Today’s post is by Angela Ackerman, co-author of the new second edition of The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Stress and Volatility.
Readers connect with characters who are true-to-life, so as we build our story’s cast, we want to ensure they think and behave as real people do. This is especially important when it comes to inner conflict as readers are exposed to a character’s personal struggles and insecurities. These moments are powerful points of connection, so how can we show a character’s inner turmoil in a way that reminds readers of their own experiences?
Psychology!
I know, you probably aren’t a therapist and that one class in college, well, it was years ago. Don’t worry, you won’t have to dive into textbooks to unravel the whys of behavior to put it on the page. Instead, you can pull from your own experiences with cognitive dissonance.
You may know cognitive dissonance as something else–the tension that arises when you feel torn between two different beliefs. The discomfort of examining your priorities when new information calls them into question. Doing or saying something that deep down you suspect—or know—is wrong.
Cognitive dissonance, the psychological discomfort caused by contradicting thoughts, perceptions, values, or beliefs is something we will experience many times over the course of our lives. This inner tension can arise from something small, like whether to tell a white lie to spare someone’s feelings, or something larger, like having to choose between family loyalty or the common good after discovering a sibling is behind a string of robberies.
Being in a situation where things don’t sit right or we’re not sure what to do is not a fun experience, so when we show our character’s dissonance, readers can’t help but relate and empathize.
In the story, our characters may try to ignore or suppress the distress they feel, but eventually it grows to the point where they must resolve it. But internal conflict is called conflict for a reason: the character is pulled in different directions and doesn’t know what to do. And when the right or best decision means a harder road, the choice becomes even more difficult to make.
Moments like this will activate the reader’s emotions because they know what it’s like to make hard decisions. Obviously, there’s pressure on the writer to show all of this well, and once again, psychology can lend a hand.
Using emotional reasoning to solve painful problems
Inner conflict is hard to resolve as things are never black and white. In the real world, we apply emotional reasoning whenever we struggle, so we can show our characters doing this, too.
Emotional reasoning is where the character weighs and measures each factor related to their situation—their beliefs, facts about their circumstances, personal experiences, past teachings, the people involved, any possible consequences … the whole nine yards.
I’ll show you an example. Let’s say our protagonist Silva just discovered her best friend Claire is cheating on her husband, Rick. Claire begs Silva to keep this information secret, and normally, she wouldn’t share something told in confidence. But this? Staying silent doesn’t sit right. Silva has strong beliefs about fidelity and views an affair as the worst type of betrayal.
She hates the whole situation and wishes she could go back in time to when she was blissfully ignorant. Instead, she now has an agonizing decision to make—say nothing out of loyalty to Claire or stay true to her moral code and tell Rick.
Silva knows if she tells Rick, she’s nuking her friendship with Claire. But if she says nothing, she’ll struggle to be around her friend, not to mention look herself in the mirror, because keeping the secret makes her feel complicit.
To figure out what to do, she applies emotional reasoning by weighing and measuring the various factors around this situation.
For example, it might be easier for Silva to keep this information to herself if one factor happens to be that Claire’s husband isn’t a nice guy—say, if he’s verbally abusive or controlling. Silva might resolve her dissonance by telling Claire that his behavior is further proof it’s time to leave the marriage.
But what if Rick is a good guy, maybe even someone Silva considers a friend? In this case, keeping the secret means protecting one person by betraying the other.
Another factor could be whether the two have children. What if revealing the truth triggers a divorce and turns the family inside out? She will be responsible in part for that outcome.
As Silva grapples with what to do, she considers other factors, like how good a friend Claire is. She also tries to think back to a time when she kept the truth from someone, or if she’s ever felt as Claire does (needing love in a way her partner doesn’t provide). Another possible factor Silva would consider is if she’s ever experienced betrayal, especially the sort that would put her in Rick’s shoes.
Whatever factors are true for Silva in this situation, you can see how her deepest beliefs and values are being challenged. She must sort and measure to reason out what to do.
It could be that Silva concludes that:
- She’s lost respect for Claire and their friendship might not survive, but despite believing the affair is wrong, she agrees not to tell Rick. Silence comes at the cost of her integrity, but she refuses to be responsible for unraveling their family.
- Her morals won’t let her keep Rick in the dark, and she’s upset Claire has put her in this situation. She decides Claire should bear the brunt of the emotional discomfort and delivers an ultimatum: Either you tell Rick, or I will.
- She doesn’t want to keep this secret, but she also doesn’t feel right delivering news that could break a family apart. If she continues to run into Rick, she’ll have to say something, so she removes herself from her friends’ lives.
Difficult decisions usually carry a price tag—in this case, pain for either Silva or her friends. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but there’s no way to avoid it. And one way or the other, she’s being forced to sacrifice friendship, integrity, or both.
Emotional reasoning plants readers in the character’s perspective, helping them understand the why behind a decision. They get a private viewing of the character’s inner struggle and vulnerability, which fortifies the reader-character bond. And because readers have had to weigh and measure themselves, they know it’s a personal process. They may not agree with a character’s end decision, but at least understand the reasoning that brought it about.
Human psychology and its processes allow us to bring authenticity to the page through our character’s realistic emotional responses and behavior, so don’t be afraid to bring it into your storytelling.
Note from Jane: If you enjoyed this post, check out the new second edition of The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Stress and Volatility by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.
