Welcome to the 2013 A to Z Challenge!
This year, I’m
focusing on two themes: Emotions and
grammar,
depending on which
letter we’re on each day.
I’ll be sharing
mostly what I’ve learned about writing emotion into a novel, but I’ll also be
throwing in a few key grammar lessons, pet peeves I’ve picked up while working
as an editor.
Today’s an emotion
day!
__________
N is for Nervous: highly excitable, unnaturally or acutely
uneasy or apprehensive; anxious; unsettled.
We’ve all been here, so we know how it feels. But we also each experience it in different
ways, so, as writers, how do we show
it? I had to tackle this one a few times
in The
Mistaken, and found, along with showing the physical signs, it worked
better, felt more tangible, when I focused on the reason behind the character’s
nervousness.
What did he fear?
What was he risking? That’s what
drives anxiety, right?—the repercussions of failure, of exposure, of our
inadequacies, or perhaps just plain old fear, especially what is unknown. So, if all of a sudden, your character is
thrust into a situation in which he has no or very little control, have him
ponder the consequences should he fail.
Will he die or suffer physically, or will someone else he
cares about? Will he lose something or
someone he loves or values? Will another
judge him harshly, or worse, reject him, possibly subjecting him to
ridicule? Does he fear the world will
find him lacking or someone he’s tried hard not to be?
If you exacerbate his anxiety with fallout should his fear
be realized, the reader will moan and groan in protest or cringe in
sympathy. Of course, in addition to
spelling out this potential aftermath, you should show the reader what is going
on inside his head, inside his body, as he ponders his fate. Think about how you act when you’re nervous.
Your heart twitters and speeds up and almost
feels like it’s in your throat. You pace
and move around, biting your nails, fidgeting with your fingers, or anything
else you can get your hands on. You
cover your eyes or pull at your hair, your breathing quickens, you shake and twitch,
bounce and jerk all around, you sweat and flush and stutter, maybe laugh
inappropriately, followed by speed-talking or an abrupt change in the
subject. Your stomach tenses and burns
and roils in nausea. And if it all
becomes too much, too unbearable, you might become light-headed or even pass
out, that is if you haven’t fled already.
How does your body react when you’re nervous?
