As humans, we value honesty, but in truth, to protect ourselves from harm, we often turn to deception, especially where emotions are concerned. We mislead others to think we’re feeling one way when we’re experiencing something else, and why?
A few possibilities . . .
- To avoid questions we don’t want to answer
- To avoid facing true feelings (denial)
- To save face in front of others
- To keep a secret
The reasons go on and on. But whatever the motivation, we hide our emotions frequently, and this means that our characters should, too. As authors, we need to know how to show our characters being evasive when it comes to their true feelings.
A common (realistic!) method is the “Just Act Normal” technique. This is when a character disguises their internal feelings by acting like everything’s fine. It can be tough to write as you must show two things at once.
Here’s an example from The Outlaws of Sherwood, by Robin McKinley:
“A wrestler should be a little slippery.” Little John handed Cecily the pot of tallow.
She took it from him daintily, her fingertips not touching his hand, and began to use the palms of her hands, rubbing the long round muscles in a circular motion, using the heels of her hands around the shoulder blades, running the edge of her palm down the spine. She was not so young that she did not know what was happening to her: why her heart was beating too fast, why her breath came hard. She knew, and tried to pretend she was Little John’s sister, and failed.
“That should do,” she said, after a few of the simultaneously longest and shortest minutes of her life. She absent-mindedly went to rub her sticky hands down the front of her bright new tunic when there was an exclamation from her companion and her arms were nearly jerked out of their sockets as Little John grabbed her wrists.
“Not on the tunic! Have you no sense?”
He rubbed each of her hands down each of his forearms and she closed her eyes and thought about fraternal relationships.
Little John said, “Here—are you all right? I am sorry, did I hurt you?”
“Not nearly as much as all the bruises from my quarterstaff lessons, my friend,” she said with a fair imitation of her usual tone.
This exchange clearly shows Cecily’s true emotion – desire – and her attempt to act normal. Her feelings are shown through several indicators:
- The detailed way that she applies tallow to Little John’s skin
- Her thoughts, which are private and safe
- By evading his question
- Through internal sensations, which are unseen and therefore ‘safe’
All of these clues—none of which Little John can see—indicate how she feels. In contrast, her words remain nonchalant, showing what she wants to convey: normalcy.
With emotion, it’s easier to lie with our words than with our bodies.
This is why we turn away when we don’t want people to see what we’re feeling—to give us time to get our bodies under control while we’re saying, “I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”
When your character needs to hide, try this formula:
- Show the true emotion through vehicles that are difficult for others to notice, like internal physical cues and thoughts. Use details, words, and comparisons that indicate whatever emotion your character is truly feeling.
- Show the false emotion through dialogue and forced body cues that are meant to deceive others: controlling one’s tone of voice, rearranging one’s facial expression, trying to mimic “normal” gestures, etc.
To find the exact hidden feelings your character is experiencing,
try this list of 130 Emotions.
Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.
This reminds me of an interview I saw with Rowan Atkinson. The interviewer asked him why he was so good at portraying a drunk. Atkinson said most actors play a drunk by acting drunk, but in reality, when we are drunk, we try to act sober. So when Atkinson plays a drunk, he works hard to convince the view that he’s not</i) drunk.
That’s so very true, isn’t it? When we’ve had too much, it’s all about pretending we’re fine, and feeling we have to prove it, too!
i hide my emotion sometimes but its not good to hide it permanently….
This is a good point about emotions. I’ve never thought about it, but think I tend to naturally write as you described because it’s human nature, which is what we’re supposed to be studying as writers, right?
Great reminder to blend this in with our characterization. I often hide many emotions.
Great stuff as usual. I will be posting this link on my blog soon.
Awesome post! This is a great example of showing versus telling, I think. The truth is in the character’s actions and body language.
What a great blog and learning lesson!! I’m trying this deceptive effect right now with my characters. Thanks for the pointers!!
This is so so so true! I think we get so used to it we don’t even realize we do it unless it’s on a large scale.
Have fun teaching the course! Sounds great!
As a newbie writer, I spent so much time getting the fundamentals down, then trying to write everything perfectly. But people aren’t perfect. We aren’t forthright most of the time with what we’re feeling. So often, we choose our words carefully, not so we can be completely honest, but so we can portray what we want people to see. I’m still chewing on this, but I think it’s these deceptions and misleadings that add transparency to our characters and make them real.
Heading back into my revision to check my non verbal cues. Thank you!
You know, just the other day I was thinking what society would be like if there was no hiding emotions at all. So everyone knew everyone else’s reactions to everything….
Thanks for the post 🙂
Hi, Becca! Great post.
Such a great post and so much to think about the ways we can play with true emotion vs false emotion to give the reader more depth.
Great post, Becca. moments like this, because it allows us a way to deepen our characters and show their conflicting emotions to the reader!
Another great entry! And yes, the war withing must vie with the war without.
This is a great post, Becca. I love writing characters who are trying to hid their real emotions. Apparently I suck at it in real like, as my usually non observant hubby pointed out one day.
Great tips. You’re right. We do hide our emotions often and so should our characters.
The art of the cover-up. We spend a huge amount of time and energy trying to ‘act normal.’