Writers in the Storm

 

   

Becca Puglisi

I firmly believe that while readers sometimes do connect with our stories, they more often fall in love with our characters. If we want to really pull readers in, we’ve got to make each protagonist relatable and easy to connect with.

This can be a tall order when you consider that each reader is different. Their geographic location, individual circumstances, personal experiences—no one character can encapsulate all of that for every person who picks up your book. But there’s one thing that every reader and character do have in common: emotion.

No matter who the reader is or what they’ve been through, they’ve experienced the same emotions as the character. The circumstances may be different, but they will connect on some level to a character exhibiting the feelings they’ve felt at important moments in life. For this reason, it’s super important to write a character’s emotions consistently and believably so they ring true with readers. As with many other areas of writing, the best way to do this is through showing that emotion rather than telling it. But before we can write about the character’s feelings, we need to know how those feelings will manifest. In short, we need to establish the character’s emotional range.

Each person (and therefore, each character) has a unique way of expressing their feelings, meaning you can have two people in the same situation and they’ll respond differently. If we’re going to consistently write a character’s emotions, we need to first know her baseline—how she reacts to the normal, everyday things that happen. To figure that out, ask the following questions:

Is My Character Demonstrative or Reserved?

Think of emotional range as a spectrum: a straight line with RESERVED at one end and DEMONSTRATIVE on the other. Where does your character fall on this line? A demonstrative character has bigger reactions while a reserved character plays it closer to the vest. They feel the same emotions, but they exhibit them differently.

Consider the lovely but fairly mundane event of receiving flowers at work. A reserved character is likely to smile when it happens. Maybe she’ll hug herself, gaze at the beautiful flowers with a silly grin on her face, and shoot off a quiet email to thank the sender. In contrast, a demonstrative character screeches as the delivery person walks in. She may jump up and hug him. She slaps her thighs and laughs out loud, then takes her flowers on a victory lap around the office to show them to everyone.

Same situation, but different responses based on the character’s emotional range. When you know where your character falls on that spectrum, you’ll have a good idea of what her responses will be to the normal, day-to-day things that happen. Then you can write those reactions consistently so readers will know what to expect. This builds that reader-character connection as the reader begins to get to know the character better.

Who Is She Comfortable With?

Most people don’t act the same around everyone. They’re more themselves with the people who make them feel comfortable. Whether that’s family, close friends, a co-worker, or the next-door neighbor, the character will stay true to her typical responses when she’s with those people. But as she gets less comfortable, her emotional responses will change, becoming either more inhibited or exaggerated. So examine the various people groups your character will encounter and determine how she’ll act around them. How is she with strangers? Is she sensitive around people of a specific race or political affiliation? What about people with certain physical characteristics? Examine those dynamics and the reasons behind them so you’ll know which cast members will evoke a different emotional response from her.

Who Does She Hide Her Emotions From?

When we’re feeling vulnerable, we tend to hold back emotionally. Maybe the people making your character uncomfortable can be found a little closer to home: her father-in-law, her soccer coach, her child’s third-grade teacher. The pool boy. If you’ve done your backstory work, it shouldn’t be hard to figure out why these people set the character off. If you haven’t gotten that far in your research, explore those relationships. This will provide a better understanding of how your character will depart from her baseline when she’s around certain people.

Which Emotions Does She Suppress?

One of the nuances of emotion is that not everyone is comfortable with the full range. You might have a character who’s mostly in touch with her feelings—except when it comes to fear, or anger, or sadness. At the first sign of that emotion, she hides it—possibly, only when she’s around one of the people mentioned above. This is one of those small details that, when added carefully and thoughtfully to your character’s emotional profile, can make her more realistic and familiar to readers.

Questions like these are important to consider because they define your character’s “norm.” They tell you how she’ll respond to daily stimuli so you can write her reactions consistently and realistically. This information will also tell you how hard you’ll have to push when you need a bigger emotional response and elevated conflict—which is another way to pull readers in. But that’s a post for another day.

How do you tap into your character's deepest emotions? Do you brainstorm, let it happen organically, interview them, fake it till you make it? We want to hear about your characters and your process!

