resticking the label on the tail of the donkey

[wytchcroft]

Something a little unexpected; -

In responding to the writing prompt: "Your character is ashamed", i discovered a weakness in my scribblings.
Yes, another one.

This time however the problem stems from what i usually regard as a fairly positive side of my personality; the real discomfort i have with labels. 

Reading through my junk i see such frequently recurring descriptions as 'almost as if embarrassed', or worse 'embarrassed seeming', also the likes of  'he ran a nervous hand through', 'she cut across the corridor striking a defiant pose', yadda bla.
In effect, refusing to actually state anything!
e.g. She was embarrassed. He was afraid. They carried with them a burden of shame etc.
   
i tend to dislike being told how or what i feel at any given moment and try not to be presumptuous about the emotions of others. BUT (d'oh!) this is probably one of the ways in which i lose narrative coherency - and lose the reader!

There are some emotions that i know i struggle to understand as a person and inhabit as a writer, shame, perhaps, being one of them. Yet all the same, if asked, i would have no hesitation in pointing at given characters in my fics and saying “Yes, I think Karin carries a lot of what she thinks of as shame, yes Eva struggles with her self esteem, and bitterness, Leb has resentments, Marina has survivor guilt” and so on.  

i guess it's all part of the eternal ‘show Vs tell’ dynamic, but it could even be seen as authorial evasion - ok if the narrator is a character but otherwise, again, it's just beating round the bush.
i suppose the risk is of going too far and denying the reader their freedom of thought and response - many great discussions have, after all, come from giving opinions on the motives and behaviour and emotions of characters in books and films. All the same, i tend to think that may only apply to an experienced and talented writer - and to pretend otherwise probably just puts the cart before the horse (insert alternative hoary cliché here!).
   
With that in mind, i shall return to my response attempt...

Any thoughts?

Comments

[alicia_h]

It's been a while since I've looked back at my own writing, so I can say how guilty I am at avoiding making statements. It'll be an interesting aspect to look out for and I'm sure there'll be plenty of other habits that will frustrate me when I do go back.

When I read your pieces I don't think I've ever really been troubled or turned off by your way of dealing with emotions. Perhaps the uncertainty fits with your style and your voice, that part of you that doesn't want to be to told how you ought to feel bleeding through into your writing.

When I come to write again and have to consider this dilemma, I suppose I'll be considering if the character feeling the emotion - let's say shame as it is in the prompt - knows that what they're feeling is shame in particular, or do they assume they are feeling something different. Maybe they're being told off by a parent, or being given another sort of serious talking to, and the character can't figure out if they are feeling shame or are wishing they hadn't been caught. It would be interesting to see how I'd handle describing that emotion.

Or perhaps the person doing the telling off thinks that first character should be feeling shame and projects that feeling onto what they see of that character's behaviour. They're hanging their head - are the they ashamed or are they looking down so the other person caught tell that they're thinking 'Oh Christ, get on with it'?

[wytchcroft]

it's like real life - we don't get to see inside of people we have to empathise and, deduce! LOL :)

but in fiction this depends on whether the reader is sufficiently interested in the characters.

i don't like the idea of telling the reader everything: "I smiled broadly because i was so very happy, once i had been sad but now i was no longer upset and feeling guilty" etc.
except that actually, that's not necessarily a bad thing, it certainly might suit certain types or genres of story.

and i imagine an omniscient yet anonymous and constantly tight-lipped third person narrator could be annoying to some people!

well, these are just thoughts... but i might try re-balancing some of what i'm working on...

it is a bit of a tightrope to walk on as a writer, LOL!

and thank you as ever for the compliments :))