about how they're happy for them and then wonder why they aren't feeling all that cheerful today, or they may keep looking at everything but the happy couple. Or maybe someone else comments that they look a little down for some reason.
Sometimes I'll use their perspective to steer the reader's POV. If the POV character is looking at everything but the happy couple, maybe I'm telling the reader about the fancy details on the cup they're holding, and how intently they're listening to the hum of the microwave running, and oh they'd better get their umbrella out of the car when they go to the grocery store, it's probably going to rain later, sorry, what was that you were saying? Oh her smile is so bright every time she looks at him.
It really is a nice cup.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 02:12 am (UTC)