Showing posts with label emotions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emotions. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Taking emotions to another level


Taken from Google.com
Here’s one thing about me that’s not a secret. I don’t do emotions. At least not very well. In Bad Teacher starring Cameron Diaz (and the delicious Justin Timberlake) there’s a scene where one of her students is crying and she turns around in the opposite direction. Um, that’s me. The good part is that I only think about walking away, but in the end I find out what’s wrong with the student.

In my own life, the only emotions I like dealing with are anger and joy, of which I am an expert. Everything else gets murky. I happened to carry aspects of my personality into my writing when I wrote the first draft of Midwife to Destiny. I had these scenes that were supposed to be emotional, but fell flat. Only because of my own inability to emote.

In comes my fabulous editor, Zee Monodee, who forced me to have my characters express their emotions. It had to be the hardest thing I have ever done in my writing career.  When a friend of mine read it and gave me feedback after it was published, she told me that she cried during one of the scenes. Sick me was happy that I’d upset her.

The moral of the story? In order for people to relate to my characters I have to relate to my own emotions. Not easy, not fun, but so worth it.


Blurb

Ghanaian nurse Aurora ‘Ora’ Aikins never expected to find the love of her life while on vacation in South Africa. Engaged to another and believing that love has no place in her life, she returns to Ghana, and puts duty and honor first.

Three years later, Dr. Jason Lartey still can’t get Ora out of his mind or his heart. After learning she never married, he takes a risk and moves to Ghana hoping to rekindle what they started. His sudden appearance in Ora’s Emergency Department sends sparks flying all over again.

They’re in the same country, working in the same hospital, and together but distance creeps between them. Can they make their destined love one for the ages?  

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Monday, 28 January 2013

Reading people’s eyes in romance novels- a big fat lie!


    Ever since I started reading romance novels I’ve seen statements like, “Her eyes were sad” or “Anger flashed in his eyes” or “Her eyes glittered with mischief.”

   After reading about how all of these characters could ‘read’ people’s eyes I took to looking deeply into people’s eyes to see if I could read their emotions or see any glittering going on.
   What I found in people’s eyes were black pupils, colored irises and sclera. Not a single emotion to be found. I asked a friend if she could read people’s eyes and she said yes (I thought she was lying, but I didn’t call her on it just in case I was wrong).
   I have come to accept that I can’t read people’s eyes. What I can do is read their expressions. It’s not as romantic but when you don’t posses a skill you must improvise.

Are emotions really reflected in the eyes or is that a narrative myth? Let me know your opinion (and if you can read people’s eyes let me know what you see exactly).