What are some tips and tricks for conveying strong emotions?

Storyboard. You don't have to flesh out a whole outline unless you want to, but storyboard the flow of scenes. When you sit down to write, you can match your mood and energy level with a fitting scene, and the authenticity gives you a lot more to work with as you craft your piece. Also, it's okay to explicitly name emotions the characters are feeling. Punctuation can convey emotion, too. And pacing.

#WritersCoffeeClub 2025-04-04

#WritersCoffeeClub 25-04-04 . What are some tips and tricks for conveying strong emotions?

Emotions aren't just in the brain, and juxtapositions, simile, etc enhance like a pinch of salt tossed in the skillet.

Or, you're like me, and you feel what the character feels. You don't convey their emotions, you capture and express yours.

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I grabbed my head with both hands trying to make my mind stop spinning like a feather at the mercy of a storm’s winds.

The scream that erupted from me was a savage primal hymn of every emotion I was feeling.

My arm slammed repeatedly into the wall trying in vain to cast off the phantasmal grappler that came from within.

My Spring tears became a torrential Autumn downpour as I smashed anything my hands could grab.

I staggered backwards into a corner and slid down the wall hugging myself, while sobbing.

So much had happened, most of it in just the last few days, and I felt like a rope fraying at both ends.

#writersCoffeeClub 4. What are some tips and tricks for conveying strong emotions?

I think this question is too plotterish for the way I write at this level of granularity. I don't do emotions with malice aforethought: I write a scene or chapter and then poke at it until the speeches and actions look and feel right. Details may change as the story as a whole grows: I am very far from being a write it once and leave it sort of writer. Wording gets tweaked and tuned as the story grows.

#WritersCoffeeClub #Writing April 3 How do you navigate scenes with many characters?

Swear under my breath & promise myself that next book will have a small cast that's never in the same place at the same time.

But srsly, the more people there are in a scene, the more stage blocking I do in my head as I go, so I can add sensory & spatial data in the descriptions but also incorporate position & action in dialogue tags to keep things from bogging down.

I have a big request if you're among the select band of adventurers who have read Relics From A Traveling Show: could you leave a review?

I've just entered it in a big library contest, & every bit helps. The most views still come from Amazon, so I'm linking the page:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945745207/
and Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/220335301

kthxbai, I'm back to lurking for a while.

#WritersCoffeeClub #Writing 3 How do you navigate scenes with many characters?

I limit action scenes to a handful of characters at a time to keep things focused, but I love free-wheeling conversations between multiple people. I think every book of mine has a group meeting where a dozen or so people hash out a plan of action. As long as I have a strong sense of who they are and what their role is, it's fine, in my opinion. Fun, actually!

#WritersCoffeeClub #Writing 3 How do you navigate scenes with many characters?

With a lot of pain and suffering, so I try to limit "many people" to four, and if there's more people they'll remain silent most of the time. Sadly, those damn characters like to talk so they won't shut up no matter what. And then they get angry with their poor Creator about the things I do to them for not obeying…>=)

#WritersCoffeeClub Day 3: How do you navigate scenes with many characters?

Like an orchestra a symphony.

#WritersCoffeeClub 3 April: How do you navigate scenes with many characters?

I suppose I don't. I tend to write cozy fantasy which usually features just a few characters, except for the Council sessions where I focus on only one or two.

For my erotic romance where I have M/M/M/M again, I focus on one or two characters, but also just keeping careful track of choreography

#WritersCoffeeClub April 3: How do you navigate scenes with many characters?

A scene is typically 800-2400 words (at roughly 330 words per page/minute of fast reading). A scene should not introduce more than one character per 1000 words or they're hard to the reader to retain. So I simply don't write complex scenes with many characters unless they're already well-established in previous scenes.

#WritersCoffeeClub 3rd April 2025. How do you navigate scenes with many characters?

I find it helps to keep a firm hold on whichever character's POV that scene is in. I normally write in either 1st person or tight 3rd anyway, so it comes naturally to me, regardless of how many others might be present in the scene.

#WritersCoffeeClub 3 Apr
How do you navigate scenes with many characters?

How many is many? Trying to think of a scene I've done with more than 6 named characters talking. I might not have.

I bet it's easier in a play: stage directions and character names are separated out, and the audience can simply see or hear who's doing and saying what.

In prose I suspect distinctive character voice and setting up reader expectations have to do a lot of the work.

#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 3. How do you navigate scenes with many characters?

By not shying away from dialogue tags (why?????) and by using a name or a synonyme for that character whenever necessary.

I also think it's better to repeat a name a couple of times instead of keeping the reader guessing - who said that again?

#WritersCoffeeClub 4/3. How do you navigate scenes with many characters?

Only this evening I was listening to my narrator doing a scene featuring eight teenage girls talking in their dorm.

In another book I have a dinner party with eight women (the extract shown is a small portion). And a party with even more women in another. (The vast majority of my characters are women.)

It's not the easiest thing in the world made worse when the available pronouns are reduced by not having a mix of sexes.

I just have to be careful that it's clear who's speaking or acting - without too much repetition of names. No head-hopping.

EDIT: Although this extract is from one of my erotic books, I should probably say the party does not develop into a sapphic orgy - but the sexual tension is very high. (So far my sex scenes have only involved a maximum of three.)

#WritersCoffeeClub April 3. How do you navigate scenes with many characters?

I don't
I do short stories, and I have no characters that don't play a direct part in the plot. I seldom have more than three in total

#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 2. What makes for a good book for children?

IMHO, all good books have engaging characters*, plots that catch & hold attention, & that ineffable *something* that speaks to the readers heart.
Plus in the picture book/graphic story category, art that feeds the eyes.

None of those look the same for children as for adults, their perspective and experiences are different, but the principles? Samesies.

*not necessarily the same as likable! Or 'good!'

#WritersCoffeeClub #Writing 2 What makes for a good book for children?

It *MUST* be fun. You can use the best language, treat them as intelligent beings (which they are, no matter how "hell spawn" some kids might seem to be), and everything, but if the book is boring, it's over. And this is incredibly hard to do. My respects to those who can write for children…=)

#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 2. International Children’s Book Day! What makes for a good book for children?

As a father who read to his daughter when she was young I have to say any story that made her ask for it again the next night.