Published by deborah.woehr on 29 Nov 2005 at 05:06 pm
Writing Emotionally Charged Scenes: Why Are These so Difficult?
I managed to get through the scene where Travis loses his house on top of losing his family over a murder/suicide deal. He’s dealing with that, along with a shady sheriff, and the ghost of a young woman who just started haunting him. At the very end of Chapter 10, he and Amanda return from an errand to find that his house has burned to the ground.
As I’m typing this post, I’m not sure why I wrote this scene in Amanda’s POV. Perhaps I’m looking to see how she handles other people’s grief. This was hard to write because, a) I didn’t want to turn Travis into a Drama King and b) I didn’t want to turn her into a histrionic character.
I also tried to illustrate some awkward feelings when she suggests that he stay in her new house until his is fixed. Their roles suddenly got switched, which I find interesting.
Back to the breakdown scene: She wound up leaving the room because there was nothing else she could do. Everyone handles grief differently, and he kept giving her mixed signals (come here, go away).
Starting from Sunday, I managed to write 1,000 words. Here is my count so far. I’m hoping to get this draft finished by the end of January.
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43,564 / 100,000
(43.6%) |
Benjamin Solah on 29 Nov 2005 at 6:37 pm #
Looks good. I have the problem with trying not to make my characters go out of control with grief. But I just made my character go slowly insane instead
He’s going to an asylum soon, total change of story line but it was inevitable.
Deborah on 29 Nov 2005 at 6:57 pm #
Insanity is good, when it’s on paper.
I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to drive these poor people insane or not. But their experience with that haunted house will leave its mark on them forever.
Pat Kirby on 02 Dec 2005 at 8:18 am #
I kinda like write the emote-y scenes, but I’m a schmaltzy broad. I just let it all spill out on the page. Then, in revision, I pare down the angst.
Deborah on 02 Dec 2005 at 2:05 pm #
That’s a good approach. The next time I come to an emotional scene, I’ll force Ms. Critic to step aside.