Showing Character's Interior Lives
Write Better Now
If you’ve been hanging out with me this past week or so, you’ll have noticed that I’ve been talking about emotional interiority in writing characters for our novels or short stories. You may have repressed it all, that’s okay. I repress everything, too. But in case you want to take a peek at the last few posts, here you go:
I continue all this today!
Mary Kole also has a checklist for developing character interiority, which is here:
· “What is your character doing right now (objective)? Why (motivation)? (The why is especially important.)
· What do they hope will happen?
· What do they worry will go wrong?
· How do they feel about themselves?
· How do they feel about their scene partner?
· How do they feel about their place in the plot in general?”
This is lovely, but the thing is that you don’t really want this for every single sentence of your story. Showing the character’s emotions and inner life is important in the beginning of the story. It’s important in a chapter of the story. It’s important in a scene usually. But it doesn’t have to be in every sentence.
Where is it most important?
It’s most important in the big moments and for the big emotions.
When you finally get your goal
When you learn that your dad is not your dad.
When you realize that because you are eight feet tall you will probably not get to do the bars on the Olympic team.
When a zombie is chasing you.
When you realize the zombie is actually your secret crush and he’s just playing.
When you have to ask your boss for a raise.
When you get fired.
The inciting incident of your story
The darkest moment of your story
The finale of your story.
When your character realizes they had it all wrong.
EMOTIONS AREN’T THAT SIMPLE
In the picture book world it often feels easy:
Jane was sad. What a bad day she had.
But as you move up through the age groups, emotions on the page become more and more complex. A character isn’t just lustful. They are afraid of their lust maybe? They are proud of it maybe? The emotions layer on.
THE CHAIN
Storm Writing School discusses the chain of interiority through the lens of the 2017 short story “Cat Person.”
And they create interiority as a chain of events.
1. Something stimulates a response.
2. The feelings associated with that response happen before the thought.
3. Chained interiority.
He writes that this fancy word is just:
“The stimulus for interiority is usually external but can sometimes be other interiority. That is, an external stimulus might lead to an emotion and/or a thought, which in turn leads to an emotion, which then leads to another thought.”
Robert Olen Butler says, “Moments of reference in our past come back to us in our consciousness, not as ideas or analyses about the past, but as little vivid bursts of waking dream; they come back as images, sense impressions”
When that happens it can branch into:
4. Memory.
5. Future and imagination.
6. Implied and unstated interiority
7. Complex feelings.
8. Indirect interiority.
9. External reaction.
10. POV character judgements.
11. Seeming
So, in this chain some things will happen, usually in this pattern, right?
Here let’s try to map it out.
Let’s start with a random tale of a Piglet betrayed by a Pooh.
Pooh bear’s face was inside Owl’s honey pot. Piglet recoiled. That was his honey pot, full of sweet honey. Pooh had told him just an hour ago that he had the best honey and given him a hug by the big tree. Will they ever hug by the big tree again?
“Are you still seriously hungry?” Piglet asked.
“I’m a still seriously many things,” Pooh said, “although maybe not so seriously.”
Piglet laughed along with Pooh even though the honey globbing down the bear’s face made Piglet’s own tummy rumble in a very unpleasant way. Maybe now, he thought, Pooh would realize that life was about more than honey and honey pots; it was about friendship, but by being jealous was he maybe hurting Pooh, too? Was life about more than friendship?
Pooh took a step back and looked away. To have been caught with his head in Owl’s honey pot like that!
Pooh gave Owl the honey pot and waddled forward, arms open. “Oh, Piglet! I am so sorry. Your face is so sad making, all frown lines and tears. You must feel terrible!!”
He was apologizing and being all nice again. Piglet knew that Pooh felt bad for his betrayal; he could tell by the extra tremor in his obviously wobbling voice and how he seemed to be trying to shoo Owl away via a hand movement behind his broad, furry back.
Pooh’s arms wrapped around Piglet in a sticky hug and his belly was soft against Piglet’s face and it seemed—for just that moment—that maybe he could possibly stop eating other animals’ honey. Or maybe that was just Piglet’s own mad hope.
1 Something stimulates a response.
Pooh bear’s face was inside Owl’s honey pot
2. The feelings associated with that response happen before the thought.
Piglet recoiled.
3. Chained interiority.
That was his honey pot, full of sweet honey.
4. Memory.
Pooh had told him just an hour ago that he had the best honey and given him a hug by the big tree.
5. Future and imagination.
Will they ever hug by the big tree again?
6. Implied and unstated interiority
“Are you still seriously hungry?” Piglet asked.
“I’m still seriously many things,” Pooh said, “although maybe not so seriously.”
7. Complex feelings.
Piglet laughed along with Pooh even though the honey globbing down the bear’s face made Piglet’s own tummy rumble in a very unpleasant way. Maybe now, he thought, Pooh would realize that life was about more than honey and honey pots; it was about friendship, but by being jealous was he maybe hurting Pooh, too? Was life about more than friendship?
8. Indirect interiority.
Pooh took a step back and looked away. To have been caught with his head in Owl’s honey pot like that!
9. External reaction.
Pooh gave Owl the honey pot and waddled forward, arms open. “Oh, Piglet! I am so sorry. Your face is so sad making, all frown lines and tears. You must feel terrible!!”
10. POV character judgements.
He was apologizing and being all nice again. Piglet knew that Pooh felt bad for his betrayal; he could tell by the extra tremor in his obviously wobbling voice and how he seemed to be trying to shoo Owl away via a hand movement behind his broad, furry back.
11. Seeming
Pooh’s arms wrapped around Piglet in a sticky hug and his belly was soft against Piglet’s face and it seemed—for just that moment—that maybe he could possibly stop eating other animals’ honey. Or maybe that was just Piglet’s own mad hope.
And there you go! Interiority as a chain in action. If you check out the Storm Writing School link below, you can see some elaboration on those steps.
Happy writing! And say hi in the comments if you’re into it.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
https://kidlit.com/interiority-in-literature/
https://www.stormwritingschool.com/cat-person-interiority/