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Paula thinks about how
readers empathise with characters.
Empathy is defined as ‘the ability to understand and share
the feelings of another’, and this is exactly how we want our readers to react
to the characters in our stories. We want them to engage with the characters,
experience their emotions, and as a result, care about what happens to them.
How do we achieve this? Unless we empathise with our characters, we can’t expect the reader to do
so. We need to know them, put ourselves in their shoes, and live the story with
them. If we let ourselves feel everything that a character feels, then our
readers will feel it too. It goes without saying that those feelings must be
shown, and not simply ‘told’ to the reader. If a character is angry, don’t
simply say ‘she was furious’. Think about a time when you were angry. How did
you feel? What did you do? Now show what your character does and feels, while
keeping them ‘in character’, of course.
What about the times your character is experiencing
something you’ve never encountered? Imagination is always good. In Irish Inheritance, my hero and heroine are
in a large Victorian house at night during a power cut. They hear a loud crash
from downstairs and make their way down the stairs with only a small
flashlight. Now that’s never happened to me, but in my imagination I lived the
whole scene with them. It was late at night when I was writing it, and my heart
was thumping like mad. I even found myself glancing nervously over my shoulder
a couple of times.
There are, of course, many ‘universal emotions’ which we’ve
all felt at some time in our lives – fear, sadness, anger, even jealousy or
loneliness, and hopefully happiness, excitement, anticipation etc. Therefore,
even if you have never experienced a specific event, you probably have another
experience you can relate it to. If, for example, the heroine is nervously
waiting to audition for a TV drama, think about a time when you were nervously
waiting for something e.g. an interview for a job. Harness the memory of your
own emotions, and project them to your character and their situation.
Showing the characters’ reactions in a realistic way helps
readers to empathise with them and relate the emotions to their own
experiences.
Good advice Paula. We need to be inside our character's head and BE that person.
ReplyDeleteNow I wonder where I've heard those words before, Carol? ;-)
DeleteAbsolutely true. I was always taught to show not tell and it works beautifully.
ReplyDeleteI would expand that to feel and and then show :-)
DeleteTo help with the whole 'show don't tell' thing, I printed out a bunch of lists on body language and how our bodies react in certain situations. It really comes in handy for when I put my characters into situations I've never experienced.
ReplyDeleteThe Emotion Thesaurus is good for body language, but I wish it gave more 'internal sensations' in addition to the long lists of physical signals of different emotions. I'm more interested in how a character feels than in what they do!
DeleteExcellent advice. You really need to feel everything your character feels.
ReplyDeleteThanks, and yes, I feel it is essential. It is the key to bringing a story alive and making the characters seem real to the reader.
DeleteI refer to the Emotional Thesaurus often for ideas on showing emotion through body language. I try not to use verbatim what is in it, but it often triggers inspiration.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I use Emotional Thesaurus as a guide to the physical signals, I tend to rely more on my own imagination/experiences for the internal sensations of my characters, since I think these are more important than the external physical reactions in helping the reader to engage with the characters and feel what they are feeling.
Delete