As a writer we all know that emotions has an important role to play with our writing. If a film shown on a screen fails to give them emotional journey, it won't create great imapct as an art piece.
But while writing, treatment would be different.
Sometimes it helps us to draw the picture how it would feel while writing based on what we actually feel during that time. And that is the best trick ever. Since we all have planned work, we can't use this trick on daily basis.
When it works, it works but when we don't have the same emotions within us while writing as per the demand of current draft it becomes difficult to come up with a productive day.
Emotions requires to get balanced. Understanding and managing our emotions is the only way to get the most from each day.
How to manage our emotions?
HAPPINESS:
In writing : Let it flow through dialogues, dance moves , food and make it feel in the environment.
While writing: Dopamine releases more positivity. Make sure you use it while cracking the most tough blank pages.
SADNESS :
In writing : Silence speaks better here. Teary eyes, empty rooms filled with loneliness, deep ignorance etc.
While writing : This will give you depressed vibe and steal your whole productive day ending by doing nothing. This is the time where 'show up no matter what' fits perfectly.
ANGER :
In writing: Anger can give power to your character. Show it as a fuel of character to move the story, sometimes destroy the image and sometimes show that it is danger.
While writing : Frustration can harm your wise thoughts and will drain your energy. Better you avoid this situation by reminding yourself that you can't afford to waste your energy which is required for your writing.
FEAR :
In writing or While writing, it will always demotivate the protagonist either your lead character of story or you in real life character. One should feel fear but one should not allow that fear to take a permanent place in your mind. Feel it once and prepare yourself stronger than earlier.
What's your thoughts on this ? Is this relevant to you all?
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I haven't thought about this, Priya Mistry. Thanks for the idea. When I write, I usually feel the same whether it's a Horror, Action, Comedy, etc. Sometimes I'll get happy, feel sad, etc., but it's rare.
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I think it helps better to imagine the emotion outside of it than be immersed in it. For actors, I'd say the opposite because they are in the moment but even they need to have the outside perspective to avoid schizophrenia.
Imagining emotions helps us interact with people. If we're on top of the world and are interacting with a friend who's on the bottom, we need to imagine from our own negative experiences what they are going through as well as listen to and tap into their present experience. The ability to be in the emotion from a vantage point of extraimagination is the best formula for self-control as well as good writing. Admittedly that's hard because many emotions pass through us at each moment that can unhinge us or dilute the story.
But we are called on to imagine several emotions in a group setting so it's important to have strong character foundations and strong character arcs so that when the time comes, we're expert at scripting the appropriate emotion for our character at each given moment.
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Wow, just this morning I was working my way through a scene cutting into the emotional meat, so to speak, and felt myself pulled into the emotion. Definitely not my typical experience. I usually opt for staying grounded and writing without music of any other outside influences to make sure the scene builds in the intended way. Strange.
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I usually feel the same when writing, usually happy, whether that's a poem, a song, or a play that is comedy, drama, horror, sometimes a mixture. There were times when I did feel sad while writing my reincarnation play as I based some scenes on my own memories, but other than that, the only other time I remember feeling sad was while doing some songwriting about historical events. Feeling sad while writing is thankfully quite rare.
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Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone. It’s been really cool to see how you guys write. This post reminds me of this really cool webinar that we did on creating your characters with enneagrams… figured I’d share it because you guys might find it interesting https://www.stage32.com/education/products/the-shortcut-to-creating-unique-and-authentic-characters-you-didnt-know-you-needed-the-enneagram
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Thank you Amanda Toney
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Haley Mary, that's great that you rarely feel sad while writing and most of the time it's your happy hours. More good luck with your happy writing!!!!!!
Andrés Yang
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Marc Ginsburg, thank you so much for your wonderful advice. I feel this actually works.
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Maurice Vaughan, you're welcome. Yes this often happens to feel the same when we sit to imagine and write.
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You described emotions beautifully, but there’s one problem with all of them — they can’t really be controlled. You can’t control fear, you can’t control love, loneliness, and so on. And you can’t just switch them on and off either.
I think the best a writer can do is imagine what their character is feeling in that moment. But actually feeling it on demand, at the snap of a finger, is almost impossible.
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Thanks Aleksandr Rozhnov
Aleksandr Rozhnov