Experiment with emotions/expressions

In the writer’s quest to show and not tell body language plays an important role. Slumped shoulders, shoulders thrown back, shrugged shoulders—they all say something without words. Facial expressions show universal emotions—body language understood around the world. They convey happiness, sadness, fear, pride, surprise, disgust, anger, sadness, and more. You might call it a universal language and one your readers will understand. For this prompt I've provided the following list to help spur your creativity. Remember to choose strong verbs to show the action.

Face emotion

• Eyes: damp, wide, close, pointing down, raised, wide and staring, cast down, tearful, staring, wide open, dilated pupils, slightly raised, steady gaze, squinting, looking away, turned away, staring at nothing, glazed over, gazing, crows-feet wrinkles
• Eyebrows: thrust together (furrowing brow), arched, one brow raised, tilted outwards with outer edges lower, wrinkled forehead
• Nose: nostrils flared, wrinkled
  
• Lips: trembling lower lip, pinched, pursed, puckered, smiling, slightly parted, pressed together, nibble lower lip, closed, pulled to the side, curled in a sneer
  
• Jaw: mouth gaping, slack jawed, tight, muscles twitching, clenched
• Chin: pulled in, jutted, chattering
  

   

  

  
  

  Today’s writing prompt: Show facial emotions

  This prompt can be for a human, animal, or even an alien lifeform. Pick your character(s) and write a short scene that shows three of these emotions. Add other details like position of the head, facial color (pale, blushing, turning purple), and gestures like tugging on hair, twirling a strand of hair, raking fingers through hair, etc. for added oomph. For bonus points, get the ears involved. Show what they hear and how they react.
  

• Anger
• Anxiety
• Boredom
• Contempt
• Desire
• Disgust
• Envy
• Fear
• Happiness
• Interest
• Pity
• Relief
• Shame
• Surprise

 

Writing for emotional impact

 
One of the most potent writing skills an author can possess is the ability to cause readers to empathize and feel with their characters. When readers choose a book they plan to be transported to a different place. Depending on the genre, it may be a different time or the same time, a different earthly culture or some alien culture, or even a whole new fantastical world. Wherever and whenever the story takes place, making that world come to life is important. One of the tools used to make that happen is the characters. Readers experience the world through the eyes of characters whether humans, animals, or some unexpected lifeforms. The details learned are filtered through what the characters hear, see, smell, touch, and taste. But along with the five senses, we learn through the characters’ emotions.

Character’s emotional responses

In real life, emotional responses influence our cognitive processes, including perception, attention, learning, memory, reasoning, and problem-solving. So as readers experience emotional responses of the character’s in your story, it creates a strong influence their on attention as it motivates the character to act in a particular way. Depending on the circumstances, emotion can either enhance or impair your character’s learning and long-term memory. All of this engages the reader to care, to speculate as to what will happen next.

Make the reader feel

Good writing makes the reader feel what your character is feeling. Imagine a character who faces a test. His/her emotional response as they anticipate the test reveals much. Do they fear? Are they anxious? Frustrated? Bored? Self-confident? Subject matter can elicit an emotional response peculiar to the character. It can even be anxiety regarding the sense of the unknown. Whatever the response, you want to make the reader feel it. This means you don’t just say they are frustrated. You show they are frustrated. They may lose their temper, drum their fingers, tap their foot, or sigh over and over. They might even get so frustrated they get up and leave. Inner dialog (thoughts) can show a lack of self-confidence. You might even show the character having trouble sleeping the night before the test, or turning to drugs or alcohol to help them calm down. Actions show the frustration and it engages the reader to feel the frustration.

Today’s Pumping Your Muse writing prompt – writing for emotional impact

Today’s writing prompt challenges you to show emotion based on one or more of the following photos. This is a free-write exercise. Seek to use strong verbs. Instead of saying, he was sighing loudly (week), something like, he heaved a deep sigh. I’ve chosen picture prompts of people and animals which will challenge on different levels. Have fun with this. Remember practice makes perfect!

Picture prompts 

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About Dragonborn by Donna Sundblad

Dragonborn conjures up a winning fantasy with dragons, humans, time travel, and magic. Follow the journey of the young prisonguard, Ervig Greenfields, as he seeks out dragons to remove a curse. The dragons offer him access to the Labyrinth of Times, which will purge the dark magic. But there’s a catch. Erving must take the Dragon Oath that requires allegiance--to fight alongside dragons for centuries, never to return to his own time. He and a handful of others take the selfless oath and become Dragonborn. The Dragonborn and their dragons become seeds of change, in this epic tale, of sacrifice for the greater good. Ride along with them as they slip through a tear in time to the past to change the future. 

Dragonborn is available on Kindle, paperback on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo (Christian fiction), Smashwords Apple and Google Books. When you read it, be sure to leave a review! Thanks for your support.

