: Re: How to write internally emotional characters? Over the past couple of days, I've asked questions about writing female characters with agency, and writing female characters as a male writer. Both

@Mendez196

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If I were to write this in my voice, there would be far less formality, less rationality, less insertion of background information. It would all be frantic dialogue and an occasional gesture.
OK, I'm going to write it in my own voice:

Marko looked left, right, out to the sea, each turn of the head a little faster than the last. “I have... I have no idea where we are. Or how we got here. I'm lost."
"Yeah." Celeste folded her arms, then unfolded them again. She had an urgent need to gesture. "Yeah. Unfamiliar. OK. So. OK. There's some explanation here."
"Hon, my first explanation is that I fell and hit my head and this is all a dream. In that scenario, you're not much help."
"Shut up. Not funny." She turned, looking around the area, trying to find something… anything familiar. She saw an olive grove in the distance, but didn’t remember it. Had it been there before? She didn’t know. “Fuck!” She grabbed his hand and squeezed it so hard she hurt her own fingers.
He returned the squeeze. That hurt, too. But it was a comforting reminder that he existed. "We'll be fine. We're both smart, remember? Let's sit down and take inventory."
"Inventory? What the fuck does inventory mean? We're on an island. It looks like the same island, except--redecorated."
"New drapes."
"Not funny. The stonework, that wall, it looks newer. Like somebody made a Hollywood set out of where we were before. If you mention Elizabeth Taylor or Errol Flynn I'm not going to warn you you're not funny; I'm going to hurt you."

I'm not carrying any load here but their frantic confusion, a tiny bit about the setting, and a tiny bit about how they interact while under stress. I feel that's all the situation can support.

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