Laura here, with a quick note:  I'm teaching 'Your First Five Pages' over at Savvy Authors -  Starts June 18 for two weeks, online. If you like my First Page Critique on WITS, you're gonna love this class, because we work through YOUR first 5 pages!  Check it out - http://dld.bz/gPnEK

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About Becca

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels, including the latest member of the family: The Emotional Wound Thesaurus. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling. You can find Becca online at both of these spots, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Lisa Hall-Wilson

 

Deep point of view lets your readers experience story through a virtual reality headset. Readers want to take an emotional journey alongside the main character in every scene. This style puts readers IN the story as much as possible.

To achieve this, writers have to avoid summarizing or telling how a character feels. Instead, they must present evidence to the reader about how the character feels. Not enough evidence and the reader is lost, too much and the reader is bored.

To effectively write in deep point of view, the author must know the WHY in every scene. Why did your point of view character (POVC) say that, do that, hide that, run away or stand and fight—all of it.

I’m constantly looking for a way to break things down, create an actionable process, so I can understand things. Deep point of view makes sense to me by writing in emotional layers. Every action (or in the case of fiction, every thought) has an equal and opposite reaction.

Layer 1: Primary or Basic Emotions

These are the unthinking instinctive emotions. Some examples would be: attraction, lust, disgust, joy, fear, excitement, sadness, surprise, etc. Most often, we show readers primary emotions through body language and physiology—what’s going on inside: heart rate, skin prickles, sweating, etc.

Layer 2: Emotional Triggers

Sometimes, a situation or scenario can catapult a character straight to layer 4. They won’t be able to articulate the primary emotions involved because this particular mix is their unique brand of poison. This is most often shown to readers through internal dialogue.

Layer 3: Secondary Emotions

Secondary emotions (such as anger, shame, anxiety, and love) are reactions to primary emotions.  Secondary emotions demand the character DO SOMETHING because these emotions are intense and uncomfortable and feel out of control.

Layer 4: Behavior

This is the observable part of primary and secondary emotions. This is where the fight, flight or freeze instinct would come in. Fear and surprise force a character to run away or fight back. Love forces them to hug or kiss.

In any given scene, your POVC could experience one or all of these emotional layers. Each layer may only be a couple of words – a sentence fragment. Just a word. Run! But readers will be pulled deeper into the story this way and take their own emotional journey—it may not be the same emotional journey as your POVC, but that’s OK. Your goal is to make the reader feel.

That’s a whirlwind summary of the emotional layers theory. Now, what many newer writers misunderstand about deep point of view is that each layer overlaps and is interconnected. These emotions and actions are not felt in isolation of one another. It’s like a spider’s web. Every intersection of the web is influenced by every other intersection. A tremor in a far corner of the web is felt throughout, right.

You Must Know The Why

So, getting back to the original question—the why. Why your character does things is what pulls the reader in. Readers don’t have to agree with your POVCs feelings or decisions, but they do have to understand them. In deep point of view, your POVC can’t keep secrets from the reader.

“Let go of me,” I say. I hear ringing in my ears. My voice sounds clear and stern—not what I expected to hear. I feel like it doesn’t belong to me.

I am ready. I know what to do. I picture myself bringing my elbow back and hitting him. I see the bag of apples flying away from me. I hear my running footsteps. I am prepared to act.”

- Veronica Roth, Divergent

Here, you can follow Tris’ thoughts to understand why her voice is clear when she should be scared. The reader understands why she feels the way she does, and in the next sentence we learn why she doesn’t give in to this impulse. She’s been raised to completely deny self, but in this moment of fear and surprise her ability to remain calm and have an action plan instead of just submitting to the abuse is a self-revelation and helps her make a decision.

There are plenty of readers who likely would never have this reaction to a homeless man grabbing them, but they cheer for Tris because they know this small tug is going to cause major reverb across the story web.

Make sure you come back next week where I’m going to take these concepts and explore the emotions of attraction and love and how this layering technique might work for you!

I’ve put together a free pdf for Writers in the Storm readers on the body language of attraction. You can get that here. Next Wednesday, I will be posting here at WITS on The Body Language of Love - Beyond Lust and Attraction.

I also have the free 5-day e course on writing emotions in layers that expands on the theory I’ve shared above.

July 1^st is the release of Method Acting For Writers: Learn Deep Point Of View Using Emotional Layers. Subscribe to my blog or follow the Confident Writers page on Facebook for more details.

 

Is deep point of view something you feel you need to learn or learn more about? If you've mastered it already, what tips do you have to share?

