Writing emotions - anger

[Beth Pavell]

I was going to put this in General Writing Questions, but it occurs to me that there's no easy answer to it so I suppose it's better suited to be a discussion.

So I've been looking at this topic for a while now in my own writing, and it's lead to an unexpected sticking point - how to write about a character feeling angry, however varied the intensity (From merely annoyed right up to breathing fire). The usual received wisdom when it comes to practically anything in writing is to show rather than outright tell. However, when you're writing from a close point of view that's not so easy as it sounds. I mean, you can show anger easily enough through dialogue. Actions, too, work. The whole thing becomes more difficult when you need the emotion but not necessarily the character expressing it.

Before now I've used physiological reactions to show it, though I'm not at all sure how well they've worked. I've begun to wonder whether this is one of those situations that breaks the usual rule - in other words, that telling is probably going to work better - but I can't help but also wonder whether that'll have much of an impact.

So here's the question I pose now - as a reader, what techniques do you find work best?

 

[Felly]

I feel like emotions in general, not just anger, are something I struggle with. It's easy for me (and anyone, really) to say "Melanie is mad" or "Melanie is happy," but showing it is an entirely different story.

I think at the most basic level, I go with facial expressions. Smiling usually equates to happiness, or at least happier feelings. Frowning is the opposite; it equates to sadness, or unhappier feelings. That, at the very least, would get the point across, but maybe not all of the time. I think dialogue can certainly help, but I dunno. I feel like maybe sometimes the intention could get lost in the text if it's not clear enough that the character is expressing a certain emotion. I definitely feel like some sort of combination of actions and dialogue would be the best way to convey emotions, whether it be anger or just any emotion, in a story.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to practice and reading other stories (and taking the advice reviewers give you!) to help you improve your own skills at writing emotion.

 

[Xel Yel]

This is an interesting question you've posed. Personally, I never think of my characters as simply 'angry' or 'happy': rather, I always try to see them as "angry at something/someone, because of this/these reasons." The way I then try to convey emotions becomes, quite obviously, to let my characters express the thoughts that make them feel a certain way, be that they do it clearly or they hide it.

Think about this: when you are angry, your mind doesn't just go "RAWRRR! ANGER!", rather it goes like "I can't believe it! How could he do this to me? I trusted him!/ I told her it wasn't going to end well, but she just wouldn't listen to me! And now she's even blaming me for that?! It's her fault, not mine!". These are just very basic examples, as Anger (as well as any other emotions) can come from so many different and varied sources/causes. So basically, show the chain of thoughts which make someone angry, don't just tell they are.

I believe the rule "Show, don't Tell" means exactly this. After all, 'Anger' and other emotion's nouns are just that, names, that means little by themselves: channel these emotions through your characters, and they'll be much more powerful.

But then you may ask, why words like Anger exist in the first place, if they don't mean much by themselves? My answer would be that that's generally the way someone else perceives a person's thoughts. So within the context of a story I find that if a character is speaking to himself, he should not think of him simply as angry, but when another character looks at someone, then yes, he finds that person angry. In short, this is how I would reword the rule above:
"The narrator should show, the characters should tell," (and when they tell they should relate what they see to their own feelings).

Now of course this is not an absolute, but I feel it's a pretty good guideline.
-XelYel

 

[0bs1d1an_kn1ght]

Personally, I prefer to make my descriptions simple:

>Her eye twitched on its own...

>His blood boiled like lava...

>He grit his teeth until they were dust...

>Each second she heard him talk, the tighter her fist became...

Etc. It also really helps if, instead of explaining their facial expression, you describe their body language.

 

[UselessBytes]

For me, it depends on the situation. If I'm writing anger in a comical situation, I tend to go for the more humorous descriptions like, well, breathing fire and steam blowing out of the character's nostrils. If it's more serious, I prefer to display it through actions and dialogue. For example, in a Pokemon fic, I was writing a battle for a character who is normally upbeat and showy, but was furiously pissed off in the particular scene. Normally when I write his battles, they're fast and flashy and exciting, with all his quips and comments thrown in, but for the angry battle he was direct and to the point, and the battle went slower and was much less flashy and not at all over-the-top

 

[henrymidfields]

I'm still learning the ropes in writing my partial case of fanfic, through my LP of FE Fates Conquest. Two examples that I used to depict anger/agitation, both in the same scene:

Spoiler

(Iago speaks to President Roosevelt) "Oh? Well, with due respect, sir, I do have a duty to not let that mutt [Kamui/Corrin] step out of-"

"Shall we make ourselves even clearer?" I looked around and saw Beruka and Camilla arming their weapons. I could see that they are more than displeased with Iago's obnoxious behaviour.

"Hey! Camilla, Beruka, back off!", General Marshall roared. "Iago! You too. Leave now!"

"Uhh, y-yes sir!", Iago stammered as he set afoot.

In the first case, being Camilla and Beruka being mildly angry, I wrote their quote (in red), followed by an observation (written in yellow) from the first-person narrator (in this case, Kamui/Corrin).

For the second case immediately after, General George Marshall, being more agitated, would use direct, commanding language in his red quote, and I also used "roared" to describe the way (and intensity) of how General Marshall spoke. In addition, right after the said description, I also depicted Iago acting intimidated by General Marshall (written in light blue), further illustrating the point that Marshall is very much upset/displeased/angry.

Admittedly, there could be better ways to depict anger than the one above. Of course, for something more comedic - say Selena complaining to Laslow of his womanising habits, or say Misty arguing with Ash in a Pokémon story, I may go for a more exaggerated quotes and descriptions/observation notes of characters.[/spoiler]