Emotion Behind Story

by Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL

 ©Stina Lindenblatt

Story isn’t about plot. It’s about emotion. It’s the element that leaves your body tingling in fear or anticipation for what will happen next, and what readers want from the first page to the end. But how do you bring in emotion to add maximum power to your story? 

Universal Theme

Universal theme will help your readers connect to the characters and emotions in the story. These are themes that everyone can relate to, even if they can’t relate to the specific circumstances of the story.  For example, how many of you know what it feels like to have the mob kill your family? None of you, I hope. Now, what if you wrote a story about how your protagonist’s best friend tells her uncle, who happens to be the Godfather of the local crime family, that she suspects the friend is the estranged daughter of the family he’s been salivating to kill, after her father turned state evidence on his former boss? Depending on how you set up the story, you can choose to focus on the universal theme of betrayal. At one point in our lives, we’ve all experienced the feeling of being betrayed. Now we can relate to the character and the emotion of the story, even though we have never, thankfully, gone through the same experience.

Character Wounds

Another word for character wound is backstory. This is where you create the most painful past possible for your character, and let it guide your character’s actions. The type and depth of wound will be dependent on genre. The wound then plays a part in determining your character’s fears, and it is the wound and fears that make the character vulnerable. Since he doesn’t want people to know his vulnerability (especially the antagonist), he creates a persona that protects him from being hurt. For example, you could have a character who lost his parents due to an accident and is bounced around the foster care system. He ends up in the worst of homes, where the foster parents only care about the money. He’s neglected and abused. He learns not to trust adults, and because he’s bounced around so much, he learns not to develop attachments to other people. He becomes the bad-boy loner, complete with tattoos. Inside, he’s still the caring individual he was before his parents died, but he refuses to let people get close enough to discover this. That is, until he finds the right girl. 

Naturally, you would not dump this information on the first page. Write the backstory down in a separate file, and fit slivers of it into your story. Start with the small stuff, hinting of the possible wound, and as the story progresses, hit your reader with the most emotional, gut wrenching parts of your protagonist’s past. Your reader will keep turning the page, because she wants to find out what really happened X number of years ago. It’s a great way to build emotional suspense. 

Showing verses Telling

The first thing you want to avoid when writing emotion is telling.

“Go away,” he said angrily. 

In the above sentence, the writer is telling the reader that the character is angry. We don’t get to experience his anger. You can switch ‘said angrily’ for yelled, but there’s a stronger way to show emotion.

He gripped the ends of the armrests and took a long, slow breath. “Go. Away.” The two simple words, meaningless on their own, held a dangerous edge when spoken without his usual warmth. He could only hope that Lydia was smart enough to understand what he was really telling her. She was a b**** and a traitor, and he would rather spend eternity in hell than spend another minute listening to her heartbreaking lies.

 

In the first example, you learn nothing about the character. By showing the emotion through action, dialogue, inner thoughts, visceral reaction, setting (more about this in a moment), you reveal characterization. One character might scream and hurl breakable objects at the wall when he is angry. Another character might speak in a calm yet deadly tone, and reveal his anger through body language, like in the second example. Same emotion. Two different ways to show it.

Go Deep

Words are powerful, but only if you pick the right ones.  Use words in an unexpected way to add emotion to the sentence. These are typically your theme words or scene-related ones (i.e. if your scene deals with death, your power words would be related to death).  For example, ‘He watched the light bleed slowly out of day . . . . ‘ (Whispers by Dean Koontz). Notice the difference, emotion wise, between that and ‘He watched the daylight fade . . . .’ The former sentence was created to give you the shivers. Try this trick to add dimension and emotion to your setting. 

Use words to show a shift in emotion and mood in the scene. The scene could start off with words like ‘skip, sunshine, rose-scented’, but as the mood and emotion change, you weave in words like ‘trudge, stench of rotting corpses, spiraling down’. For the most impact, figure out what emotions you want to show in the scene, brainstorm verbs and nouns that best convey them, then slip them in as needed. This is a great way to add imagery to your writing. 

Study Study Study

The best way to learn how to put emotion in your story is to study your favorite novels (or short stories, if you write them). Pick ones similar to what you want to write. For example, if you want to write a tear jerker, then that’s what you should study. Rip them apart and examine how the author approached the above elements. Then apply what you learned to your WIP. I’ll be talking more about analyzing stories in an upcoming post. 

Do you make sure that your story is rich with emotion before you write the first draft and while editing?

Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL writes young adult and new adult novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and blogging addict, and can be found hanging out on her blog.  

 

The Zen of Backstory

Backstory.

It's become an almost-taboo word. It's been associated with evil things like info dumps and terrible first chapters and near-dead pacing.

While true, those things are just half the story of backstory.

Backstory is also what gives a novel its emotional value. It explains a character's motivations and deepens conflict. Without backstory, your character is shallow. Her actions and reactions are random and meaningless.

Finding the perfect balance isn't an easy thing to master but you can learn to do it--it's all about relevance, technique, and timing.

The "What"

Backstory is an abbreviated term for "background story". When beginning a novel, the writer must first explore the character--their emotions, their motivations and any relevant history that will impact their actions and reactions.

Just as a background check examines relevant history of a job applicant, so must the writer learn to focus on the character's relevant history.

For instance, a background check for someone applying to drive a school bus will include having their driver's license inspected for driving violations. They’ll also be scanned for a history of child abuse, drug abuse, and other arrests/violations. A prospective employer isn’t going to care if they are on a bowling team or if their favorite color is chartreuse or if they won Best In Show at the recent farm fair.

