Into the Fire

Passionate thoughts about the world of writing and the Power of God

 

                           
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If your characters aren't emotional, what are they? If you write thrillers, there better be some heavy-duty tension going on with those characters. Yes, we've all read of the psychopaths who exhibit serious control and rarely react except possibly in rage when something goes haywire, but if we create static characters short on emotions, well . . . not very interesting scenarios where they're involved.

As you all know, I love Vince Flynn's master CIA operative Mitch Rapp. One of a kind character who, as well trained as he is to handle every possible situation with control, he's a highly emotional man. If you want to get to the core of this character, read Consent to Kill – preferably in sequential order of this series to get the full impact.

I can write emotional scenes. I feel them in my bones. If I have no other writing strengths, I can do emotion. Now emotion won't get you a whole novel. But without emotion, you don't have a novel.

 

Father, you are the Author of emotion. We see it first in you. You've warned us that our fleshly emotions can't rule us, but you give us our passion. Thank you for sharing your heart with us. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

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2 responses to ““Don’t get emotional”?”

  1. BK Jackson (@BKJacksonAZ) Avatar

    Timely topic for me. After a year layoff of doing no writing whatsoever, I pulled out the first draft manuscript I completed in March 2012 to give it a first read through. I was reading a passage last night and thinking “Oye. Has no emotional zip whatsoever.”
    For me though, I find that the less certain I am of the direction I want a character to take, the more wishy washy and emotionless the scene is. I had problems the whole time I wrote that manuscript, knowing I hadn’t made some specific decisions about some things in the characters lives. Now I’ve got to clean all that up–including making it pack a powerful emotional punch.

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  2. Nicole Avatar

    Time away is therapeutic to writing. If we have the emotion to dive back into it, chances are we’ll create the emotion needed when ours was waning because of indecision about character direction or just plain tedium. Whatever we need to do, it has to contain enough emotion to, as you say, pack a punch.

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