Ways To Write Effective Emotions (a cheat sheet of sorts)

I was having a really bad day the other day, the kind where a lot of things kept going wrong – and all of a sudden it was starting to look like the whole rest of the world wasn’t the problem, I was.   I hate when that happens.   And worse, it wasn’t a “this is pissing me off” sort of bad day, where you can get good and angry, It was a “things are going wrong and I can’t stop it” bad day. A “I feel low” kind of day. Sad. I probably got some bad reviews or something. (See how to deal with that HERE  https://atomic-temporary-57188753.wpcomstaging.com/2015/04/03/the-sting-of-a-few-bad-reviews/ )

(We created a list of words for FEAR right HERE for you)

So I wanted to go home and work out, because venting physically is good when you’re stressed. Then I’d find a funny movie to watch afterward because laughing vents stress also.   Your concerns about my stress abundance and methods of dealing with it are duly noted, doctor.   So as I was driving home, I thought, you know what? One of my characters will be feeling bad in a story I’m writing some day; maybe I should try to describe this feeling to myself and then that will help me capture the essence of that feeling for that character at that time. Smart, huh? I’m a firm believer in using real emotions that we’re actually feeling, and trying to capture them for the written page.  

We choose different words when we’re happy than we do when we’re sad, and I believe some of that comes across in the writing. I’ve been told that certain passages in my books really hit home with people, and to me it’s because I was laying my soul bare at those moments. (We writers can be an emotional bunch. Might as well us it to our advantage.)   Plus, using writing as a way to avoid the treadmill is a favorite pastime of mine.  

So I picked up my cell phone and left myself an email using talk-to-text. When I got home, I looked at it. It needed to be deciphered a little, but when I was finished, this is what I had.  

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I feel so… sad. I keep feeling like I can’t take a deep breath, like my heart isn’t beating fully or something. I have an invisible weight on my chest and I can’t stand up straight. I feel small. I’m being nice to people in traffic for no reason. The feeling in my stomach emanates out from my slouched shoulders in a light sweat pungent with a faint aroma of fear. Any minute somebody’s gonna sneak up behind me and hit me for no reason. I know it, and I can’t stop them. No one speaks my language, no one understands, no one wants to understand. No one notices.    

It’s a little flowery (hey, I’m not Robert De Niro), but I like the way I ran it all together. It almost feels soulless. I envision mass suicides as my readership embraces my dark inner thoughts. Which would be bad for my click-through rate.   

At some time in the future, this somber diatribe will come in handy. I’ll use a few lines from this and it will help me paint a better picture of the person who’s suffering that day. If you’re in a good mood as you read this, it’ll bounce off you and not really take. If you’re feeling down, you might think I was just reading your mind.  

And that character will probably feel very real to readers because I captured the essence of how I felt on a day I was feeling sad.  

You know what they say: turn your lemons into lemonade.  

And if that doesn’t work, add some rum.

 

Screw the treadmill.

  Enjoy my writing brilliance in all its glory on my Author Page HERE http://www.amazon.com/Dan-Alatorre/e/B00EUX7HEU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1 and find out about the release of my new book “25 Great eBook Marketing Tips You Wish You Knew” by emailing me at savvystories@outlook.com and I’ll let you know when you can get a free advance copy! Shh! Don’t tell.