Relevance is mandatory.

Sometimes it means excluding a lot of nifty stuff about your character. However, just like in the plotting, if the backstory doesn’t directly move the story forward, it doesn't belong in your novel.

The "How"

Backstory must be artfully inserted into the story. Long chunks of narrative are bad things. You think you’re doing a favor to the reader by explaining something but…it’s boring. (and it's often telling, not showing.)

There are several different ways you can handle your backstory:

Flashbacks: These are tough to write because you have to write them in past perfect tense. Use them sparingly…flashbooks look back and stories look forward. Flashbacks lose the momentum.

Monolog: An option if you’re writing in third person subjective POV.

Dialog: A great way (and one of my favorites). Questions, accusations, tones...it all can allude to a character's history.

Prologue: A prologue is still a first chapter because it gets read first. You better make it good because a bad prologue loses a reader's interest.

Memories: Another good way to use backstory. However, don’t get lost in memory lane because…it's boring. Spot memories are better. We don't need to know everything at once.

Internal dialog: Also a good option, but be careful you don’t head hop. Stay in the correct character's point of view.

Props: Why not? A novel's setting is part of the unspoken story. Keepsakes on a mantle, a collection of books, a ring on a necklace. They can all be used as backstory.

The "When"

The trick is writing your character's backstory so that they know something relevant at a time they need to know it and not one second sooner.

Get the story going before you shed light on the backstory. In most cases, you don't want a drop of it in chapter one--just strong forward moving action/story. You may add the backstory as another layer but be sure you don’t smother your story with it – rather dribble it like a succulent chocolate glaze over a buttery Bundt cake, adding flavor and depth.

Backstory should deepen a character. Use it when your character needs to show why they think and feel and act the way they do in different situations.

The Wrap

Relevance. Technique. Timing. These are the keys to finding the perfect balance of backstory.

Too much backstory and your story will stall to a sludgy stop. Too little and the reader will not develop an emotional connection to your characters. If we can't soldier through the slow spots or if we can't care about the characters, we won't finish reading a book.

Learn how to artfully work with backstory so you can find the perfect balance your story needs.

Photo credit: nazreth

Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction writer who resides in the heart of the Pennsylvania coal region, where she keeps the book jacket for "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" in a frame over her desk. Visit Ash's blog at www.ash-krafton.blogspot.com for news on her newly released urban fantasy "Bleeding Hearts: Book One of the Demimonde" (Pink Narcissus Press 2012).

Once Upon a Backstory

                                         ©Stina Lindenblatt

When figuring out your story, you have to take into consideration who your characters are beyond their physical characteristics. I’ve already discussed using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to figure out your character’s deeper needs and motivations. Now I want to focus on another important element: the backstory.

There are a number of different methods writers use to develop their characters. Some wing it while panstering their first draft (i.e. they haven’t completed an outline or characterizations first). Others fill in questionnaires and interviews to get to know their characters before starting the first draft. Some writers figure out the characterizations after writing the outline; others do it before hand.

There is no right or wrong method. Use whatever works for you. But regardless of when and how you create your characters, there is one element I want you to really spend time thinking about: your characters’ backstories.

And I’m not referring to only your main character. Know the backstories for all the key players. This doesn’t mean you’re going to dump huge chunks of backstory in your story, either. But what you are going to do is figure out what past events made them who they are today or shaped their behavior. Only then will your characters have depth, and their actions will be realistic to who they are.

For example, say you have a twenty-year-old main character who was raped eight months ago by someone she knew. There are a number of possible scenarios that could have happened afterwards:

A. She reported it to the police, the guy was arrested, and she was eventually able to heal with the help of a support group and supportive friends and family.

B. She never reported it to the police, but she did reach out to a helpline for survivors of rape. She might have told her family and friends, or she might have kept quiet about it with the people she’s close to.

C. She never reported it to the police and never reached out to a helpline or support group. She doesn’t have the opportunity to heal and suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. When guys touch her or try to get close, she either withdraws or freaks out.

D. Similar situation to C, but her attitude towards guys is different. She figures sex is all she’s good for (why else was she raped), and consciously searches for sexual encounters to prove herself right. Most people wouldn’t even guess she was a survivor of rape because she goes against the typical stereotype.

All four of these scenarios happen in real life. This shows how vital research is to characterization. However, it’s not enough just to know how you character responded to the rape. What was her life like before it happened? Were there events in her past that would have determined how she would have reacted to the rape? The more you know about your character’s past, the better. Maybe you won’t know it right away. Maybe it will develop further as you write your first draft. Maybe more of her backstory will come to you during the fourth draft. That’s okay, too. The point is to let it happen. Only then will your characters become more dimensional.

Now enter the hero of the story. Each of these girls is going to respond to him differently. And what about his backstory?

• Is he kind of guy who believes a girl is really saying “yes” when the words out of her mouth are “no”? If he is, then he had better not be the hero of a romance novel unless he’s going to do a major about face on that attitude.
• Does he work in a field in which he is exposed to rape survivors (cop, psychologist, physician)?
• Has rape touch a member of his family? How did he deal with it?

Each of these scenarios will affect how the guy will respond to the female and this, in turn, will shape how the story unfolds (which is why I prefer to do characterizations before I outline).

In a future post, I’ll discuss how much and when to include backstory in your novel. Until then, spend the time getting to know your characters and their personal histories. It will be time well spent.

Stina Lindenblatt writes romantic suspense and young adults novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and blogging addict, and can be found hanging out on her blog, Seeing Creative.