Destination Imagination

“Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.” Anais Nin

Emotions! With social media such a prevalent form of communication today and the lightning fast speed that information is processed and rejected or processed and then moved aside for the next logical piece of information, emotion has become a dirty word.

People are referred to as "too emotional". Doctors study emotions so that we can control them better. As kids we are often told to "buck up" or be more realistic. Yet, as a writer emotion becomes key. This may also explain why writers are viewed as artists and overly emotional. The experiences that the writer is putting into words is being felt by that author at the same time. As the foundation is being laid with the words, the feelings are the decoration of the house.

Emotions allow us to feel not just sorrow but great elation and joy and not just wrath and anger but great loneliness and introspection also. As a writer and a self-described emotional person, those emotions I feel have come from people and experiences. There has been great people in my life who have given me love and people who have made me afraid or sad or even lonely. There have been experiences in my life that have left me speechless and there are experiences that have left me in abject misery.

I was recently reminded about emotions through an experience and what emotions do is teach us about ourselves often. They teach us about the people around us, they show us the depth that life can take, the depth that love can take or the depth even that our selves can go either down in misery or up in celebration. Emotions can change from minute to minute and still provide memories that last a lifetime.

So as a writer how do I pin down emotions and portray them in a story so that the reader can feel what I may already have? The reader needs to feel the shadow of emotion that the writer has been describing in detail and feeling in earnest. The first hand emotions for the writer came from experience and knowledge.  The reader though is wading through the emotions of a novel second hand.  It may bring up a memory but it is not a first hand feeling. Those feelings have to be detailed and passed onto the reader so that in those details they are imagining or recalling as if it is first hand. When you watch a scary movie you know to scream at the appropriate scenes because of the detail of the movie leading you into that dark alley, footsteps coming faster behind you, until you see the knife glinting in the moonlight and scream "Run" to the screen.  The reader is given the details and the knowledge in a book as well. Only the knowledge is explained so that the reader can create the image and feelings in their own head versus having it handed to them on the screen.

While you are filling the scenes with the emotions and experiences of yourself and passing them onto the reader there is a third element or thought barrier at the same time. While detailing for the reader the emotions of a scene you still have to make the characters relatable and experiencing the situations provided without making the characters appear too self aware. There still needs to be a veil put in place for the character who is experiencing the storyline for the first time with no foreshadows or guidebooks and the emotions the characters are expressing would them seem more genuine.

Writing an emotional scene has to be thought of as a trip down the highway. Unless you are a genie you have to follow a path and can not skip ahead to your destination without following the full road. The writer feels the emotions and experiences then motors on down the road and places those feelings and experiences on paper with characters who are now realizing and experiencing as if first hand and those characters motor on down the road to the reader who is reading and taking in the story to its end where they imagine and picture their own feelings and experiences now stamped in place.

The beginning is great emotion and art from the writer and the destination is great imagination and feeling from the reader. In the end it all starts with a thought and an emotion.  Origin Emotion, Destination Imagination.