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About Lisa

Lisa Hall-Wilson was a national award-winning freelance journalist and author who loves mentoring writers. Fascinated by history, fantasy, romance, and faith, Lisa blends those passions into historical and historical-fantasy novels.

Find Lisa’s blog, Beyond Basics for intermediate writers,  at www.lisahallwilson.com.

Piper Bayard of Bayard & Holmes

The Americans, a show about undercover Soviet agents posing as Americans in the DC area during the Cold War, teaches writers solid lessons in both what it gets wrong, and what it gets right.

Since I write espionage nonfiction and fiction and partner with a senior member of the Intelligence Community, let’s look at this from the espionage angle first.

Philip (Mischa) and Elizabeth (Nadezhda) Jennings, played by Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, are the one-stop shop for all Soviet espionage needs. They run multiple operations at a time and work as everything from honeypots to assassins to grave robbers, all the while receiving frequent phone calls from “The Center” at home, where they live with their two children. Their legends have legends, and they slip in and out of various roles and disguises as if there’s no chance of ever running into their kids’ teachers at the grocery store. Philip pops in and out of a wig and facial hair so adeptly that the poor woman he dupes into a fake marriage doesn’t notice it’s not real—either the facial hair or the marriage. The Jennings even pull their daughter into the “family business.”

It’s a fun and fascinating show. It has virtually no basis in reality.

Oh, the Soviets had honeypots, assassins, thieves, surveillance teams, sleeper agents, etc. The Russians still do. But even the Russians don’t expect their spies to be jacks-of-all-trades.

Real Russians planted into American society under deep cover for the long term are serious investments, both financially and in terms of personnel. These high-value operatives would never be used for such a variety of mundane tasks as assassinations, running agents, robbing laboratories, etc. And the thirty-second disguise that fools a spouse? Hollywood is once again holding out on the government if they’ve got that one.

You’d never know it was me, right?

From an espionage standpoint, though, The Americans does nail more than a few things, but I’ll limit myself to two.

First, Philip and Elizabeth are friendly and likeable.

That is realistic. For example, a foreign-born American traitor was caught red-handed selling classified missile technology to an enemy. I can’t legally publish his name, so I’ll call him “Rat-bastard” for our purposes. After Rat-bastard was arrested, one of the most common refrains from his co-workers was, “He can’t be a spy. He came to my barbecues.” They were completely floored, and to this day, many of them are convinced the CIA and FBI just didn’t have enough to do that week, so they picked on Rat-bastard.

Foreign spies can be charming. The charming ones are far more successful than anti-social brutes named “Boris.” So if you’re writing spies that interact with the enemy undercover, give them the ability to be deadly charming . . . so to speak.

A second thing the series gets right about the characters is their brutality.

The Soviets were ruthless. They blew up busloads of school children, slaughtered towns, and even had a special branch of the KGB to take out their own agents. And though Philip and Elizabeth rack up more brutality mileage than the vast majority of real life Soviet agents did, the quality of their savagery in the series is valid. No need to hold back when writing Russians and violence. For an extra boost of reality, throw in plenty of collateral damage.

Though The Americans is not a documentary on Soviet spies, it’s a fantastic example of characters that generate passionate devotees. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Each Character is the Hero of Their Own Story

There is an idea that’s been kicked around on record since 1812 . . . Every person is the hero of their own story—you, me, the milkman, the serial killer, the corrupt politician, the saint, etc. The Americans is true to this idea with each of its characters.

Philip and Elizabeth Jennings are true believers—patriots who have committed their bodies, hearts, souls, and careers to the fight against that perceived threat. Their antagonist, FBI Special Agent Stan Beeman, is equally committed to hunting down Soviet agents on our shores. Even minor characters, such as the Jennings' daughter Paige and Soviet spy Oleg Burov, are devoted to their perception that they are changing the world for the better with their actions. They are each on their Hero’s Journey.

Since each of our readers is on their own Hero’s Journey, they sympathize with characters that are, as well, even when those characters are antagonists and anti-heroes. Every character in The Americans fits that bill.

2. Each Character has a Definable Goal

When characters have solid goals, those goals define their choices and actions, leading to logical plot lines and natural conflict.

