#indignodeserhumano

Indigno de ser humano

—¿Estás listo? ¿El tabaco? —pregunté. —Trágico —repuso Horiki en el acto. —¿Y los medicamentos? —¿En polvo o en tabletas? —Las inyecciones. —Trágicas. —No sé… También hay inyecciones de hormonas. —Trágicas, sin lugar a dudas. ¿No son las agujas de lo más trágico? —Bueno, tú ganas. Pero ¿no te parece sorprendente que las medicinas y los médicos sean cómicos? ¿Y la muerte? —Cómica. Tanto en el caso del cristianismo como del budismo. —¡Muy bien! Entonces, la vida es trágica. —No, también es cómica. —No puede ser. A este paso todo va a ser cómico.

Osamu Dazai. 

I really enjoy a character who expresses emotions, I find them far more interesting than tough guys. But as we all may know, characters who are overly emotional or constantly crying can very quickly lose their appeal. It’s important to minimize the water works to keep the reader interested. 

1. Other ways of expressing pain! Think of the common “show, don’t tell” rule. It can apply here. You don’t always need to use paragraphs explaining what his pain is like or what the tears are like. Instead, try simply implying the emotions underneath. You can do that by using imagery, subtext, sensory clues, dialogue, and so on. Here’s a good page that elaborates on these concepts. 

Simple searches can yield many results when it comes to finding other ways that people may express emotion:

Body Language Cheat Sheet

Body Language as a Writing Tool

I also recommend just looking at the image results on Google for some simple cheat sheets and such. Particularly focusing on expressing distress in ways other than crying: a character could become very shaky, they could have to push back tears, they could feel very hollow or seem very cold/empty, they might have an outburst of anger or frustration at their crappy situation, their voice could waver, they could have something like a panic attack, hyperventilate, they could sort of kick into a fight/flight/freeze mode depending on the situation, etc.

2. Besides avoiding crying by substituting in other body language, it’s important for your character to grow and learn to manage his emotions. If he’s in crappy situations or moods a lot, he might over time develop different ways to get through it besides crying. Maybe he becomes “tougher” and stops taking things very emotionally, in a healthy or unhealthy way, or perhaps he teaches himself to deal with things differently, be it deep breathing, or counting, or whatever he needs to do to let the moment pass.

I think one thing that annoys the readers the most about constantly crying characters is that, in the time that they are crying, they could be doing something else, perhaps even something to better their situation. Sure, we all need to break down sometimes before we can get back up again, but try to judge the situation and what it calls for. Sometimes we need to rally in the moment, by instinct, and do what we need to do, and if we need to deal with the emotional toll later, than later it is, as a better time. Basically, for crying scenes, timing is very important. Sure, maybe they are in a stressful situation, but if it’s a scene of intensity or action, it should be fast paced and exciting, and the emotions can be dwelt upon later. 

3. Not everything if worth crying about. Again, judge the situations. Intense emotions can drive different reactions. Typically, it’s easiest to cry when one feels helpless. If he is feeling helpless or frustrated, it could make sense to break down. If he is feeling afraid, or angry, or some other type of intensity, it could drive different sorts of actions. And again, as he grows and learns to deal with things, not every situation will require an emotional reaction at all, or at least not much of one.

As a writer, be careful not to dwell too much on the angst when it doesn’t call for it. Not everything needs to have tears or angst-filled monologues or paragraphs to explain how they are feeling. Your readers are smart. If the context is there, they probably know how he feels already, or have some idea. We’ve all been through sucky situations. We get it. Sometimes there is no need to draw it out, it will only make the scene more boring and whiny. Like I said in point one, you can use subtext and other clues to allude to the emotional intensity of the scene. 

4. If you’re still having trouble judging what scenes or situations are “cry worthy”, try a little exercise to keep it within limit. First, think of all the emotional moments in the story in which you would normally make Valentine cry. Write them all down in a list. Then, sort them in a list of most intense to least intense. After that, evaluate each scene for practicality. Would crying make sense here, or is there something else he could be doing that suits this particular situation? Would crying at this particular moment slow down the story or make the reader feel frustrated at a time where the pacing should be different? Sort out the particulars of each scene and decide which ones are really worthy of tears. Also keep in mind what else he had been through up to that point and whether or not those experiences had hardened him at all. Then, the situations at the bottom of the emotional list are unlikely to be as worth the tears.

5. Evaluate the overall tone of the story. It’s also possible that your character is crying too much because the story over all is too dramatic or doesn’t have enough of an emotional balance. A lot of writers are inclined to write lots of dramatic or intense scenes because they are so intense and deeply connected, so it’s super easy to go overboard. Readers, however, need a good roller coaster of emotions to stay interested in a story, and roller coasters are nothing without the high points, too. Take a step back and check every now and again if the story is on a constant down. 

Thanks so much for sharing, hope this helps!

Hello! Apologies for the delay in my reply. 

It’s not necessarily bad for him to feel sad a lot if that’s part of his character and story. The issue is how does he work through this sadness? Does he make progress in dealing with his feelings in a better/healthier way? If he’s just sad for the sake of being sad, it could get old or boring really quick, but if you use his sadness and how he deals with it to portray character development, it will both make more sense and make it more tolerable to read without it being repetitive to the point where nobody sympathizes with him, if that makes sense.

Your English is great and I hope this was helpful!

Pero son como una vaca pastando tranquila que, de repente, levanta la cola y descarga un latigazo sobre el tabano.

Indigno de ser humano

Libro: Indigno de ser humano