Showing emotion in characters: I am in the middle of making revisions after meeting with my critique group. They gave me excellent suggestions that will make my story better. Critique groups, if you get into the right one, are invaluable. It’s always good to have someone else see your work with fresh eyes. Several in the group commented that my character needed to have more emotion. Sometimes it’s hard for writers to really show that. I went back to one of my posts in 2015 which covered emotion in characters.  Here it is:

Do you have trouble coming up with words to describe emotion from your character? I know I do. On the blog, Writers Helping Writers, there’s a brief post on Showing Emotion: Moving Beyond The Face. The article by Angela Ackman poses the question: “The face is the first thing we notice in real life, and the focal point during any conversation. We connect to a person’s gaze, paying attention to how their eyes widen, squint, focus inward or dart. We also watch their mouth, noting lip presses, teeth flashes, frowns, smiles and pursed lips. Eyebrow lifts, the forehead crinkling and relaxing…each facial micro movement is a message, a clue to what the person is thinking and feeling. So if we focus on face-reading in real life, should we then center description on it when trying to convey our character’s emotion?”

Read on to find out.

Genre: Refers either to a general classification of writing, such as the novel or the poem, or to the categories within those classifications, such as the romance novel or the sonnet. – Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner