How Do You Put Feelings In Your Writing?

[NOIRTRASH]

George Gershwin said feelings are the essential element of musical composition, more important than the other elements. I agree. Feelings are what we respond to in music or reading. Its what in us resonates with the sounds and eidetic imagery words create.

I don't feel. Not fear, not pain, not love, not embarrassment, little of what most humans are mired in. I prolly should say I feel little, not nothing. But its in pennies not dollars. So, in life I respond to verbal and visual cues, and act as if I'm affected. I add such cues to my writing because I know what triggers feelings.

What do you do?

 

[NicoleZ]

What I try to do but may not always succeed in doing is to portray my characters in such a way that in them, readers recognise the person they would like to be and then, when things happen to them (which I describe factually, highlighting one or possibly two emotional responses as the chief ones), hopefully the reader will supply the whole spectrum of feelings as if it had happened to them. Conversely, "the villains" I try to portray as the antithesis so that when good/bad things happen to them, the reader experiences the anger/satisfaction.

But I have to admit the most boring thing is when the writer takes you inside the mind of the character and constantly displays each and every thought and emotion that crosses it. That's definitely not "show, don't tell" and is the reason why I absolutely detest Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye", bleurrrk!!!

 

[plesmore]

Feelings are one of the strongest pillars of human existence. It must include so many of the other elements that make us who we are, but must also be included.
I like feelings, they are my friend, even when they are hurtful to me.
Like being moved by music, stories should move the reader - sympathy, empathy, unbelief, lust, or even disgust - it does not matter as long as there is something to provoke feeling.

 

[ElectricBlue]

If you have no emotional response to anything within yourself (or very little emotional response, as you clarified), then you can have little or no empathy for another person's feelings (refer thread coupla weeks ago). It's thus impossible to explain feelings to someone who doesn't feel.

How can you know every trigger if you don't know the subtleties, the grades of emotion? The difference between a pale blue sky and a deep blue sky when describing some quality of a summer day? There's no overt "trigger" there, but there's a difference in my emotional response to the different colours. The different shades of colours are the trigger, I suppose, but the description of the different feelings evoked would require a whole palette of words.

Using any psychological scale (Mickey Mouse Meyer-Briggs etc...), I suspect I'm polar opposite to you in terms of empathy, sympathy or whatever the psychs use to describe the spectrums (spectra?), and I sure don't know all of the things that trigger my feelings. The "big" obvious ones I do, but not the little subtleties, the grace notes (to pick up the musical analogy). So you can "learn" the main triggers, but you'd miss the tiny ones, surely?

So if I was to say, go read some of my writing because there's feelings and tenderness there, wouldn't you just come away having read a bunch of words? How would you sense the feelings, the emotions in the words?

It's a conundrum, Noir, is what it is. You chasing feelings is the same as me trying to be unfeeling. It's impossible. I can have an intellectual understanding of what a cold clinical dispassionate response might be to something, but then I would immediately think of the emptiness. Emptiness is the feeling, but you might never feel it, thus never know it, yet in my mind you would have exhibited a cold, clinical response.

Round and round it goes. I suspect it's why you provide so many examples of what music does for you. It's well know that the brain responds to music in very subtle, very surprising ways; and when there are cognitive barriers of various sorts, music breaks down the most and lets deeper communication and response through.

You need to write music, Noir, not words.

Whereas me, I use words, sometimes too many, sometimes exactly the right amount. Slow burn, me, digging into the feelings... That's what I do

 

[Carnevil9]

I try to create characters that readers will empathize with, and then do nice or mean things to them. Hopefully, the readers will feel some of what the character (had they been real) would feel in those situations, because of that empathy.

 

[NicoleZ]

So if I was to say, go read some of my writing because there's feelings and tenderness there, wouldn't you just come away having read a bunch of words? How would you sense the feelings, the emotions in the words?