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And...action!

 

Just as physical exercises stretch, strengthen, define, and build our muscles, writing exercises, when practiced regularly, stretch our imagination, strengthen our writing skills, help define our writing goals, and build our muse’s creative muscle memory. In our day-to-day routine, we physically move and while that is exercise, it is not targeted exercise. It’s the same with writing. Procrastinating when it comes to any form of exercise is commonplace, but when we actually learn to make it a habit, it pays off. With that said, how about we do a little stretching of the muse’s muscles today and practice describing a simple everyday action. 

 What is a strong verb?

If you’re unsure of what a strong verb or noun look like, here’s an example:

We’ll start with the weak verb: “He entered the room.” (While this is active, it is weak.)

If you change “entered” to “walked,” walked is a stronger verb than entered, but it can be improved. Think more specific. If he wandered into room it creates a different image than if he trudged into the room. If he hurried his steps you could use verbs like charged, stormed, dashed, or raced. They paint vivid mental images. Entered or walked only create a basic image. It offers no hint of emotion or mental condition. In fact, it doesn't provide real detail of movement to follow. Vivid is the effect you’re looking for...not basic.

Do the same with your nouns. In our above example, the “room” is quite nondescript. It’s like following the character into a blank. All we really know is that he is indoors. Is it a waiting room, an office, a living room, a parlor, bedroom, music room, sewing room, a cluttered room, colorful room, a class room? As you dig for the right words, I suggest you use a thesaurus.

Pumping Your Muse Writing Prompt

 

 Choose one (or more) of the scenarios below:

• Brushing teeth
• Stopping by the drive through for donuts for the gang at work
• Parking the car
• Changing a flat tire
• Realizing your hair is thinning
• Feeding the cat

Enjoy yourself.

 

Fear: what does it look like?

Fear is a strong emotion felt when we face a threat. The threat can be physical, emotional, or psychological. It can be real or imagined. It is often viewed as a negative emotion but it comes in handy when it causes us to flee a potential danger. It can also be a positive when we learn to overcome a fear of things like the first day of school, or going for a job interview. It can also be considered fun when we allow ourselves to be scared on purpose like a haunted house, or watching a scary movie. 

As writers, fear can be used as an agent of change. It might cause a character to leave the security of the familiar and venture into the unknown. It can be used to raise conflict followed by resolution. For today’s writing prompt, the theme is fear. Whether it is negative or positive will depend on what you write. It is up to you.

 

Today’s Pumping Your Muse writing prompt

The writing mantra of show don’t tell applies to today’s writing prompt. Write a scene that shows fear. As you show this, insert your character into the scene. Show that they are fearful. Make the intensity of the threat clear. Engage the senses. What do they smell? Hear? Feel? What do they say? (Include some internal monolog). Use strong verbs. Indicate the timing. Is the threat something immediate or impending? If you feel stuck, use the following list to inspire your word choices:

• Avoid making eye contact
• Dry mouth
• Chills, hair standing on arms, back of the neck, etc.
• Rapid heartbeat
• Chest pains
• Shortness of breath
• Perspiring (sweating)
• Shaking hands, trembling

If you decide to expand this scene into a story, show how your character copes with the fear. If they can cope with it, it will lessen or remove the fear, but if they are helpless the fear of harm will intensify.   

Photo credits: pixabay, pixabay

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About The Inheritance by Donna Sundblad

Written within the allegorical tradition of classics like Pilgrim's Progress, The Inheritance offers a literal but symbolic story for today's fantasy enthusiasts. This cleverly devised tale doesn't tell you what to think, but stimulates thought as to why you believe what you believe in your own quest for the Eternal City. The Inheritance is an ideal discussion starter for youth groups, homeschoolers, and families who enjoy meaningful discussions. 

 

The Inheritance is available on Kindle, paperback on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo (Christian fiction), Smashwords and Google Books. When you read it, be sure to leave a review! Thanks for your support. 

About Dragonborn by Donna Sundblad

 

Dragonborn conjures up a winning fantasy with dragons, humans, time travel, and magic. Follow the journey of the young prisonguard, Ervig Greenfields, as he seeks out dragons to remove a curse. The dragons offer him access to the Labyrinth of Times, which will purge the dark magic. But there’s a catch. Erving must take the Dragon Oath that requires allegiance--to fight alongside dragons for centuries, never to return to his own time. He and a handful of others take the selfless oath and become Dragonborn. The Dragonborn and their dragons become seeds of change, in this epic tale, of sacrifice for the greater good. Ride along with them as they slip through a tear in time to the past to change the future. 

Dragonborn is available on Kindle, paperback on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo (Christian fiction), Smashwords Apple and Google Books. When you read it, be sure to leave a review! Thanks for your support.