For many years, I received feedback on a manuscript I was writing and rewriting and revising and working hard on. But through the changes, the feedback stayed the same. The readers just weren’t connecting with my protagonist. Something was missing. I struggled and fought and applied everything I could find to what I thought was the problem, whether it was plotting, or motive, or characterization.
One fateful day, I sat in my car at a lake – after chasing kids to where they needed to be – and had a phone call critique with a well-known author I admired. I’d snagged this critique as a part of an SCBWI event. I remember the moment vividly because what he said to me changed the trajectory of my writing as a whole. He said what no one else had ever been able to articulate. He told me what was missing, and pointed to specific places where it was missing.
My protagonist wasn’t acting completely on his emotions.
Sounds simple right?
In the moments of scenes when emotions were present, my story continued without a complete emotional response from my main character. My writing was too spare emotionally, and the reader wasn’t able to read between the lines to see what my character was feeling. I needed more emotion. But not just emotion itself – emotional response in the tiny moments. He needed to act in the moment so the reader knew how he felt. I couldn’t assume as the writer that the eye blinks and fidgets were enough to convey the message to the reader. My character needed a more complete emotional response to emotions felt.
Since that fateful conversation, I’ve become quite adept at noticing the emotional responses of the characters I’m reading. In middle grade, those emotional responses are vital for connection with your reader. Making sure your main character acts on his emotions is key to connection.
The Complete Emotional Response
Defining emotions, recognizing when an emotional response is warranted, and then how to have your protagonist act with a complete emotional response are all writing pieces we need to work to strengthen. Your middle grade readers need to connect, and they do that through relatable emotions and decisions your main character makes. There are several factors that affect those decisions – choice index, motive, environment, etc – but they are all also influenced by emotions. The ‘in the moment’ emotions your protagonist feels, and how they respond, are directly associated with whether or not your reader relates.
I made a video where I talk about defining emotions in your writing, recognizing when your main character should be having an emotional response, and what a connectable ‘acting on this response’ looks like in middle grade fiction. Hint: a complete response is necessary. I also give some great examples from strong middle grade books. You can access the video Acting On Emotion here.
Creating an appropriate emotional response from your main character will resonate with your readers on a much more personal scale, and they’ll connect to your story in a stronger way.
Acting On Emotion Resource
There are so many ways to insert emotion into the action and dialogue. Sometimes we get so caught up in presenting all we want to see that we forget to let our protagonists respond. Responding and acting on emotional experiences are key to connecting with your readers. But how do you know what your main character is actually feeling? How would they define it? What would that look like on the page?
Often, because we’re working from a kid’s point of view, the emotions are only defined by the complete response. Their words alone don’t do it. Their actions aren’t the compete picture. And their thoughts are often slightly off because of their lack of experience. The complete response to emotional situations needs to include all 3 – thoughts, words, and actions. And you as the writer need to understand and be clear as to how those emotions are being defined in their heads – even if they can’t define it themselves. You have to, so the reader can relate when they see the complete response.
I created a resource guide that lists middle-grade common emotions. This list will help you narrow and define not only the emotions being felt, but the possible responses as they come out for the world to see. This MG Emotional Response resource chart can guide you in making sure your protagonist is acting on the emotions they feel in an appropriate way.
Learning to recognize how you write those emotional responses will help you see what pieces need to be strengthened and what pieces are missing altogether.
Crafting your protagonist to act on their emotions in a complete way will make them shine.