That was very well put! Conversely, when someone who experiences emotions intensely reads the words of someone who does not, they come away with the feeling of having been a spectator which in fact is what the "unfeeling" person is; a spectator who observes life never being part of it.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

If you have no emotional response to anything within yourself (or very little emotional response, as you clarified), then you can have little or no empathy for another person's feelings (refer thread coupla weeks ago). It's thus impossible to explain feelings to someone who doesn't feel.

How can you know every trigger if you don't know the subtleties, the grades of emotion? The difference between a pale blue sky and a deep blue sky when describing some quality of a summer day? There's no overt "trigger" there, but there's a difference in my emotional response to the different colours. The different shades of colours are the trigger, I suppose, but the description of the different feelings evoked would require a whole palette of words.

Using any psychological scale (Mickey Mouse Meyer-Briggs etc...), I suspect I'm polar opposite to you in terms of empathy, sympathy or whatever the psychs use to describe the spectrums (spectra?), and I sure don't know all of the things that trigger my feelings. The "big" obvious ones I do, but not the little subtleties, the grace notes (to pick up the musical analogy). So you can "learn" the main triggers, but you'd miss the tiny ones, surely?

So if I was to say, go read some of my writing because there's feelings and tenderness there, wouldn't you just come away having read a bunch of words? How would you sense the feelings, the emotions in the words?

It's a conundrum, Noir, is what it is. You chasing feelings is the same as me trying to be unfeeling. It's impossible. I can have an intellectual understanding of what a cold clinical dispassionate response might be to something, but then I would immediately think of the emptiness. Emptiness is the feeling, but you might never feel it, thus never know it, yet in my mind you would have exhibited a cold, clinical response.

Round and round it goes. I suspect it's why you provide so many examples of what music does for you. It's well know that the brain responds to music in very subtle, very surprising ways; and when there are cognitive barriers of various sorts, music breaks down the most and lets deeper communication and response through.

You need to write music, Noir, not words.

Whereas me, I use words, sometimes too many, sometimes exactly the right amount. Slow burn, me, digging into the feelings... That's what I do

The worst ass wguppin I ever got was after I saved a womans life.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

If you have no emotional response to anything within yourself (or very little emotional response, as you clarified), then you can have little or no empathy for another person's feelings (refer thread coupla weeks ago). It's thus impossible to explain feelings to someone who doesn't feel.

How can you know every trigger if you don't know the subtleties, the grades of emotion? The difference between a pale blue sky and a deep blue sky when describing some quality of a summer day? There's no overt "trigger" there, but there's a difference in my emotional response to the different colours. The different shades of colours are the trigger, I suppose, but the description of the different feelings evoked would require a whole palette of words.

Using any psychological scale (Mickey Mouse Meyer-Briggs etc...), I suspect I'm polar opposite to you in terms of empathy, sympathy or whatever the psychs use to describe the spectrums (spectra?), and I sure don't know all of the things that trigger my feelings. The "big" obvious ones I do, but not the little subtleties, the grace notes (to pick up the musical analogy). So you can "learn" the main triggers, but you'd miss the tiny ones, surely?

So if I was to say, go read some of my writing because there's feelings and tenderness there, wouldn't you just come away having read a bunch of words? How would you sense the feelings, the emotions in the words?

It's a conundrum, Noir, is what it is. You chasing feelings is the same as me trying to be unfeeling. It's impossible. I can have an intellectual understanding of what a cold clinical dispassionate response might be to something, but then I would immediately think of the emptiness. Emptiness is the feeling, but you might never feel it, thus never know it, yet in my mind you would have exhibited a cold, clinical response.

Round and round it goes. I suspect it's why you provide so many examples of what music does for you. It's well know that the brain responds to music in very subtle, very surprising ways; and when there are cognitive barriers of various sorts, music breaks down the most and lets deeper communication and response through.

You need to write music, Noir, not words.