In The Americans, Philip and Elizabeth share the goal of protecting their country, and they do so by spying. It leads them to commit all manner of murder, theft, seduction, deceit, and espionage. These actions put them in natural conflict with FBI Agent Stan Beeman, whose goal is to catch Soviet spies in order to protect the United States. Stan’s goal moves him to have an affair with a Soviet agent, kill another Soviet agent in revenge, and befriend a third one against his official orders. His actions, in their turn, lead to natural conflict with the Soviets, his own co-workers, and his family.

Well-defined goals shepherd our characters’ actions and decisions, and those actions and decisions create natural conflict and drive the plot forward.

3. Nobody’s Perfect

Characters that have no flaws that cause them to make mistakes are called caricatures. Paradoxically, our characters’ greatest flaws are often also their greatest strengths.

In The Americans, Philip is a rock star of a Soviet agent because of his capacity for self-awareness. He is brilliant at getting inside his target’s head, whether it’s his FBI agent neighbor, a middle-aged secretary he’s “courting,” or a teenage girl whose father is a high-level CIA officer. This self-awareness is also his fatal flaw. While he uses it for insight into his targets’ vulnerabilities, in the end, it’s this ability to question himself, his motives, and his country that lead him to a meeting where his cover is blown. His conscience both makes him and breaks him.

Soviet rock star Elizabeth’s great strength, as well as her undoing, is her loyalty to her country and her mission. In the name of loyalty, she performs every task with sociopathic dedication, whether it’s seducing and entrapping the enemies of her state or killing innocents who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It even leads her to offer up her own daughter on the altar of duty. In the end, it is this blind devotion that gets her caught up in a rogue political web. However, it is this same loyalty to her country that eventually causes her to question her orders and turn on her handler.

With our characters as in real life, every strength is a weakness when taken too far. When we take our characters to the brink of their own capacities, we keep our readers enthralled.

4. The Characters have Arcs

There is a saying . . . The person who is the same at forty as they were at thirty has wasted ten years. That could be modified to apply to characters. The character that is the same on Page 300 as they were on Page 1 has wasted 300 pages. The Americans doesn’t waste any “pages.”

We’ll look at Philip for an example. In the beginning, Philip is a man who married a stranger and relocated to a foreign land to have children with her and establish a life under the eyes of their enemies. He is devoted to carrying out his orders from The Center with complete professionalism and dedication. But Philip changes over the years. He becomes involved in EST, which stimulates his self-reflection. He forges a close friendship with his FBI agent neighbor. He sees his son grow into a life and opportunities he never would have had in the Soviet Union, and he genuinely falls in love with Elizabeth. He steps back from being a Soviet spy and devotes himself to his travel agency. In essence, he arrives a Soviet and becomes an American. It’s this transformation that ultimately allows him to prevail over his enemy in the end.

5. Everyone Suffers the Consequences of their Actions

As the Mark Knopfler says in his song “Everybody Pays,” “Everybody has to leave some blood here on the floor.” Everyone in The Americans—good guys and bad guys—pays the price of their choices and actions.

There is something inside we mortals that cries out for justice. We rarely get that justice in real life, so we look to stories to fulfill our need to believe that someday, somewhere, there will be a just world. The Americans does not disappoint.

I can’t give examples without blowing the finale for those who haven’t seen it, so I’ll leave it at this . . . People are messy. Life is messy. Real life is not just. When we reflect that steaming mess of humanity in our writing, letting our characters be punished and rewarded in fair measure according to their sins and virtues, we satisfy our readers’ need to believe that someday, somewhere out there, we will all live in a just world.

And isn’t that why we read? So that we can keep the dream alive?

Do you have any questions about the espionage truth and fiction of The Americans? Did you see the series? If so, what kept you coming back?

For more on Soviet agents and other aspects of espionage, see Spycraft: Essentials by Bayard & Holmes, available now at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

 

About Bayard and Holmes

Piper Bayard is an author and a recovering attorney. Jay Holmes is a forty-five-year veteran of the military and intelligence communities. Piper is the public face of their partnership. Together, Bayard & Holmes write espionage fiction and nonfiction.

To follow Bayard & Holmes, sign up for the Bayard & Holmes Covert Briefing, or find them at their site, Bayard & Holmes. You may contact them in blog comments at their site, on Twitter at @piperbayard, on Facebook at Bayard & Holmes, or by email at BH@bayardandholmes.com.