What the Hell is that?

One of the most crucial elements of good writing is making readers feel your characters’ emotions. Here are some of my tips for doing just that:

1. Use the right POV

Third person omniscient is a great narrative point of view, but unless you are using expert techniques like free indirect discourse/stream of consciousness, it’s going to be quite difficult to immerse your readers in the emotions of your characters.

So, if emotion is a key aspect of your WIP, I would suggest trying either first person or third person deep.

I’m sure most of you know how first person works. Third person deep means that the narrator is inside the POV characters’ heads, conveying all they experience and feel to the reader. This can be very powerful and is the POV I’m using for my current WIP.

These POVs allow the readers direct/close interaction with the characters’ thoughts and feelings. Therefore, the characters’ emotions will have a stronger impact on the reader.

Once again, I’m not saying that it’s impossible to convey emotion through other points of view. These are just easier.

2. Use physical reactions (and metaphors)

My biggest tip would be not to tell the reader how your character is feeling, but rather show them.

Saying “she was sad” will have much less of an impact than “her body was trembling, tears rolling down her cheeks as a ragged sob broke from her lips”.

Use physical cues to show the reader the character’s emotion.

You can also use metaphoric language e.g. “there was a fist closing around her heart, squeezing until she couldn’t breathe”. But this has to be done with circumspection and skill. Using cliche or over-the-top metaphors will make your writing seem sloppy.

3. Use form to your advantage

Use your intuition to utilise language/structure as an extra method for conveying emotion.

Use short sentences for fear/anger/severe sorrow. Long, flowing sentences for sadness etc. You’ll feel what’s right for the moment.

Use the right diction. Words like ‘heavy’, ‘cold’, 'dark’, 'hollow’ etc. suit a sombre mood whilst words like 'bursting’, 'full’, 'bright’ will fit a happy scene. These are silly examples, but the point is that word choice is important.

Use form to communicate the way you character is thinking in that moment. If their thoughts are quick, use short sentences. Rapid pacing. If their thoughts are disjointed, break off your sentences midway etc.

4. Less is often more

Multiple pages of heart-wrenching emotion have their place, but don’t feel like you have to elaborate too much. Your readers will probably get bored and won’t be impacted.

It can be very powerful to convey emotions quickly. One sentence or paragraph could be enough. And it often leaves a bigger impression on the reader.

Similarly, you don’t want to inundate your writing with one emotional scene after the other. Your readers need a break, otherwise they will become drained and won’t feel anything after a while. Save the tear-jerking for when it is most appropariate and it will be impactful.

5. Allow yourself to feel the emotions

I hate to break it to you, but writing is feeling. It’s exposing yourself to the things your characters are going through and allowing yourself to feel it completely.

If you allow yourself to be consumed by the emotions of your character, chances are that you’ll write a very powerful scene.

So, let yourself be happy and smile at your computer screen like an idiot. Be mad. Start crying. It’s a part of the writing process and it’s beautiful.

If you have any further questions about this topic (or any other aspect of creative writing) please feel free to ask.

If you get punched in the nose your eyes will water, a lot, even if it didn’t really hurt

Your body follows your head, your head gets pushed one way and your body will want to go that way

Getting hit in the stomach isn’t good, it hurts, getting hit in the diaphragm is worse. Causes your lungs to kinda spasm and make it hard to breathe (diaphragm is between stomach and chest)

When fighting a larger person they will have an easier time forcing you back

The jaw is the knockout button. Hit it hard enough and down for the count

Back of the head is very vulnerable, can cause serious damage if hit there

Kidney punches. They hurt. A lot.

People with experience will try to be where they are comfortable. A wrestler will try to get their opponent on the ground, a boxer will stay on their feet, etc.

Easiest counter to a kick is to get closer to whoever is throwing it, then they won’t have enough room for it to be effective

The 75 most common words make up 40% of occurrences The 200 most common words make up 50% of occurrences The 524 most common words make up 60% of occurrences The 1257 most common words make up 70% of occurrences The 2925 most common words make up 80% of occurrences The 7444 most common words make up 90% of occurrences The 13374 most common words make up 95% of occurrences The 25508 most common words make up 99% of occurrences

(Source: 5 Steps to Speak a New Language by Hung Quang Pham)

This article has an excellent summary on how to rapidly learn a new language within 90 days.