Whereas me, I use words, sometimes too many, sometimes exactly the right amount. Slow burn, me, digging into the feelings... That's what I do

About 50 years ago I launched my psychology scholarship and learned a few things about humans, and people aren't all that interesting and complicated. Animals are what's marvelous, and often out perform people.

Music and writing are close cousins. Yesterday at GB I posted a musical vid of George Gershwin and his thoughts about music, inspiration, and the intellectual toil of making sounds cause feelings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lmSfD7EQxI

enjoy

 

[ChloeTzang]

But I have to admit the most boring thing is when the writer takes you inside the mind of the character and constantly displays each and every thought and emotion that crosses it. That's definitely not "show, don't tell" and is the reason why I absolutely detest Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye", bleurrrk!!!

Interesting, isn't it. I love doing that, writing 1st person and getting the reader right into the head of my protagonist. I want readers to feel what my protagonist feels, share her emotions, her thoughts, everything she perceives, thinks and feels, get right into her head and immerse themselves. That's how I write as well. Mostly, I put myself inside my character. How would I feel? How would I react if I was her? What would I say? Do? What does it feel like? When I'm writing something sad, I'll sit there crying while I write because I am her.... and I think in my stories I manage to convey that better and better.

 

[Carnal_Flower]

I agree. Nothing is more deadening than telling you what someone felt in a story.

I have problems with "show," though. I still don't know how to "show" what a person is feeling without using dialogue, which basically makes a story 90% a play. It irks me.

But I have to admit the most boring thing is when the writer takes you inside the mind of the character and constantly displays each and every thought and emotion that crosses it. That's definitely not "show, don't tell" and is the reason why I absolutely detest Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye", bleurrrk!!!

 

[ChloeTzang]

I agree. Nothing is more deadening than telling you what someone felt in a story.

I have problems with "show," though. I still don't know how to "show" what a person is feeling without using dialogue, which basically makes a story 90% a play. It irks me.

Oh, I totally agree. The challenge is to show all those feelings and all those sensory perception things without "telling" the reader. I think I'm getting there but its something I'm continually working to improve on. I try and find other writers who do it well and see how they handle it, then see how I can work those techniques in.

Sort of like "I smelt the flowers." Versus . "I closed my eyes, breathed in. Roses? Peonies? A rich scent. Thick but not cloying. A summery smell, sunlight and roses and old wood polish." Something like that, anyhow.

 

[TxRad]

How Do You Put Feelings In Your Writing?

With words. Sometimes a lot of words, sometimes just a few.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

To be honest, I don't want to show what any of my characters are feeling.

That is not my objective at all.

I want THE READER to get a feeling, catch some vibe about what's going on. I pitch the whole story to what effect I might get on certain types of people reading it - and I don't even bother to think about take into consideration anything about the interplay of the stories' characters...

That's exactly NOT how I write.

Sometimes the feeling I want a certain type of reader to get is never going to be or seem obvious to another whole group of readers, and they won't 'get' the story. Only that small segment I am targeting will or might.

People who are expecting what is normally reliable in certain 'genres' (sorry, whoever doesn't like that word) or 'categories' are not going to find it with me. There isn't a protagonist, villain, objective, conflict, resolution profile in any of my stories - not even in any book-length material.

It seems to be fairly traditional to ask the reader to observe the 'characters' in a story, and then place themselves in the dramatic situations by proxy - but that's not what I do. Sure there are people, characters, even personalities in the stories, but they're never going to be anyone people can identify THEMSELVES with, I wouldn't think.

And I think, if taken really REALLY academically - I write a kind of 'porn' rather than erotica. Okay I use big words and thousand dollar words sometimes, and I steer a little upscale in tone rather than brutal and street-life/thug-life language and idiom; but that isn't going to make it 'erotica.'

No. Now that I think about it, it's porn.

There's a lot of verbal 'camera-work,' 'lens work,' 'filter treatments,' 'edge-smoothing,' 'shadows' and er, verbal and linguistic 'photoshopping...' involved.

