Show the character’s "soft underbelly." A hardened detective is more sympathetic when we see them tenderly caring for a dying houseplant.
Use an object, situation, or chain of events to serve as the formula for a particular emotion (e.g., a cracked windshield representing a broken relationship). 2. Physicality and the Interior Monologue Humans experience emotion in the body first.
Create a discrepancy between what a character says and what they do. A character saying "I’m fine" while crushing a soda can in their hand tells a much more powerful story than a confession of anger. 4. Setting as Emotional Weather
Show the character’s "soft underbelly." A hardened detective is more sympathetic when we see them tenderly caring for a dying houseplant.
Use an object, situation, or chain of events to serve as the formula for a particular emotion (e.g., a cracked windshield representing a broken relationship). 2. Physicality and the Interior Monologue Humans experience emotion in the body first. The Emotional Craft of Fiction
Create a discrepancy between what a character says and what they do. A character saying "I’m fine" while crushing a soda can in their hand tells a much more powerful story than a confession of anger. 4. Setting as Emotional Weather Show the character’s "soft underbelly