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Ever wondered about how to describe emotional scenes believably, without going over the top or making readers cringe? Have you ever thought about how to write romance or love stories but afraid they might come across cheesy or cliché? Or have you looked at your original character, simply threw up your hands and thought how do I emote?

Then this workshop is for you!

For the first half of the workshop, I will be discussing how to write emotional scenes or describing emotions in general, especially in times where it feels difficult to put into words. This will be an interactive workshop; I will ask participants to come up with examples of instances they struggle with and work from there in order to make it more interactive and helpful in practical situations rather than just theoretical, vague circumstances. So feel free to prepare examples beforehand, specific scenes or situations you may need help with, specific problems you encounter when writing emotional scenes and emotions in general.

For the second half, we will be discussing romance specifically; how to write a believable love story, how to show a natural progression of a relationship, and how to create compelling romance that makes the readers root for your characters. Still tied to the emotional writing bit, we will also look at how to describe when a character is in love without going the obvious way and just stating it outright. This part will also be interactive, so all questions can be asked throughout.


How to Join
Simply show up in the designated channel at the designated time. Reply here if you want to let us know you'll be there. If you have trouble getting there, you can PM me to ask for directions. If you can't see the channel, that means you still need to join the guild. See here about how to join the guild.

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Writing about Emotions

Writing about emotions follows pretty much the same rule as the general ‘show, don’t tell’ principle of writing. Rather than directly saying your character was sad, for example, you could show it through their physical reactions.

Example: “She felt devastated at the sight of her dead lover.” This straightforward approach does not carry much impact and would often fall flat.

Instead, try expanding it into something like this: Tears streamed down her cheeks as she looked upon the body of her dead lover. Her feet shook as she tried to make her way to him and her mind was filled with one sentence only, repeating over and over, this isn’t happening. This isn’t real.

At the same time, I was able to cover shock and devastation while describing the first stage of grief—denial—all without having to use those words. I’m not saying you can’t use them ever (sometimes I still take the shortcut and use direct words like “fear gripped her heart” or “anger simmered beneath her patience”), but don’t say just that. Still elaborate with further physical reactions in order to draw your reader closer to your character.

In order to make your writing convey more feelings, try to imagine what reactions these emotions elicit in a person’s body, and how a reader might be able to draw their own conclusions about what they are feeling. If you’re accurate enough, you never have to say outright what they’re feeling at all and your reader will still understand.

So, is your character happy? Have them be smiling. Add a pep to their step. Are they nervous? Have them fidget, move restlessly, tap their feet, have their gaze wander quickly from one point to the next. Fear? Quickened breathing, pounding heart, sweating. Anger? Balled fists, shaking, narrowed eyes, even growling.

But wait. You shouldn’t use one list as a reference to describe the same physical reactions for all characters. Not all characters react in anger the same way, for example. It all still boils down to your character’s personality. If they’re more extroverted, maybe they will shout and confront the source of their anger. But if they’re the type to keep their emotions in, they won’t. They’ll show it through subtler ways such as tension on their body, maybe a sharp gaze, or balled fists. So don’t forget to take that into consideration.

Having your character’s personality as an anchor will help you decide if their reactions are over the top or not, believable or not. I can’t answer whether sobbing uncontrollably over a dead body is over the top or not without knowing what kind of person your character is. If they’re someone with a big heart and very emotional, then what seems like an over the top reaction would only be natural to them, so don’t be afraid to stay true to that. But if they’re a more reserved person, then yes, that would perhaps be out of character. What you need to worry about is not whether or not your description is believable. It is whether or not your description is in character. So, when in doubt, look back at your own character’s personality as your guide, and try to put yourself in their shoes or at least think it over logically.

Dialogue or thoughts are another avenue to pursue. Especially with things like jealousy, it’s sometimes easier to delve into the person’s thoughts to show it. For example, and I’ll use my own RP thread shamelessly here, in The Warrior Princess and The Miraculous Enyalian, because Kira is not supposed to even realize what she’s feeling yet, I have made several posts in which she thought about violent things toward Adrasteia, particularly when she’s being all clingy to Nikos. And then as Nikos describes the girl of her dreams, she thinks angrily about how he’s comparing the girl to the sea, which is her domain. She also thinks about how she won’t be able to compete with someone who has been described as a goddess. These thoughts are an indication to her emotion, because a person who is not jealous would not be thinking these thoughts in this precise way.

As an added resource, here is a vocabulary of emotions, categorized by its intensity (from weak, mild, to strong) so that you might convey them more accurately rather than using generic words like ‘happy’ or ‘sad’: http://twritersdirectory.tumblr.com/post/24522589385/emotions-vocabulary-for-writers

Writing about Love and Romance

And now we shift into one emotion in particular; love. If there’s one thing everyone can agree on, it’s that love is complex. It even comes in many different types. There might be a general idea of how love feels to everyone, but it’s hard to describe for sure. It might mean different things to different people. Sometimes what you think is love isn’t and vice versa. It’s a difficult emotion to convey, especially if you’ve never felt it yourself. However, never experiencing something shouldn’t forbid us from writing about it. That’s what research is for. Even just reading others’ works, watching movies, and witnessing other stories can help us come closer to understanding a feeling that we might not have experienced firsthand.

However, I would still go back to the characters. There is no one true love story. There are all sorts of love stories and they’re all equally true and real. I can’t tell you which love story is the right one for your characters or pick and choose the one true path for them. It all comes back to their personalities. But here are some common starting points.

