Just as an artist mixes shades and tones of different paints to get just the right hue, so do we write scenes and characters to get just the right emotional response from our readers.   Each of the seven universal emotions, surprise, anger, sadness, happiness, disgust, fear and contempt, represents a spectrum or family of different feelings. We have many different words to describe feelings that are similar but vary in the degree of their intensity.    Also, we must remember that emotions never happen in isolation. There are always layers of other emotions that help to add nuance to the primary emotion. Writers need to be aware of these…

In Part One, I mentioned that, through the work of psychologist Paul Ekman, we’ve learned that there are seven main expressions common to every culture.  Emotions occur in response to some kind of stimulus (actual, imagined, or re-lived) such as: a physical event a social interaction remembering or imagining an event talking about, thinking about, or physically reenacting a past emotional experience No matter where in the world we live, no matter how remote, we all display the same expressions for the same emotions. Even congenitally blind people who have never seen these emotions on other people’s faces spontaneously show the same facial expressions.    Anger When things go wrong,…

In Part One, I mentioned that, through the work of psychologist Paul Ekman, we’ve learned that there are seven main expressions common to every culture.   Emotions occur in response to some kind of stimulus (actual, imagined, or re-lived) such as: a physical event a social interaction remembering or imagining an event talking about, thinking about, or physically reenacting a past emotional experience No matter where in the world we live, no matter how remote, we all display the same expressions for the same emotions. Even congenitally blind people who have never seen these emotions on other people’s faces spontaneously show the same facial expressions.   What Are Facial Expressions?…

In a recent conversation at the dog park, some owners were discussing the idea that when it comes to sussing out the intentions of other people (and dogs), our dogs are far more perceptive than their owners.   It occurred to me that I too, trust my dog’s instincts more than my own. At the very least, his response to other people gives me a second opinion I can factor into my first impression.   On more than one occasion, my dogs have alerted me to questionable characters in time to avoid uncomfortable situations, and now that I’m better attuned to their body language, I can see even more quickly…

or — How to Manipulate Your Reader’s Feelings Over many decades of reading, I’ve come to realize that one of the most powerful things a writer can do to keep a reader glued to the page is to create a deep yearning to be in the story and experience the emotions that the story’s characters feel.    Running like an underground river beneath the needs and desires of the characters we create is the reader’s need for something only the character’s experience can provide. We read in order to become a part of the story world, to escape the everyday and immerse ourselves in an environment that satisfies something we…