Fiction Friday – Working with RAGE

It’s time to stretch those writing muscles again and get in touch with our inner rage. Ok, may not OUR rage, but the rage of our characters. What makes them spiral into the depths of deep and poignant rage? What makes them willing to commit…murder, mayhem and other atrocities?

As writers, I would argue that we NEED to know this about our characters, even if they don’t do any of those actual things within the storyline.

Knowing the extremes of our characters emotions enables us to craft fully realized, three dimensional characters whose motivation is rooted in the emotional makeup of the person – just like we are.

So, do yourself a favor and look at the EXTREMES of your character’s emotions.

Try this exercise –

Set a timer for 20 minutes and finish this sentence from the POV of your character. Don’t edit, don’t go back and change anything – just write from the hip and “channel” your character’s voice…

“I hate….”

Fully embrace your character’s feelings and describe, in extreme detail, the depth of hatred and rage your character is feeling. Use sensory words. And if you get stuck…start with the sentence an continue on.

So? How’d it go???