How to Reveal Character Emotion Without Venturing Into Cliché

John Thornton Williams

One of the most important goals of any fiction writer is getting the reader to connect on an emotional level with the story’s characters.

But how do you accomplish this without being clumsy—without saying, directly, “Joe felt so upset he wanted to die,” which takes you right into the heart of cliché?

John Thorton Williams offers this suggestion:

[Take] into consideration how a certain character would experience a particular setting or image based on his/her emotional state. Something as simple as a car parked on the street surely looks different to a lottery winner than to someone who just got evicted. In other words, indirection of image is a way to take abstract emotions and project them onto something concrete. Doing so creates the potential to explore interiority at a greater depth than what’s afforded by mere exposition. 

Williams goes on to show a specific example from William Gay’s fiction. Click here to read the full piece over at Glimmer Train.

For more writing advice and inspiration from Glimmer Train, check out these pieces:

My City (or, On the Idea of Making It My Own) by Aurelie Sheehan
Puzzle and Mystery by Peter Turchi
The Creative Process: A Diuretic Metaphor by Greg Schreur

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