: How do I ensure what I am writing captures what I'm feeling as I write it? If I want a character to respond with anger, I want the reader to understand why the character is angry. I want

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Let me explain with a scene-building technique I've learned.

A scene is composed by some elements. Three of them are: the atmosphere, the moldure and the action. Lets say I want to create a scene where the character opens the door of a room in a creppy and abandoned pirate ship, and I shall use these three to explain them. In this example, I want to build the emotion: fear.

(PS: Sorry if my english fails, I'm not a native english speaker.)

Little Charlie walked down the stairs to the dormitory. The blue ghosty light of the moon traversed the small windows and the broken parts of the grey woods of what should be the wall of the ship. The wind creeps in making it sound like a whisper from a dead bride. He stares the door to the captain's room and imagine if he will open the door to hell.

What is the technique?

The atmosphere are said to be "variable things" in the place. The light of the moon that gets in the place, the slow and cold wind that enters the place, the sound of the wood creaking and the ghosty wind entering the room... (It is said that Stephen King is the master of atmosphere.)

The moldure is the image, the objects and positions. The barrels, the bottles in the floor, the hammcocks in which the pirates slept... Have you noticed that I did not mentioned them even once but you probably had imagined it? Should I tell that there were hammcocks, barrels or bottles in the dormitory? Probably not, UNLESS there is something uncommon in it, like a fountain of beer or a statue of a cat.

The action is the movement and actions of objects and/or characters. In this case, the only action I used was Little Charlie staring at the door and feeling something.

If you use this technique, you will manage to build emotion more easily, because you will know what a scene is made of. The use of the right words are also the key for building the emotion. You can only select the right words by your own experience and by using figures os speech such as metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, etc.

Also, if you think that the scene still dont pass the good emotion you want it to pass, you can always solve this in the revisions and editings.

And just a final comment, if you still dont feel safe about the emotion you want to pass in the scene, I think that you are facing a terrible bad that many writers face today: perfectionism.

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Put it down and read it later.

It can hard to tell whether you are properly conveying an emotion while you are writing. You are the author; of course you know what emotion you want readers to experience. Put it down and come back to it. Become a reader of your story rather than the author. Then ask yourself what your writing makes you feel when you read it. Does it still convey the emotion you want it to convey? If not, what do you need to change?

As you reread it, think about why the writing does or doesn't convey the proper emotions. Is it imprecise word choice? Try rewriting using different words. Does the scene not make you feel truly angry? Readers will only be angry for characters or causes they care about. In fact, they likely won't feel much of anything if they don't care about your characters. Does the emotion feel forced? Make sure you have provided enough context to justify the emotion.

Basically, do some editing. When you give your work a little time and distance, you can find and fix this sort of problem much more easily.

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