Over the course of writing, we're generating characters that hopefully have or express feelings. Feelings are the bridges to the audience principally because the audience is comprised of people who also have feelings. If you can imbue feelings to a fictional creation, then audience (hopefully) sees that creation as real, even if it's only in the context of the pages of the story.
Different from feelings are things called statuses (or sometimes status conditions, but that's a little redundant). They also play a role in characters, but they're not feelings.
Wait, I'll explain each and this gets clearer.
An emotion is felt by the character in response to something. Emotions are REACTIVE, meaning that they require something to trigger them. X happens, it generates an emotion. This cause-effect relationship is key to crafting strong emotions, even if the emotion you want isn't "appropriate" at the moment it's being experienced.
(Note: "Appropriate" is a relative label that often gets abused or misplaced. "Appropriate" chiefly concerns itself with the ideas that an action (which in this case is an emotion) must fit in with the surrounding context so as not to appear abnormal or unique among a group. "Appropriate" often counter-balances the outliers on the bell-curve, meaning it breeds a level of conformity and solidarity. "Appropriate" is some external judgment placed on the the specific situation, and sometimes, for true potency, "appropriate" can be tossed out the window.)
Emotions are how the character feels (about something/someone). To describe these we use words like angry, sad, aroused, challenged, bitter....a whole host of adjectives designed specifically to evoke an image in the reader's mind. (If I say, "I'm sad." that creates a particular mental picture for the reader. If I go on further and say "I'm sad, can't you see the tears in my eye?" I've further developed that picture but not actually increased the emotion at hand.)
Emotions add depth, and they do not do a great job of advancing plot...emotions EXPLAIN things. (Note that they both start with "E".) They are qualifiers, and they relate best to questions of why and how. (Why do they feel that way? How do they feel now? etc) I try not to say that feelings act best with the verb "feel" in mind, because I think it's rather poor writing to use the word to describe itself.
It's hard to say that "sadness" or "anger" by itself would advance a plot. But that does not mean an emotion cannot inspire or lead to an action. Emotions are like fuses for actions. Having a clear fuse makes the bomb bigger.
Remember: Emotions help create images, they can precede actions, they add depth to whatever is "current moment." Emotions also require something to trigger them. That "something" can be an action, another emotion....but it's some event that can best be described NOT IN DIALOGUE (think exposition or narrative, mostly).
But, characters can feel more than emotions. The responses to the environment are also felt, but they're not emotions. They are called "statuses".
Consider this: Billy fell down and skinned his knee. Tears poured down his face as he sat on the curb.
When we examine what Billy felt, we have to remember that there are two parts with combine to composite the "feelings." We may identify the tears and label them as sadness or pain. But Billy felt more than that. Look at the action taken - he fell and skinned his knee. He felt, in a physical sense, the rough texture of the ground against his skin.
Status is not just what the character is doing, but it is also the condition that impacts the character at the time of observation (I can see the physics people looking to me to point out the Literary Observer Effect, but I'll save that for later).
Another way of describing his "status" is to consider his "state" (short for 'state of being'). Billy's status? Bleeding, crying, sitting, hurt. He feels this things, but they are not feelings.
Status is used more as a location and descriptor. It tells us about where the character is in relative space and experience. A character may be conscious, unconscious, bleeding, drunk, falling, speaking, praying.....and a lot of other gerunds and nouns.
I have tried, while writing this, to find a single line I can create for this, but I find the items in question to be too closely related.
Emotions are felt in reaction to experience.
Statuses are felt or occur in response to action.
Statuses are felt or occur in response to action.
A status can lead to an emotion (I am single now, so I cry a lot). And emotions can lead to statuses. (I am scared, so I act timidly) Knowing that the two are related, but individually different helps you shape characters both as single-standing creations and also within the context of your writing.
I hope this helps. Keep writing, we'll talk soon.
"Suzie watched her dog get hit by a car and die. Tears poured down her face as she sat on the curb."
ReplyDeleteNow I would argue that Suzie crying is both a status and an emotion. She is experiencing mental pain and anguish seeing her pet get squished. But her crying is also expressing an emotion, as she knows her pet suffered and is no longer with her.
Sooo, in this instance, can it be both, am I missing something, or am I just dwelling on semantics?
Crying is what she's doing. The emotion is the sadness that we see demonstrated as crying.
ReplyDeleteThe anguish is the implied emotion (since you didn't outright say it existed, we have to imagine its presence).
Actions are not emotions.