We can begin with studying the first 600 words. Of course chucking is an effective way to memorize words readily. Here’s a list to translate into the language you desire to learn that Derek Roger suggested! :)

EXPRESSIONS OF POLITENESS (about 50 expressions)      

‘Yes’ and ‘no’: yes, no, absolutely, no way, exactly.    

Question words: when? where? how? how much? how many? why? what? who? which? whose?    

Apologizing: excuse me, sorry to interrupt, well now, I’m afraid so, I’m afraid not.    

Meeting and parting: good morning, good afternoon, good evening, hello, goodbye, cheers, see you later, pleased to meet you, nice to have met.    

Interjections: please, thank you, don’t mention it, sorry, it’ll be done, I agree, congratulations, thank heavens, nonsense.    

NOUNS (about 120 words)

Time: morning, afternoon, evening, night; Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; spring, summer, autumn, winter; time, occasion, minute, half-hour, hour, day, week, month, year.    

People: family, relative, mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother, husband, wife; colleague, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend; people, person, human being, man, woman, lady, gentleman, boy, girl, child.    

Objects: address, bag, book, car, clothes, key, letter (=to post), light (=lamp), money, name, newspaper, pen, pencil, picture, suitcase, thing, ticket.    

Places: place, world, country, town, street, road, school, shop, house, apartment, room, ground; Britain, name of the foreign country, British town-names, foreign town-names.    

Abstract: accident, beginning, change, color, damage, fun, half, help, joke, journey, language, English, name of the foreign language, letter (of alphabet), life, love, mistake, news, page, pain, part, question, reason, sort, surprise, way (=method), weather, work.    

Other: hand, foot, head, eye, mouth, voice; the left, the right; the top, the bottom, the side; air, water, sun, bread, food, paper, noise.    

PREPOSITIONS (about 40 words)    

General: of, to, at, for, from, in, on.    

Logical: about, according-to, except, like, against, with, without, by, despite, instead of.    

Space: into, out of, outside, towards, away from, behind, in front of, beside, next to, between, above, on top of, below, under, underneath, near to, a long way from, through.    

Time: after, ago, before, during, since, until.    

DETERMINERS (about 80 words)  

Articles and numbers: a, the; nos. 0–20; nos. 30–100; nos. 200–1000; last, next, 1st–12th.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Possessive: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.    

Quantifiers: all, some, no, any, many, much, more, less, a few, several, whole, a little, a lot of.    

Comparators: both, neither, each, every, other, another, same, different, such.    

ADJECTIVES (about 80 words)    

Color: black, blue, green, red, white, yellow.    

Evaluative: bad, good, terrible; important, urgent, necessary; possible, impossible; right, wrong, true.    

General: big, little, small, heavy; high, low; hot, cold, warm; easy, difficult; cheap, expensive; clean, dirty; beautiful, funny (=comical), funny (=odd), usual, common (=shared), nice, pretty, wonderful; boring, interesting, dangerous, safe; short, tall, long; new, old; calm, clear, dry; fast, slow; finished, free, full, light (=not dark), open, quiet, ready, strong.    

Personal: afraid, alone, angry, certain, cheerful, dead, famous, glad, happy, ill, kind, married, pleased, sorry, stupid, surprised, tired, well, worried, young.    

VERBS (about 100 words)    

arrive, ask, be, be able to, become, begin, believe, borrow, bring, buy, can, change, check, collect, come, continue, cry, do, drop, eat, fall, feel, find, finish, forget, give, going to, have, have to, hear, help, hold, hope, hurt (oneself), hurt (someone else), keep, know, laugh, learn, leave, lend, let (=allow), lie down, like, listen, live (=be alive), live (=reside), look (at), look for, lose, love, make, may (=permission), may (=possibility), mean, meet, must, need, obtain, open, ought to, pay, play, put, read, remember, say, see, sell, send, should, show, shut, sing, sleep, speak, stand, stay, stop, suggest, take, talk, teach, think, travel, try, understand, use, used to, wait for, walk, want, watch, will, work (=operate), work (=toil), worry, would, write.    

PRONOUNS (about 40 words)

Personal: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, one; myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.    

Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs.    

Demonstrative: this, that.    

Universal: everyone, everybody, everything, each, both, all, one, another.

Indefinite: someone, somebody, something, some, a few, a little, more, less; anyone, anybody, anything, any, either, much, many.    

