The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus (Second Edition) E-Book

Becca Puglisi

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Writers Helping Writers
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 326

Beschreibung

This second edition of Emotion Amplifiers teaches you to use conditions and states—pain, arousal, dehydration, addiction, etc.— that will make it difficult for a character to emotionally self-regulate, setting them up for overreactions, misjudgments, and (hopefully) colossal mistakes they’ll have to fix and learn from. Use these 52 amplifiers to force them to face their errors, acknowledge their true feelings, and work through the contradictions at the heart of every inner struggle.

Leseprobe

THE EMOTION AMPLIFIER THESAURUS:

A Writer’s Guide to Character Stress and Volatility

ANGELA ACKERMAN

& BECCA PUGLISI

THE EMOTION AMPLIFIER THESAURUS: A WRITER’S GUIDE TO CHARACTER STRESS AND VOLATILITY

Copyright 2024 © by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi

All rights reserved

NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in print or electronic form without prior permission of the authors. For permissions, or for information about special discounts available for bulk purchases and educational needs, contact the authors at [email protected].

First edition published in 2014

Second edition published in 2024

ISBN: 978-1-7361523-4-8 (Second Edition)

Visit the authors at their Writers Helping Writers® site.

Edited by Lisa Poisso and Michael Dunne

Book cover design by JD Smith Design

Book formatting by JD Smith Design

THE WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®DESCRIPTION THESAURUS SERIES

Over 1.2 Million Copies Sold Worldwide

Available in nine languages, sourced by universities, and recommended by editors and agents all over the world, this best-selling series is a writer’s favorite for brainstorming fresh description and powering up storytelling.

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression (Second Edition)

The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes

The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws

The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to City Spaces

The Rural Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Personal and Natural Places

The Emotional Wound Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Psychological Trauma

The Occupation Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Jobs, Vocations, and Careers

The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Vol. 1)

The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Vol. 2)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction to the Second Edition

Why Do Stories Need Emotion?

Emotion Amplifiers and Internal Dissonance

The Upside to Emotional Stress

Using Amplifiers to Reveal Personal Growth

Using Amplifiers to Support Story Structure

Using Amplifiers to Create Dramatic Tension

Using Amplifiers as Weapons

Optimal Times to Use an Amplifier

Pain: A Powerful Amplifier

When to Avoid Amplifiers

A Word on Mental and Physical Health Conditions

Final Words from the Authors

THE EMOTION AMPLIFIER THESAURUS

Addiction

Arousal

Attraction

Being Stuck

Bereavement

Boredom

Brainwashing

Burnout

Chronic Pain

Cognitive Bias

Cognitive Decline

Cold

Competition

Compulsion

Confinement

Danger

Deception

Dehydration

Distraction

Exhaustion

Hangover

Heat

Hormonal Imbalance

Hunger

Hyperactivity

Hypnotized

Illness

Indecision

Injury

Instability

Intoxication

Isolation

Lethargy

Malnutrition

Mental Health Condition

Mortal Peril

Pain

Panic Attack

Physical Disorientation

Physical Health Condition

Possession

Pregnancy

Pressure

Psychosis

Puberty

Scrutiny

Sensory Overload

Sleep Deprivation

Stress

Substance Withdrawal

Torture

Trauma

Appendix A: How Emotion Amplifiers Destabilize a Character

Appendix B: Questions for Your Character’s Weigh-and-Measure Process

Appendix C: Decision-Making Crossroads Tool

THE EMOTION THESAURUS

Recommended Resources

Praise for These Writers Helping Writers Resources

One Stop for Writers

About the Authors

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION OF THE EMOTION AMPLIFIER THESAURUS

Prior to the 2012 release of our flagship book, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression, it lived on our blog as a collection of lists that helped writers describe different feelings a character might have. Each week, we would choose an emotion and dive into showing it through body language, thoughts, visceral sensations and the like. Because show-don’t-tell is a struggle for many, especially when portraying a character’s feelings, this thesaurus became something of a cult favorite. Our blog visitors began asking for specific emotions, and we were only too happy to comply.

But over time, we noticed a pattern with these requests: not all of them were emotions. Some were better classified as a state or condition that could influence what a character felt or steer them to bigger reactions.

Instead of dismissing the suggestions, we leaned into them, examining how these emotional tuning forks could unbalance characters and lead them down a path of poor judgment, bad decisions, and mistakes. We gave them a name—emotion amplifiers—and created an e-booklet covering fifteen states (pain, exhaustion, and boredom, to name a few), along with information on how they could be used to nudge characters toward outbursts and missteps.

The popularity of this minicompanion to The Emotion Thesaurus told us there might be more amplifiers capable of disrupting a character’s control over their feelings. