wine on the keyboard

Emotion

by Kay~Kacey on 6/21/2005

in keeping with my blog posts on actual writing… :blah: Let’s talk about emotion. Conveying it. Use of it in dialogue tags. Do you have favorite lines you use for:

fear–something more original than her heart pounded 🙄
lust–
love…that flip flop heart thing
tired–
any other emotion–

I find when I revise that I use almost the same lines sometimes to convey the same emotion. 🙄 and have to whack myself over the head to change them :wallbash:

Do you have any lines you use over and over and want to smack yourself silly for using…yet again :mad2:

Can you remember a perfect line you’ve written that really conveys your character’s emotion and fits their characterization perfectly??

I know I need more work on adding emotion to my writing. Any tips, hints? It seems like I either use too little…or so much it sounds melodramatic :crazy2:

Amy K June 21, 2005 at 9:16 pm

Ugh ugh ugh, I overuse the same ones too. I need to make a note to myself to watch out for this during the editing/rewriting phrase.

Um, no, I don’t recall any great phrases I’ve come up with. And I’ll be back to see if anyone else has some tips!

Michelle June 22, 2005 at 5:35 am

I am terrible about using the same lines. His blood pulsed through his veins. Ugh, ugh, ugh.

But one that I actually liked what when the hero described the heroine like crystal, conveying how fragile she was. :coffee2:

Margery June 22, 2005 at 7:14 am

Sorry, no tips from me, but I’ll watch with interest to see what others can offer. I struggle with writing emotion and romance every single day. My characters are always smiling, frowning or sliding glances at each other. :wallbash:

Mary June 22, 2005 at 8:36 am

I use different (yet the same lines) lines for different books. It drives me crazy. My critique partner usually points it out (red face.) Ugh, writing is hard.:blah:

Rene June 22, 2005 at 2:49 pm

My hero and heroine will shrug, sigh and roll their eyes until you think they have some kind of syndrome. I catch it in the revisions, but it irritates me that I do it at all. I try to use dialogue and action as much as possible to convey emotion.

Tori June 22, 2005 at 5:27 pm

My characters sigh, glare, and laugh a LOT. Drives me nuts!

Brenda Bradshaw June 23, 2005 at 7:10 am

Oh yeah, mine are big sighers and frowners. When you find the secret to expanding this, will you share with us?! We’ll feed you chocolate. Lots. Promise.

Steph T. June 23, 2005 at 10:13 am

While editing the current WIP, my CP said to me – ‘everyone is smiling. He smiled, she smiled, wide smiles, small smiles…no one is supposed to be that damned happy.’:rofl:

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