Negative: no-one, nobody, nothing, none, neither.    

ADVERBS (about 60 words)

Place: here, there, above, over, below, in front, behind, nearby, a long way away, inside, outside, to the right, to the left, somewhere, anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, home, upstairs, downstairs.    

Time: now, soon, immediately, quickly, finally, again, once, for a long time, today, generally, sometimes, always, often, before, after, early, late, never, not yet, still, already, then (=at that time), then (=next), yesterday, tomorrow, tonight.    

Quantifiers: a little, about (=approximately), almost, at least, completely, very, enough, exactly, just, not, too much, more, less.    

Manner: also, especially, gradually, of course, only, otherwise, perhaps, probably, quite, so, then (=therefore), too (=also), unfortunately, very much, well.    

CONJUNCTIONS (about 30 words)

Coordinating: and, but, or; as, than, like.    

Time & Place: when, while, before, after, since (=time), until; where.    

Prepare yourself mentally

You’ll need to accept three things:

It won’t be the novel you have in your head.

It will be the worst novel anyone has ever written.

You can fix items 1 and 2 in the subsequent drafts. 

It’s easy to give up an idea when it looks like everything is going horribly. It’s easy to fall out of love with an idea when all the things you thought you loved about it aren’t showing up on the page. 

But let me tell you, this happens with so many books. They don’t pop out perfectly formed. To use an overwrought metaphor, if books were sculptures, writing the first draft would be mining the marble. You can chisel it down to that beautiful work of art later, but first you need to gather the raw material to work with.

 It probably won’t be pretty. It’ll be a great lump of words that may or may not form a coherent story. But that thing you want desperately? that story you can see so clearly inside your head? It will be in there somewhere. 

Make yourself accountable

It would be great if all writing a novel took was a strike of inspiration that could carry you over all 50k+ words. But for the majority of us, this isn’t the case. 

Your inspiration, your love of the idea alone, will not get you through this. 

It’s going to take blood and sweat and an astounding amount of perseverance. 

What will help more than any muse is accountability. A sense of responsibility and urgency to get this novel finished. 

Most of us need stakes and consequences. We need to be held accountable. This can take many forms. If you’re good at self motivation, you can hold yourself accountable. Make a plan of what you need to do to get the draft out, and hold yourself to it. 

If you need some external accountability, tell a friend your goals and send your work to them on a schedule. Join a writing group. Take part in NaNoWriMo. Tweet your goals and daily word counts. 

I’m in a writing master’s program. If I don’t write for weeks, I don’t have work to turn in to my manuscript tutor and that’s an unpleasant place for me to be. If I don’t write for months, I fail my course. As motivation goes, it can be stressful, but it helps me get words on the page. 

Start now

Do you want to write a novel? Right now. As you read this. Do you actually want to write a novel? If that answer is yes, start right now. Stop reading this (make sure to come back later to finish it, though.) Log off of tumblr and start writing. 

There are always going to be reasons why this, right now, is a Bad Time for you start. You have things to do, places to go, people to see. You have obligations and responsibilities. Life tip? That is never going to go away. It will always be a Bad Time to sit down and write a book. 

I’m a very slow writer, but I can train myself to write 800 words in 20 minutes if I want. If I wrote for 20 minutes every day, I could write a draft of a 50k novel in two months. That’s the same amount of time as the commercial breaks in an hour long tv show. If I watched an hour long tv show once a day and wrote during the commercials, I could write a 50k draft in two months. 

That’s nothing at all. 

I promise you, you have everything you need to sit down and start writing this very second. You have enough spare time in your day to finish a draft in a matter of months. 

If you really want to write that novel, there are no excuses. Start now. 

Keep Going

Remember how I told you that the first thing you have to do is prepare yourself mentally? Those are things you have to continually remind yourself as you write. 

It’s not going to be the novel in your head. 

It’s going to be the worst novel anyone has ever written. 

You’re going to have to accept these two horrible sentences as facts and keep going. 

At points, you’re going to hate your story. It’s going to be the very last thing you’ll want to waste your time on.

That’s fine. Believe it or not, that’s natural. 

Keep going. 

You’re going to want to change it. You might have a new idea for the beginning. You might decide on a new name for the main character halfway through. You might switch from past to present tense randomly. 