When you open up my stories, you know beforehand that you are opening up Playboy or Fiesta or Penthouse or the like - and the reason the chicks are in the tennis skirts is not because they are actually contesting their life-long desire to compete at sport and at tennis, no - but because I'm about to tell you that the tennis skirt we all know of today was an invention of French designer and perfumier Jean Patou...

And that the Joy of Jean Patou, is from the petals he envisaged to do with his conception of the flower.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

To be honest, I don't want to show what any of my characters are feeling.

That is not my objective at all.

I want THE READER to get a feeling, catch some vibe about what's going on. I pitch the whole story to what effect I might get on certain types of people reading it - and I don't even bother to think about take into consideration anything about the interplay of the stories' characters...

That's exactly NOT how I write.

Sometimes the feeling I want a certain type of reader to get is never going to be or seem obvious to another whole group of readers, and they won't 'get' the story. Only that small segment I am targeting will or might.

People who are expecting what is normally reliable in certain 'genres' (sorry, whoever doesn't like that word) or 'categories' are not going to find it with me. There isn't a protagonist, villain, objective, conflict, resolution profile in any of my stories - not even in any book-length material.

It seems to be fairly traditional to ask the reader to observe the 'characters' in a story, and then place themselves in the dramatic situations by proxy - but that's not what I do. Sure there are people, characters, even personalities in the stories, but they're never going to be anyone people can identify THEMSELVES with, I wouldn't think.

And I think, if taken really REALLY academically - I write a kind of 'porn' rather than erotica. Okay I use big words and thousand dollar words sometimes, and I steer a little upscale in tone rather than brutal and street-life/thug-life language and idiom; but that isn't going to make it 'erotica.'

No. Now that I think about it, it's porn.

There's a lot of verbal 'camera-work,' 'lens work,' 'filter treatments,' 'edge-smoothing,' 'shadows' and er, verbal and linguistic 'photoshopping...' involved.

When you open up my stories, you know beforehand that you are opening up Playboy or Fiesta or Penthouse or the like - and the reason the chicks are in the tennis skirts is not because they are actually contesting their life-long desire to compete at sport and at tennis, no - but because I'm about to tell you that the tennis skirt we all know of today was an invention of French designer and perfumier Jean Patou...

And that the Joy of Jean Patou, is from the petals he envisaged to do with his conception of the flower.

GENRE is a mule, both fish and fowl.

 

[NicoleZ]

I agree. Nothing is more deadening than telling you what someone felt in a story.

Off topic, sort of:

I have to admit that there is something that's a whole lot worse and that's those arty-farties who write in second person and dictate to you what you see, feel, hear, sense, taste, smell, think, like, dislike, cherish, hate, revile, adore, want, desire, abhor (etc) - BLEEEEEEEUURRK!!!

These eGits mistakenly believe that because they write in the second person, theirs is automatically an artistic masterpiece. Thanks but NO thanks! It's bad enough with lawmakers and Government agencies telling you what you must/must not do.

 

[Wifetheif]

How Do You Put Feelings In Your Writing?

With words. Sometimes a lot of words, sometimes just a few.

It really depends upon the point of view. I really don't see how you can tell a story in the first person without relating what the characters are actually feeling.The trick is to not make it tedious. NO ONE cares about every last emotion. In a story, I just posted (It is not up yet) I place a contemporary woman in an alternate earth where she is enslaved. Slaves, in this culture, are fitted with collars and nanobots that control their emotions and inflict pain and pleasure. In this case, our heroine realizes that she can even trust her own emotions. It's a neat way to introduce thinking about emotions painlessly.

 

[Kimikimidoll]

I fuck myself with a dildo and as I ride upon the throes of my orgasm I mash my head against the keyboard repeatedly.

No, I just watch people and how they react, I listen to them, I read, listen to music (loads of words and feelings there) and when the time comes I just write out what the character is feeling. Like taking down diction. I usually don't like writing about feelings.