#liz generally

[nanowrimo]

Angst: How to Hurt Your Characters and Make It Count

As a writer, you’re probably familiar with putting your characters through painful situations. But how can we make all that suffering worth it? NaNo Participant Liz Generally has some advice on how to write effective angst! Arabella K Federico said, “Write pain so effectively, your readers will be begging for it to end.”

When you find yourself emotionally invested in your characters, hurting them can feel outright wrong. But sometimes, for the sake of your story, you just have to push them off the cliff (metaphorically or physically!)

Make it hurt. Dig deep, and reach into the darkest pits of emotional and physical pain. Give your readers a reason to break for your character. There are a few methods you can use to do this.

1. Physical Pain

Pain is a powerful motivator. It can cause people to act out of character, lash out, create out-of-character emotional outbursts or realizations, or show previously unknown care. This can also make your character more relatable to your readers. Pain doesn’t just affect the person experiencing it!

2. Mental or Emotional Pain

What is your character’s worst fear? The nightmare that keeps them up at night? Are they afraid of losing someone close to them? Are they terrified of leaving someone behind? Use that to heighten the consequences of a scene. Characters who experience intense emotional or mental pain become more real to your readers, especially if they have experienced similar mental or emotional pain.

3. Spiritual Pain

Although spiritual pain generally results from either physical, mental, or emotional pain, it can be a very effective method to hurt your character and create angst. How can you make your reader question their faith or lack thereof? If they are very spiritual, can you make them believe their god or deity doesn’t exist? If they don’t believe in a deity, can you make them believe in one? Spiritual pain can be the most excruciating to read when done well.

So how do you amplify the pain? What can you use to make the pain more graphic, intense, and palpable?

1. Dig deep into your own personal experiences.

Using your own pain as inspiration will help you ensure that what you’re writing is authentic and raw. Chances are, at least some of your readers have experienced something similar.

2. Use words that evoke not only emotion but physical sensation.

If you are struggling to write a specific scene, outline it. Write a list of each of the five senses and a list of all of the thoughts that your character might feasibly think. You should write at least one or two from each sense, and a few thoughts (if your chosen point of view allows for it) into the scene to create a full sensory profile.

3. How does your setting affect the pain you’re writing into the scene?

If your character is in love with someone, and the angst happens at a wedding, what is happening around them to increase the pain they feel? Is their love interest marrying someone else? What are they feeling or seeing that could make that pain worse? Is the song playing a song they imagined dancing with them to at their own wedding? Does the wedding look like the one they always imagined having with them? Are they standing beside them trying to pretend they don’t wish with every fiber of their being that they were the ones getting married?

Angst doesn’t have to be physical. It does have to connect with your reader. When you use multiple types of pain, utilize your own experiences, use all of your senses, and your setting to its full potential, there are unlimited ways to create angst that will have your readers begging you to put your characters out of their misery. Have fun hurting your characters!

Liz Generally is a romance author, wife, and mother to two girls and two dogs living in Oklahoma City. Liz is passionate about helping people and raising awareness for congenital heart disease. When she isn’t writing, she can be found spending time with her family and friends, volunteering, crafting, or cheering on her favorite hockey team. Liz is the author of Never Gonna Let You Fall, Alpha Mine, Blood Dreams, and Through The Flames all available on Kindle Vella. Photo by Abigail on Unsplash

[wtdylio]

[secretagentsagainstwhatever]

To all the Americans worrying that Kamala won’t be a good first female president, don’t worry it can’t be any worse than the UK’s three attempts

[laniidae-passerine]

[asexplainedbyttoi]

Happy election day!

Now get out there and vote!

Don’t forget your photo ID! It can be recently expired as long as it has your name and looks like you!

[getpoliticaluk]

[luvietcon]

ㅤㅤ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ׅ ⠀⠀⏜ׂ⏜໋ׅ⠀⠀ׅ ⠀⠀ᩴ ︵⠀ׂ⠀꫶ ⠀ׅ⠀⁔

⠀⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ᡣ𐭩⠀𝗅ׅ𝗂𝗄ׂᧉ ׂ⠀𝗈݀𝗋ׅ ׂ⠀𝗋ᧉ𝖻𝗅ׅ𝗈݀𝗀݀ᥩׅׅᧉ ˳⠀🐇

[tomorrowusa]

Sorry France, but the biggest political event of the week will take place on Thursday in the UK. At the very least, it will herald a change in the right direction.