Those are all things you can fix in the second draft. 

Keep going. 

Your first draft doesn’t need to be coherent. It doesn’t need to be good. It just needs to be. 

You’re not trying to write the best novel ever. You’re not trying to write a good novel. Again, those are for the subsequent drafts. 

Now, your only goal is to reach the words: “The End.” 

Do whatever it takes to get to them. 

TIPS

Keep a notebook of ideas for revisions next to you while you write to help fight against the urge to go back and change things as you write. 

Use writeordie.com to kickstart your word count and writing speed if you’re having trouble getting things on the page. 

Take a look at my list of writers’ block aids. 

Show them being in pain

Hours after the fact

Days

Give them a wrist that clicks funny for months instead of a badass scar that only gets attention when the character needs to seem cooler

Introducing Magic Lore

When it comes to magic, I am a huge proponent of no info-dumping just to explain magic.

I personally find that readers don’t actually need to know everything right off the bat because an in-depth explanation of magic tends to take away from the narrative and bore people — so the best time is not in the beginning. Don’t show all of your cards right away!

My favorite way to introduce magic lore and explanation is to bring it up as it becomes relevant. This way you’re sprinkling bits and pieces of information as they become important, and it doesn’t feel like you’re taking away from the story to force an explanation. Readers are smarter than people often think they are, and they don’t need their hand held!

 Here are some suggestions of how to do this!

Have a character that doesn’t know how magic works.

If there’s a character that has no idea how magic in this world works, your audience can learn about how magic works alongside this character!

When you want to explain something, you can have this clueless character bring up that thing, and have a more knowledgeable character explain it, or have them discover the answer on their own.

The difficult thing about this method is balancing how much the character doesn’t know, and how much they ask. It gets annoying if it happens too often, but you also have to remember that they might possibly not know the things that are considered common knowledge in that setting — I think one of the best ways to work with this is to just have them question as much as possible, and have beta readers tell you if you’re doing it too much.

Harry Potter is a good example of this: He’s the main character who had no idea magic existed and that he was a wizard. Throughout the entire series — but especially the first book — Harry is in awe of the magical world, and more knowledgeable characters (Hagrid, Ron, Hermione, etc) help explain the rules of magic, how it works, and how society functions as a result.

Tales of the Abyss also did a similar thing, with a main character who had literally never been outside of his estate. He didn’t have any idea how magic worked, or the politics of their conflicted world — so through the entire story he’s constantly learning about everything in the world.

Explain it the first time it comes up

So maybe you don’t have a character that’s completely clueless — that’s okay! 

For example, let’s say that there’s five types of magic in your story, and your main character uses type 1. In the beginning of the story, maybe you only talk about type 1 magic because your main character is using it.

Eventually, when you introduce a character who uses type 4 magic, it’ll be the first time your readers ever encounter type 4 magic — or even that there are multiple types of magic. This is your opportunity to elaborate on type 4 magic and explain it a bit, and mention the other types of magic. 

Explain an outlier

I don’t know how your magic works, but sometimes there are people who use magic differently than what is considered standard. If you have a character who uses magic in a different way, it is your opportunity to elaborate upon what is different, and make a comparison/explanation to the standard style of magic.

Maybe something unexpected happens — elaborate on what was supposed to happen, and speculate why it didn’t. This can provide really relevant and interesting information for your readers.

Create disagreement or discussion

You know how things work, but do your characters know how things work? Even in science there are a multitude of conflicting theories about how things on Earth work — you can do the same thing in your story! Maybe a couple of your characters don’t agree with each other on how something works, or the theory behind it and they get in an argument about it. This can reveal a lot about not only those characters like how they argue, what they’re passionate about, their opinions on magic, it can also help explain a lot of magic lore and what knowledge about it exists.

Is it not yet completely insane for someone who engages in combat a lot to have long, say shoulder-length, hair? I saw your posts about armour and put two and two together when you said anything that can be grabbed isn’t that good of an idea, so hair…?

This one’s pretty simple; you’ve identified one of the two main issues.

So, long hair is a detriment to combat effectiveness, but it’s not terminal. You don’t want hair that will get in the way, and you don’t want hair that can be grabbed. After that, do what you want.

So, long hair will, usually, get in the way. No matter your best intentions, it’ll fall in front of your face, get in your eyes, and, generally, make a nuisance out of itself at every opportunity. Before someone tries to come down on me for this: I’ve had long hair for most of my life. I know.

