1. THE CASCADING OF EMOTION: Emotions do not occur in isolation with one another. Rather, something external triggers a cascade of emotions in the person. To give a typical example, suppose a person gets a letter from another person. The letter is opened and read and the reader becomes angry. Usually, the event is depicted in just such a way: he read the letter and he got angry. In reality, the emotional cascade the person goes through takes place something like this: 1). the letter sparks curiosity in the reader: “What is it?”; 2). the reading of the letter leads to the comprehension of meaning: “What does it mean?”; 3). The person realizes the implications of the letter: “I can’t believe she really means this.”; 4). the person has an emotional response, i.e., gets angry; 5). The person “cools off” and regains her composure in a process I call the coda. So, the cascade seen here, then, is curiosity, comprehension, implication, emotional response and coda. The emotion of anger does not occur in isolation: it results from the cascade or chain of events that precedes and precipitates it, and it is followed by a cascade of events that follows it. The cascades always terminate in a coda or “letting off steam” period that eventually returns some stasis to the individual. When depicting the cascade in fictional characters, it is always necessary to show each behavioral activity that finally results in the ultimate emotion (but see below).
2. THE CLUSTERING OF EMOTIONS: Again, to take the previous example of getting a letter, the cascade leading to the emotion of anger engenders auxiliary emotions, such as, betrayal, confusion, despair, grief, hatred, hostility, irritation, resignation, resentment, revenge, sadness, shame, sorrow, etc., whose aggregate effect is to produce a cluster of emotional responses. To state merely that “a person got angry,” does not list the full panorama of emotions that the person might have at the time. Remember that the emotions are triggered by a cascade of events and produce clusters of attendant emotions. Emotions seldom occur in isolation with one another other and it is important to remember that when depicting emotional responses in fictional characters. Show the whole shebang.
3. THE SPECTRUM OF EMOTIONS: The range of emotional responses is characterized by a multiplicity of apparent and unapparent emotions. Some emotions are highly visible and almost always are understood by the observer without any misapprehension. Strong, powerful emotions, such as anger, hatred, etc., are in this category. Whenever a person is extremely angry, the observer will almost invariably know that the person is angry. Other emotions are practically undecipherable because one cannot “read” the outward evidence of the emotional response in the facial appearance, gestures, verbal clues, etc. of the other person. Yet, it would be a significant mistake to misread or ignore those relatively unseen emotional responses because they form the basis for enduring and settled opinions in the person whose emotions are being misread.
2. THE CLUSTERING OF EMOTIONS: Again, to take the previous example of getting a letter, the cascade leading to the emotion of anger engenders auxiliary emotions, such as, betrayal, confusion, despair, grief, hatred, hostility, irritation, resignation, resentment, revenge, sadness, shame, sorrow, etc., whose aggregate effect is to produce a cluster of emotional responses. To state merely that “a person got angry,” does not list the full panorama of emotions that the person might have at the time. Remember that the emotions are triggered by a cascade of events and produce clusters of attendant emotions. Emotions seldom occur in isolation with one another other and it is important to remember that when depicting emotional responses in fictional characters. Show the whole shebang.
3. THE SPECTRUM OF EMOTIONS: The range of emotional responses is characterized by a multiplicity of apparent and unapparent emotions. Some emotions are highly visible and almost always are understood by the observer without any misapprehension. Strong, powerful emotions, such as anger, hatred, etc., are in this category. Whenever a person is extremely angry, the observer will almost invariably know that the person is angry. Other emotions are practically undecipherable because one cannot “read” the outward evidence of the emotional response in the facial appearance, gestures, verbal clues, etc. of the other person. Yet, it would be a significant mistake to misread or ignore those relatively unseen emotional responses because they form the basis for enduring and settled opinions in the person whose emotions are being misread.
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