I hope my face doesn’t stay that way!

My dog, Harli, giving an example of the expression, ‘Look how cute I am!’.
Taken by my mum, Twisted Pixel on Flickr.

The other day I turned to my mum and sister whilst writing and asked, ‘What is this face?’, and then contorted my features into some weird kind of wrinkled expression.

They gave me one those looks that said, oh dear, she’s finally cracked, and answered along the lines of, ‘I don’t think that’s a real expression’.

I realised then, that I really love what I do :D

The saying (that has been drummed into anyone wanting to pursue writing in any form) goes, ‘Show don’t tell’. And so, in order to achieve this, I try and act out whatever it is my character is doing, or try to feel what they are saying or the emotion they are experiencing, to get a better sense of exactly what that would look and feel like to the senses.

A lot of the time, I look down right bizarre! But at least I can see and sense exactly what it is I am trying to write, and in general my writing goes up a few notches because I can see all the detail of that expression, gesture or action that I might not have though of and can note it down.

For example, if I had a character who was angry and shouting. I would shout out the line of dialogue, taking on the role of the character and see how I say the line, and what I do during it. This gives me a more realistic sense of what is happening to transfer to the page. It also gives each character an individual feel, as when I ‘act’ them out I can get into their headspace.

Sometimes, I will say a line of dialogue and come up with an awesome response that I wouldn’t have come up with if I hadn’t said it out loud. Though anybody passing would speed up to get by me having a conversation with myself, but I think that comes with the territory of being a writer!

For me, this method really works! :D

I love creating characters that are unique and leave an impression on the reader. And it’s really interesting to find out how other writers tap into characters and how they create the emotion and dialogue that goes onto the page.

Do you act out emotions or say dialogue when writing? How do you get into the headspace of a character? Any techniques you use that might work for others?

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Progress Report:

Word Count: 15,017 (+12,478 since Tuesday)

Status of Fourth Manuscript: Writing first draft.

Books read: 1/4

June eBook review: Book chosen. Reading.