The simplest answer is: You bind it back in a tight ponytail; that will keep it out of the way. Historically, this has been men’s fashion in a number of cultures. Ideally a shorter ponytail is better than a longer one, but to some extent, it doesn’t matter. Buns are also an option, as are dreadlocks and tight braids. Anything that keeps the hair out of the way will do the job.

So, why bother? Because in colder climates, long hair will keep your head warm. Hair is a fantastic insulator, and if you’re living on a tundra, that will help keep your head warm when you’re out working. When you’re fighting, you’ll probably want to tie it back.

The other reason is, yes, someone can grab you by your hair. There’s a couple caveats here, and they depend on the kind of combat you’re in. In a fight with bladed weapons, going for someone’s hair is a good way to get carved up. You’re giving up one hand, and limiting your mobility, and hoping your opponent won’t use one hand to grab your weapon arm, and the other one to run you through repeatedly. This is less of a consideration if your foe is wearing armor, though, at that point, you probably are as well, and getting into the situation in the first place is going to be harder.

Also, ponytails blunt the effect of having your hair pulled. I suspect this has something to do with how it distributes the force across the scalp, but a ponytail will not offer the same control grabbing a fist full of loose hair will.

In ranged combat, somewhat obviously, you’re not going to be getting a grip on someone’s hair, and some the same considerations apply as the previous example. If you do get in close enough to grab their hair, they’ll probably pump a couple rounds into you.

Not, strictly related, but long hair can be a detriment when working around heavy machinery. If it gets caught, it can get pulled in. So, that’s something else to avoid. At that point, even the ponytail can be serious safety issue. This is more of a general, “yeah, long hair can be a detriment, than a specific issue, and shoulder length shouldn’t be a problem.

So, no, nothing insane about having hair, that’s normal, and long hair is common enough, but it does come with special considerations.

-Starke

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I want this story to be written

I don’t want this story to be written by anyone but me

It’s been a while I have made any update here, and I’m sorry about that. This second part seems to have taken forever, but it’s finally finished. Here’s the ending part of the novel The Pursuer Kagari Shuusei. 

First part can be found here.

As promised, this is a summary-translation to Kagari’s novel, The Pursuer Kagari Shuusei. The novel consists of 5 chapters plus the prologue and epilogue. This first part contains the prologue, chapter 1 and chapter 2. Enjoy. :) 

The Pursuer Kagari Shuusei ½

One of the biggest issues I’ve seen with plans in fiction is that they usually only succeed because the author made them. That is to say, they rely on things that the characters shouldn’t have or should be able to count on, that just happen to work out because they’re needed for plot reasons. So when you’re planning characters’ plans, here are some things to consider:

Do they rely heavily on luck/things just going their way?

Do they require knowledge or information that the characters have no way of knowing (intimate details of their opponents abilities, specifications of a location that they’ve never been to, etc.)?

Do they work only if nothing goes wrong?

Do they require those outside of the plan (including the opponent) making a very specific set of decisions, particularly a set that they wouldn’t reliably make?

Are they extremely complication/convoluted?

Is the chance of success exceedingly low?

Yesssssssssssssss someone finally asked it!!!

I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to explain this and show everybody my inverted pyramid :D :D :D

I present, The Inverted Pyramid of Revising a Book

Now I’ll explain each section of the inverted pyramid:

THE FIRST DRAFT

This should be self-explanatory. You write the first draft. For novels, 75-150,000+ words of the world inside your head.

PLOT, CONTENT, SCENES, AND MAJOR CHARACTERS

Go back and fix it all up. Did you tell the story you wanted to tell? Did you include scenes and events that add up to the conclusion you present?

Are there any unnecessary scenes you could delete, or scenes that are redundant to other scenes? Get rid of them. If this means entire chapters have to go, wave bye-bye.

Do your main characters have believable back stories and arcs, and do they act appropriately in character at all times?

Is there any point in time when your characters do something that they literally WOULD NOT DO? Change that up.

WORLD-BUILDING, CHARACTERIZATION, HONING IN PLOT POINTS

Now pay attention to the deeper aspects of the story. Delve into the world your characters live in. Do they react appropriately? Does any part of society influence them more than others?

What does your world look like? Delve into the setting. The cultures, the technology, the history.

