Pernell Rogers – Writer

I ran across an article by C.S. Lakin at livewritethrive.com which made me which I took psychology. Instead, I took philosophy – and LOVED IT! Anyway, the article is titled ‘How Fiction Writers Can Show Emotions in Their Characters in Effective Ways’. For me, this is the Holy Grail of writing. The old ‘show, don’t tell’ mantra every writer has heard before. In her article, she states a fact about human behavior that shouldn’t be overlooked (I’m paraphrasing here):

Thoughts, good or bad, can lead to emotions, which may lead to actions.

Once I read that, I stopped and thought about every character I ever created. Each of those characters had something to motivate them to perform some action, and that’s where I think I hit the disconnect. I focused on motivations instead of their thoughts about a situation or event. Motivations, for me, can be broken down into thoughts and emotions, but I’m not sure if they are separate in my stories. Did I explain their thoughts and jump right into actions, or did I describe emotions and jump right into actions? That’s the disconnect.

I have a lot of stories that I’ve finished recently, in one form or another (1st draft vs. 6th draft), and I’m re-editing all of them using something I call ‘TEA’.

Thoughts…
Emotions…
Actions…

I’m going to examine the actions my characters perform to see if I introduced any of their thoughts in the story. If they are there, did I add any of their emotions (dialogue, gestures, etc.) to explain their thoughts? If I’m missing either of them, I’ll have to re-examine that character and how they fit into the story. It was an eye-opening read. Take care!

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