The Emotion Amplifier: A Writer's Guide to Character Stress and Volatility
Second Edition
Becca Puglisi
First annotation on .
11 quotes
Section 6
- Characters who bottle up their feelings create two challenges for writers. First, readers may have trouble connecting with them and what they’re going through. It’s hard to empathize with a character who’s hiding their feelings; without that rapport, sooner or later, readers will close the book and move on. Writers must find ways to convey what characters are really feeling, even when the characters themselves are afraid to embrace those emotions.May 24 2024 7:35AM
- The second challenge is that characters who repress their emotions tend to struggle to examine their deeper feelings and do the internal work needed to evolve. Without personal growth, their emotional blocks may continue to hold them back, preventing them from achieving what they want most, be it close relationships, meaningful goals, or self-acceptance. It’s no easy task to get a character to examine their own vulnerabilities, but this is what has to happen for their internal journey to unfold.May 24 2024 7:35AM
Section 7
- Amplifiers are useful for introducing friction and making a character more reactive, which puts their true feelings on display. But they have an additional superpower: shining a light on contradictions within a character that create significant mental distress.May 24 2024 7:40AM
- This tension is called cognitive dissonance, the psychological discomfort caused by contradicting thoughts, perceptions, values, or beliefs, and it’s quite common. It may present as a small niggle in your everyday decision-making or a haunting problem that keeps you up at night.May 24 2024 7:40AM
- Another form of internal contradiction is emotional dissonance, where you find yourself pretending to feel an emotion that doesn’t align with what you’re experiencing—for instance, faking enthusiasm about your boss’s terrible marketing strategyMay 24 2024 7:41AM
- Here, the divide between your true feelings (contempt and shock) and the emotion you’d need to fake (confidence) is much wider. Whichever you express reveals your identity: Are you the sort of person who does what’s right or what makes money?May 24 2024 7:42AM
- Emotional dissonance raises the stakes by challenging their view of themselves, creating confusion, uncertainty, or regret.May 24 2024 7:42AM
- But inner conflict is called conflict for a reason: the character is pulled in different directions and doesn’t know what to do. When the right or best decision means a harder road, the choice becomes even more difficult.May 24 2024 7:48AM
- Introducing an amplifier at an emotional crossroads applies the additional strain needed to force a character to deal with their discomfort rather than hide from it.May 24 2024 7:48AM
- Difficult decisions usually carry a price tag—in this case, pain for either Silva or her friends. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but there’s no way to avoid it. And one way or the other, she’s being forced to sacrifice friendship, integrity, or both.May 24 2024 7:54AM
- However, amplifiers are a double-edged sword. As they squeeze a character, forcing them to address their situation and the dissonance it’s caused, amplifiers simultaneously charge the character’s emotions, making rational thought a challenge. This complicates the weighing-and-measuring process. As the strain increases, the character may start looking for an easy way out. A reflexive choice—cutting corners, compromising, surrendering the decision-making duty to someone else—creates a bigger mess down the road that must eventually be dealt with.May 24 2024 7:55AM