Work with your secondary characters and how they interact with your main characters. What role do they serve overall? Does the main character’s journey affect them at all, or vice versa?

Tighten up plot points. Stay concise if possible.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE, FLOW AND PACING OF SCENES

Now that the major parts of your story have been patted down, you can begin focusing on the technical stuff. Start broad.

Do you have redundant sentences? Do you start multiple sentences the same way?

Throw in short sentences.

Drop the pronoun from the beginning of a sentence every now and then.

Use commas instead of ‘and’ if you find you use ‘and’ a lot.

Does the flow of sentences and paragraphs fit with the tone of the scene?

Chop sentences apart. Use quick, sharp words.

Or combine sentences and flowery language and soft words.

BETA READER CRITIQUES AND SUGGESTIONS

Now that you’ve really patted this thing down, find people willing to read your work (hopefully for free).

Ask them to point out inconsistencies. Are they confused by anything?

Beta readers can tell you when things are boring or exciting. They’ll laugh. They’ll fangirl. They’ll beg you for more chapters.

Your brain is soft from so much revising. Beta readers are fresh, and will pick out things you’ve glossed over from seeing it so many times.

Shake things up and host a video chat for you and your betas! It’s a great way to make friends :)

PUNCTUATION AND MISSING WORDS

NOWWWWW you’ve finished all the major revisions and your story makes sense!!! All that’s left to do is get the broom and sweep it up (or the vacuum cleaner, or generate a black hole from the Large Hadron Collider to suck out all the errors because that’s super-effective**).

This is the nitty gritty stuff, and I highly recommend either forcing yourself to read really, really slow, or better yet, read your book out loud, start to finish.

You’ll trip up over misplaced commas and periods.

You’ll literally hear when a sentence is awkward.

Your brain will get confused when there’s a missing word.

Fill in the gaps, hammer down the boards, tidy up the place like you’ve got guests coming over.

THE FINAL DRAFT

OMG

OMG

OMG

OMG IT’S FINISHED AND YOU CAN SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD AND BUY PHYSICAL COPIES THAT YOU CAN HOLD AND SMELL AND RUB ALL OVER YOUR FACE AND DRAW IN AND DOG-EAR AND TOTE AROUND TO SHOW PEOPLE AND SIGN AUTOGRAPHS AND BECOME YOUR OWN LITTLE CELEBRITY!!!

Email the newspaper (I’ve appeared multiple times).

Email the local TV station (I’ve appeared on live TV).

Email book talk radio shows (I’ve had a Q&A for an hour on live radio).

……..Marketing is hard.

I hope that helps!

If your characters have recently experienced something difficult and you want to expand on the emotions that they feel afterwards, I have a couple of tips for writing realistic emotions after the fact.

During the Event

During the actual difficult event, whether a member of the group has died, been kidnapped, or people are in a stressful situation, people react in ways you wouldn’t expect.

Gallows humor is a great example of this! If people are helpless during a difficult event, the easiest way to cope with it is to make jokes about it. This separates the serious, life-threatening event from the jokes they make.

Expect a lot of praying from religious and non-religious people, quiet panic attacks, and surrealist humor. The people next to your character will become very close with them during this time (even if it doesn’t last after the fact).

Your characters might turn to random topics, like the past (ooh, convenient flashback time!), their plans if stuff hadn’t happened, or something stupid like a funny story they once heard.

Mob mentality, folks. People are fragile during events like this, so if one person has even a semblance of leadership, they’ll listen.

How Do They React?

After the fact, people try to cope with it the way that they’re most used to.

Your characters will be closer to each other. They’ll lean on each other and be personal in ways you wouldn’t normally think of.

Is your character in touch with their emotions? Expect a lot of crying, anxiety, and compassion. These people will recover quickly because they’re able to deal with it by facing it head on.

Is your character cold-hearted and reasonable? Expect a lot of irrational rationalization. They’ll try to frame the situation in a way that it doesn’t affect them. This can separate them from the rest of the group.

Is your character tough and resilient? Expect anger and action. If they have supporting friends, these people are the most likely to fight back.

Does your character already struggle with trauma, anxiety, or depression? They might not process the event until much later. They’ll look fine during and right after, but these characters might deal with severe dissociation and anxiety, even PTSD. Recovering will be a long process.

The Group Together