John Oliver outdid himself in the vid posted above . No spoilers from me! But please watch through the end. 😁

The last third of the vid describes how absolutely abominable the Conservative Party reign of the past 14 years has been. Most people in the UK already know this but outside the country the international community may not understand the full extent of the Tory rot.

Brexit, austerity, and tax breaks for the filthy rich did not bring prosperity to the UK. The US and the EU countries are currently doing better economically than Britain under the Tories. And the NHS (National Health Service) is verging on collapse with malnutrition spreading in the country. Easily preventable diseases like rickets and scurvy (fucking SCURVY!) have reappeared. As an aside, this is where America is headed if Republicans are returned to power in the US.

When COVID-19 struck the UK, the country had an inept leader who downplayed it and made matters even worse. Sound familiar? The already severely stressed NHS was barely able to cope while Boris Johnson and his powerful friends held parties in violation of pandemic regulations.

ABC Australia, BTW a top notch public broadcaster, describes the horrific mess the Conservatives created for Britain's NHS.

Britain's beloved NHS was kneecapped by the Conservative Party. Then the COVID pandemic hit

Yes, Labour's Sir Keir Starmer may be as boring as John describes. But do you really want somebody flamboyant and unintentionally entertaining like Boris Johnson just for the sake of amusement?

Sir Keir should be viewed as the captain of a competent team rather than as a fantasy superhero who will singlehandedly save the country. The Labour shadow cabinet has several members who have been described as progressive realists. David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, and Jonathan Reynolds are three shadow ministers who strike me as visionary and talented. Labour has ditched neoliberalism and regards fairness as a policy goal.

One way or another, Britain will begin to get relief by next weekend. Though the worse the defeat is for the Conservatives, the greater the public repudiation for the past 14 years of misrule. So every vote in every constituency is essential.

In addition to giving Labour a big majority, it would be nice to see the Liberal Democrats pushing the Conservatives down into third place in Parliament. That's more than just symbolic because the Lib Dems would then become the official opposition and the Tory successor to Sunak the Wet would be more limited with regard to power in Parliament – including number of questions allowed at the weekly Prime Minister's Question Time.

[starmergeddon]

🦀LIZ TRUSS IS GONE🦀

[frogayyyy]

legend has it the lettuce is still fresh

[behindthesefangirleyes]

People mock soap operas

But their level of history exists no where else

General Hospital, 2018 vs. 2024

[fuckupthebest]

Red and Lizzie Vidu AI

[cringecompanionapologist]

Saw One of These for Masters, Made One for Classic Companions

Good night to unearthly children, science and history teachers, plucky space orphans, crashed spaceship pilots, Dodos, sailors who just want to get back to work, dolly rocker duchesses, Jacobite pipers, Victorian maidens with anxiety, girl geniuses in sparkly outfits, scientists who are too good for this shit, cute blonde girls with hidden spy talents, determined journalists, imbeciles (affectionate), warrior women, gorgeous Time Ladies, boys who can make things out of numbers, space princesses whose planets got nuked, Australian flight attendants, exiled space princes pretending to be schoolboys, American(?) girls who never asked for this, 80s fitness enthusiasts, and girls who invent bombs for fun. 

[sylkithecat]

@giftober 2023 + @mcuchallenge | Day 10/31: New

Loki Season 2: New Characters Rafael Casal as Hunter X-5 / Brad Wolfe Kate Dickie as General Dox Liz Carr as Judge Gamble Ke Huy Quan as Ouroboros "O.B."

[widowshill]

— But it's almost midnight. — Oh, that's the point! At the stroke of twelve, he turns into Dracula. C'mon, Vicki – he won't bite.

pose ref.

[sunflowerphotodoesentpost]

I love when these too are like this!!!