without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know more -confucius

This week I got to a break in my Wheel of Time quest so I finally read Cinder by Marissa Meyer which I bought for myself a few weeks ago. I did really enjoy this interpretation of the classic Cinderella story and I'm excited to follow the series as it comes out. I'm not going to review the book today though, as there's something specific that I want to pull out of it. As a disclaimer, I really did enjoy Meyer's writing and the sticking point that this post is stemming from was the only one in the book so don't think that I'm criticizing her as a writer. We all make little gaffs and some things slip through the cracks during publication.

That being said, let us begin. Today, I want to talk about physical manifestations of emotions.

This is something that all writers encounter. None of us want to describe fear, hatred, embarrassment, and sadness in the same way as every author before us. The endeavor to describe emotions' physical manifestations in new, fresh ways is an admirable one but sometimes, on our journey, we come up with some things that just don't work. There can be several reasons why a physical description of an emotional state doesn't fly:

• It's cumbersome or convoluted and confusing - no one is quite sure what just happened to your character. Do they need to see a doctor?
• It overstates [or understates] the physical effect actually produced by an emotion - aka, an over dramatic response.
• The physical effect you describe is not physically possible.

The last category is where my example from Ms. Meyer falls.

"Her heart winced."

My body wants to writhe just reading that again. This single sentence is so out of place with the rest of Meyer's well crafted descriptions that it just jumped out at me. To anyone who may be confused: your heart cannot wince. 

1. It is physically impossible for this muscle action to occur in this organ.
2. To wince is to give a slight involuntary grimace or shrinking movement of the body out of or in anticipation of pain or distress. Considering, in the context of the scene, the prince, who is the hottest hotty mc'hotterson anyone has ever seen has just given Cinder his winning smile, I'm pretty sure she isn't in pain or distress.

Again, this is a singular blip in the story. It does bring up, however, the importance of matching the context of your character's emotion and what they are responding to to their physical reaction as well as the physical plausibility of their reaction. There are certain things parts of our bodies are simply not capable of. 

I frequently find examples in dialogue where people have valiantly tried to expand upon simple "he said" "she said" tags [not that there is anything wrong with "said" - whatever your teachers have told you about said being dead is a vicious lie]. Often, you might see something along the lines of "she smiled" which cannot be properly used as a tag for dialogue because smiles don't speak.

Describing physical effects of emotions can be a tricky business. Some things we know and don't depart from very often. Goosebumps are great for fear and anticipation and with this reaction we can find fun ways to describe the goosebumps rather than the fear or anticipation itself. Other times, however, you might be trying to find the best way to really convey the stress your character is feeling during a climactic moment or the devastation they feel at a surprise betrayal. 

These descriptions can be hard to come by but I had a teacher once who gave a great piece of advice. If you're trying to describe how a certain emotion feels, take yourself through that emotion as closely as you can and observe how your body responds. Do you hands get cold or hot when you are very angry? Does heartbreak feel like a hollowness that consumes your whole chest or does it feel like a cold ache that grips your heart? The wonderful thing about this sort of self-research is that everyone will describe a physical manifestation of an emotion differently because we all feel things a little differently. And if you haven't ever experienced a certain emotion, or such an extreme of one before, ask someone else who has to help you capture it accurately [being respectful and considerate of anything that may be extremely personal to them].

As writers, we will, at some point or other, write about something with which we do not have great personal experience. I wrote a short story in my first writing class in college that had to do with a deteriorating marriage that culminated in divorce. My parents were still married at the time, I had never been in a serious relationship that I could have drawn from or anything of the sort. And it showed. Our personal ignorance of topics will show in our writing but don't let that deter you. That's what research, friends, and writers' groups are for. We help each other. As it happened, one of the young men in my writing group had recently gone through a divorce and he was able to point out to me the parts of my story that didn't work or were clunky and felt wrong. He was gracious enough to share some of his experience to give me a better idea of what my characters would be encountering and feeling and the story improved because of it.

The words we use will always be important. Our choosing of them creates our personal style and refining them helps us grow. Don't be afraid to try out new things, to come up with new metaphors and descriptions for emotions and their physical responses. We are all unique and how we see and feel the world can enrich it for others if we share it. Words have power of their own, so take the time to make sure what you're writing is conveying what you want it to as accurately and fully as possible.