E. Tip of the Day: Tension and emotion are key ingredients in getting the characters to live and breathe in the minds of readers. Bringing the reader in nice and close to feel your characters’ emotions is so very important in keeping them engaged in the story. The reader needs to feel the sweat, blood, and tears of the characters’ victories and defeats. Here’s a few examples of showing emotion:
a. He ran his hand through his hair in exasperation.
b. He glared at her, not happy.
c. She bit her lip to keep from speaking, worried she’d say something she shouldn’t.
d. He shrugged, not caring either way.
e. He pulled on his ear, anxious, as to what he was hearing.
In my examples I do a little bit of showing and telling so you can see what emotion I’m trying to convey to the reader.
