Eric Witchey is a well published author all around the world, and a well respected writing teacher – definitely a writer helping writers! Find him at https://ericwitchey.com/index.html
Eric started his talk by mentioning the two-page handout, “Fiction Fluency Program” describing an upcoming class that will begin in September – https://ericwitchey.com/seminars.html. He said that what we would be doing today is taken from that course, but he was covering the information much faster today, to give us a taste of what the course would offer.
He continued to go over the handout “Fluency in Character Emotion Word Choice.” (Handouts were available online to zoom attendees but have been removed now.) We use “tools” to rewrite our stories, but we don’t always use the right tools. He said that people rewrite and rewrite their stories without fixing the actual problem. He will focus on how readers actually read, not on how writers actually write. Within the story arc, character changes can be broken down, and readers can put the pieces together without actually knowing that they are doing it. Characters can change dramatically with emotional changes, and this is very powerful.
He then said that the story arc can be broken down into movements(groups of scenes), smaller groups of scenes, individual scenes, and steps within a scene. Each should exhibit some sort of change/conflict – not just “battle”. There are many kinds of conflicts, for example person versus self, person versus environment, or person versus person.
The main thing he focused on was what the characters do (or choose not to do) in order to get what they want – and working out what the characters want, as this drives their emotions in what they do. What are they going to get from this specific action? If at this point, they are uncomfortable, they will do something to get what they want; something that does not challenge their belief system. There is an emotional state that drives their decisions. Everything comes back to the character’s belief system.
Belief system is typically a dual state, with characters holding two conflicting beliefs – e.g. I am loved, and I am totally unlovable. This creates conflict and drives the story emotionally.
How readers understand what happens is automatic and not necessarily conscious. There are emotional triggers from your own (reader) memories. But if there are no emotional changes the readers quickly get bored. Eric stressed that he wants the reader to feel and not think. The reader is gathering information without realizing that they are doing so. The thinking can come later.
He then asked us to turn to page 19 of the third handout, “Excerpts from Fiction Fluency”, to do an exercise. He said that a character will literally do something (can be a very small thing) to give them a result. He asked us to pick a thing nearby and write a sentence about it. This exercise was about something right here, right now. What is the emotional state of the character right here right now as they… water a plant for example? Everything goes back to your belief system (I’m a good person and I water plants; I have a duty to look after my mother’s plant, etc). Every emotion drives an action, and every choice connects to your belief system.
Now if you change the words, it changes the story. The word choice is based on the character. You can start outby writing intuitively, but at some point, you need to be analytic and step back and ask how this could be possible. That’s where you edit, not to change words, but to work out whether those are the right words, whether they convey the emotional conflict or are they just unnecessary to the story.
In response to a question about writing about the beginning of an emotion if you, the author, have already lived the story, he said the best thing is to step out of yourself and write about somebody else.
We continued with the exercise, this time adding what emotional state we begin with and the effect of failure(conflict). For example, if you are anxious and knock something over, how do you feel afterwards, after the action? How do the characters feel if they don’t get what they want? This new emotional state will define what you/they will do next.
Readers become engaged in the story, and there is a lot going on while they are reading. Emotions and motivation of character can lead back to your own belief system, making you emotionally invested in what happens next.
One way to tell if what we’ve written works: He said that when he writes something he has the computer read it back to him in its worst voice. Can his words make the worst voice sound good? (Not looking for a voice that makes the worst words sound good.)
We continued with the exercise, now taking all of the backstory out. What is the character’s expectation of the particular object. We must take out the sensory attribution of describing and instead demonstrate a particular feeling, like depression. Instead of using words such as felt, saw, hurt we need to use the character’s emotions/actions to demonstrate the feeling. Additionally, he pointed out, if you are depressed, how long will your sentences be, or are they even entire sentences? You must know the emotion. It all begins with emotion.
Eric then explained that in the English language, the natural order is subject, verb, object. Now if you change the order, this will mean something – it changes the way the emotion of the sentence. How the sentence is phrased (active – s,v,o – or passive voice) depends on who is saying the exact same thing (e.g. the police arrested him, vs he was arrested by the police). This influences readers’ understanding of the situation. What does the character want and why do they want it? And how do they feel at the moment? Readers are building from emotion, thinking what it could mean.
Additionally, if you change the verb in the sentence, you change the situation. A relationship to the particular object was established. He added that this needs practice.
The emotion comes first, then the action. Or else the reader might have to reinterpret the action in the light of an emotion told later. In the same way, actions come before reactions (she jumped; a short rang out – did she jump because of the shot?). Readers will stop and reinterpret a few times, but eventually they’ll get bored and stop reading.
After his excellent talk, he answered some questions. He had brought some books to the library as well. here’s a link to a list of most of his fiction publications. https://ericwitchey.com/publications.htmlA search on his name will reveal current material for purchase. He says he doesn’t know the list of all of the stories can be purchased. But Professor Witchey’s Miracle Mood Cure, Bull’s Labyrinth, Littlest Death, and a few other novels are available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or other sellers. Beware the Boojum was another book.