Conveying Emotion (Without Emoticons)

In our emails and on social media we can rely on emoticons to convey the tone of our texts, but in our prose, of course, we can't always depend on a crying cat or a monkey covering his eyes; most of the time, we need to use good old-fashioned words. In this seminar we’ll examine ways to make the tone of our written dialogue and exposition inherently clear. We’ll practice showing emotion through our descriptions rather than telling it through adverbs. There are better ways of saying “He said gently” or “I said with surprise,” and in this seminar we'll find out how, and leave with the know-how to slay any emoticon with our words. We'll do some generative exercises in class; students should also bring an excerpt of dialogue from a piece they've written.

Part of GrubStreet's Elements of Craft series, dedicated to exploring craft issues on a deeper level. For more on this series' offerings, click here.