Characters Who Kick Ass... Emotionally

Main characters who are intense and aggressive and filled with vim and vigor, who punch first and may not ask questions at all, who get in in the villain's face and shake an angry fist while escaping the 13th death trap today, who climb mountains and ride dragons and drive swords through demonspawn... well, those heroes... we know all about what makes them tick and how to put all that energy and action on to the page. (If not, check out the bulk of the tutorials and roundtables on the blog.)

But what about those times when that energy and action needs to be less, well... actiony... and a lot more subtle. What about those heroes who are heroes of the heart and warriors of words? How do you do that exactly as a writer?

How important is it to present intensity of the mind and emotions in your characters (main or otherwise)? Why?

Jen Mulvihill: Super important, yes. My characters must grow and become who they are meant to and the best way to show that is through emotions.

Nikki Nelson-Hicks: It's very important to show the deeply held intention of the character so if they go against the grain and break their own code, it is a clue that Uh oh! something is up and cranks up the tension. 

Bobby Nash: I think it all depends on the story and/or the characters. Not every character is the same. Some are more intense than others so, for those characters, it is more important. For me, it all starts with character. Once I get to know my characters, once they become real, live, living, breathing, talking, feeling characters, I do whatever I can to make sure they are well represented as such. When I put Tom Myers or Abraham Snow through hell, which I do often, I want to make sure the reader cares.

Gordon Dymowski: Showing emotion in a lead character is critical; after all, part of the joy of fiction is relatability. Even in a straightforward action piece, readers need (and want) to connect with characters. It's easy to get lost in high drama, but crafting an effective story means creating a character who answers the reader's question, "Why should I bother?" 

Mark Bousquet: It is the most important. All the punching and kicking is just that unless the characters have an emotional investment in the outcome of the fight.

Selah Janel: For me, it's very important. I want my characters to have something going on beneath the surface, whether that's intelligence or an emotional life people relate to. I write a lot of nonhuman characters, so having that thinking, feeling element up front is always on mind. Action is fine, action is great, but I want there to be connection between my characters and readers, so sometimes I have to dig deep and think outside the box to get there.

Bill Craig: Most read for escapism, go have an emotionally tense character captures the reader. But you have to layer the character in order to show what they are like underneath the face they show the world.

In action writing, it's easy to show physical intensity through fights, daring escapes, even failed escapes -- but how do you translate that intensity to the realm of the heart and the mind within your characters?

Selah Janel: I do show a lot of thoughts on the page - sometimes this works better than others. Too much interior tight can distract from the action and get exposition heavy. Otherwise, for me it's about giving the characters emotional stakes that will affect them. Sometimes it's a balancing act: too much can get melodramatic and exhausting, too little and it doesn't serve the purpose. I try to keep in tune with my characters and draw from my own emotions amd experiences to keep a semblance of emotional realism.

Bobby Nash: How does the character deal with fights, escapes, success, and failure? It all starts with character. Once I know the character, I will know how they feel about losing or winning. I trust that they will show me their emotions so I can share them with the readers. In prose, a lot of this happens through the point of view character’s thoughts. POV can also show how one character perceives the emotions of other characters as well, which gives insight into the POV character. The way Rick Ruby perceives his secretary, Edie, dealing with a problem tells you a lot about him as well as her, especially if he misinterprets things, which he is wont to do. Action tells a lot about the character. Does he or she crack jokes in the ace of danger or are they serious? Spider-man and Batman do not react to their villains in the same way, for example. That comes from character.

Bill Craig: You have to write a vivid description of what they a thinking or feeling eg. Every muscle burned with strain as he fought his way back up the cliff face. Hannigan knew that the odds of him making it were slim, but he had to try. To give up meant to give into weakness. Giving into weakness meant he would die! 

Mark Bousquet: I get into trouble with this one because I think I tend to both overcomplicate and oversell. Doing both tends to slow down the narrative and make my prose run over the melodramatic edge. A little goes a long way here, I think. I try to make sure readers know the stakes for the characters, and make sure the characters are showing the pressure of the emotions on their decision-making process.

Gordon Dymowski: Demonstrating intensity and drive in a lead character can be done through behavior: do they stop, listen, and then suddenly look around? If they're putting on a coat, are they deliberate or do they jab their arms into the sleeves? When they stop, are they full in the moment and aware of how their heart is pumping, how they're breathing, and other behaviors? Although I have no problem with "thought balloons" in the text (and many editors do), the best way to demonstrate intensity in a character is through describing their large and small behaviors.

Nikki Nelson-Hicks: Since Jake is done in a First Person POV, you get to hear his thoughts and know how he's feeling. That's a bit of a cheat, I guess. I think if you show the character losing or giving away something they desire for the Greater Good (i.e. Casablanca), that resonates to the reader.

Jen Mulvihill: In the Steel Roots series the story is written in first person present tense so the reader knows exactly how the character feels during the action. With the Elsie Lind series I use point of view and conversation to reflect how the characters feel and felt at the time of the actions.

How do you avoid the mistakes of either going overboard (and making your over-emotional character almost a parody) or not going far enough (and leaving your character a stereotype or one-note)?

Bill Craig: You have to make their feelings real so they will resonate with the reader, allowing the reader to be emotionally invested in both the character and the story.

Jen Mulvihill: There is a fine line when writing characters and I use the old adage "walk a mile in their shoes," but with my characters as real people. I take a real person and study them and then I use this to write them doing my best to put myself in their position and from their perspective. I think it helps for a writer to take acting lessons and learn how to be a different person then you can add that to your imagination to bring out the characters. I hope that makes sense.

Nikki Nelson-Hicks: I try to keep a balance and the best way to do that is through my editors and beta readers. No one works in a vacuum and a great editor will pull you out of a quagmire.

Gordon Dymowski: Much of this is through editing, revision, and proofreading. (Beta readers can also help if you give them the proper guidance). Thinking of behavior in terms of a "use of force continuum" helps - if I can match a lead character's reaction to the appropriate situation, that makes for an easier read. (Having a private eye start firing away when served soup in a restaurant is an overreaction; having a gangster take aim at that same private eye is an appropriate reaction). It also helps to think of characters as people rather than archetypes, and that crafting grounded (if fantastic) characters is more rewarding to the reader - and the writer - than cutting and pasting names into all-too-easy narrative tropes.

Selah Janel: Editing. I also pay close attention to what's actually needed in the scene. I took a lot of acting classes in college, so I also fall back on sense memory and try to link up character response with things I've been through to keep a sense of honesty, even if it's run through a genre filter. There has to be that sense of 'of course this character would act like this' or 'wow, this really gets me,' even if the situation and character aren't necessarily relatable.

Bobby Nash: I trust the characters to get me where I need to go. If I have fleshed the characters out correctly and paid attention to what they say and do correctly, then I feel confident that they won’t delve into parody, unless that’s the goal. Avoiding stereotypes is tricky. They exist for a reason and some characters in fiction, as in real life, fall into those stereotypical roles. If I have a character who does, then I own it. It gets pointed out that he’s behaving this way or someone calls the character out for being predictable. You’ve acknowledged it, which takes away it’s negative power, then you move on.

Mark Bousquet: For me, this is where the second, third, fourth, etc. drafts really come in. Because I'll oversell emotions all the time in the first draft, it's really up to the subsequent drafts to reign that in. What I like to do, after the first draft is completed, is (to borrow a cooking term) boil off the excess and reduce the characters down to the proper flavor they need for that story.