In the beginning, there is usually interest. Whether it’s physical attraction, common ground, or a challenge as in the cases of opposites attract, it starts somewhere. There’s that _hook_ that functions as the starting point. Generally, a love story begins with friendship, because one cannot truly love a person they don’t know. Purely physical attraction is lust, not love. So I personally don’t believe in love at first sight. Attraction at first sight, maybe, or interest, but love signifies something deeper that you can’t just turn on from zero to a hundred like that. So I would advise starting the story of any romantic relationship with friendship or at least acquaintanceship and build it gradually as the characters begin to know each other better.

And then there’s the moment where you can show that the relationship has reached a turning point, even if it’s not as clear as a ‘Eureka’ moment. Even if it’s been gradual and a slow build. But usually, in stories, there is always a defining point, signified by a greater focus on each other compared to other people around them, an outwardly romantic gesture (generally a kiss – though a kiss does not always necessarily mean love), or a talk between the two characters to redefine their relationship.

What is the formula to love?

For the most part, people fall in love for a reason. Because they share the same interests. Or because the other person is so different that they challenge them in ways they’d never been challenged. Because they make each other want to be better. Because they believe in the same principles and ideas. Because they enjoy the same things. Because they want the same things. But sometimes it doesn’t need a clear reason. Maybe they just feel comfortable with that person. Maybe that person feels like home to them. Maybe that person is unlike any other person they know. It doesn’t always have to make sense. You can either come up with a reason for your characters to be in love with each other or not. That’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is that your reader buys it.

So, the most important rule is: don’t make love happen in a day. Even if your characters have been friends a really long time, if they’ve never looked at each other _like that_ before or shown any romantic interest in each other, you can’t just go and turn that friendship to love instantly. Nobody will believe that. You need to build it. Show little hints that things are changing. Love is not instantaneous. Maybe now one character starts thinking how nice it would be to hang out with their friend alone without their other friends. Maybe they start giving special attention to them while in a large group of people. Show each other’s deeper interest. Make one wonder why they’ve never noticed the other is beautiful. Make them wish to go somewhere with them. Be more involved in each other’s lives. There are numerous ways to do it so that it does not feel jarring to the reader, so that you don’t do a 180 that makes your reader go, “Wait, what?” and struggle to catch up because the turning point happens too quickly.

Chemistry

Chemistry is also another important thing, and can be difficult to nail down. A lot of great writers still fail at this because it’s a subtle and complicated art. For example, I personally don’t feel any chemistry between any of the main Harry Potter characters who are involved in canon romantic relationships. JKR is a wonderful writer, but to me, she can’t write love to save her life. Then again, chemistry is largely subjective. A couple that I feel have zero chemistry might send someone else to a fangirling moment because they’re so excited for them. So the bad news is, you can only do your best, but you can never win over everyone. Though that’s largely true for every type of writing.

What is chemistry? Chemistry is what makes your reader root for your characters. The best way I can describe it is compatibility. The relationship has to be balanced between both sides. They both have to be equal and participate in the relationship equally. If you portray one character offering more love and support than the other does, that’s an imbalance, and people won’t believe in the relationship. Even if you’re writing from the point of view of one character only and thus only able to be fully in their head, that doesn’t mean you can’t show what their partner does for them. After all, they’re still the recipient. So make sure you don’t forget to portray the other side’s love equally.

Chemistry can be both similarities and opposites. Both are equally able to attract people to each other. Those who are opposites can complete each other, one side’s strength making up for the other’s weakness, and vice versa. Similarities can be shown with them working in tandem to overcome their challenges, pursuing the same goals, or having the same ideals. Neither being different nor being similar is better than the other. A couple can be either similar or opposite and still portray a strong, believable relationship.

Chemistry can also be portrayed through good, engaging dialogue, a playful banter, or, the oldest trick in the book, the will-they/won’t-they trope. This trope prolongs the couple from actually coming together by constantly throwing obstacles in their way, either through miscommunication/misunderstanding, outside forces trying to keep them separate, or inner conflicts like trying to put their duties above their feelings. Suppressed desire and the agony of wanting to be together but unable to can often make a reader feel greater anticipation for the conclusion of the relationship and so it will pay off bigger in the long run if you don’t give them what they want right away.

That’s why most couples don’t get together within the first chapter or the first episode of a story. Building that tension is the key to engage the audience, though if you go on too long and never resolve it, you will also lose them. Find a good balance between keeping readers at the edge of their seats and rewarding them with a long-awaited and satisfying conclusion. Normally, couples don’t get together until the end of the story if the entire story is about their romance. However, if it’s just a side plot, you can have them be together in the middle or near the end instead, as long as you still have a conflict to resolve.

How to Portray a Character in Love?

This link provides a pretty good breakdown of how to show two people in love: http://www.springhole.net/writing/romantic-chemistry.htm

However, as I’ve said, some relationships are atypical. Some couple constantly bicker while still being very much in love (Oberon and Titania, sometimes). You just have to show that even though they’re seemingly disagreeing with each other, the undercurrent of love is still there (even as one argues, they admit even if only to themselves that the other party is right and they understand where the other is coming from). Learn the difference between real arguing and playful banter.

This link explains the basic difference between infatuation and love: http://www.springhole.net/writing/love-or-infatuation.htm

The short version is; love is difficult and involves a lot of work and compromise from both parties, accepting each other’s weaknesses willingly, while infatuation is shallow and only thinks about immediate gratification and approval, even if one party isn’t being true to themselves.

Lastly, here’s some tips to write & roleplay believable and successful long-term relationships: http://www.springhole.net/writing/write-believable-successful-long-term-relationships.htm and http://www.springhole.net/writing/believable-functional-and-healthy-relationships.htm which are good reads.

I'll be there today ^^

Welp... Imma get up for this. I shall. Yep.

Workshop is currently live for any stragglers~

Workshop content updated into the first post. This thread is open for questions or comments about the topic.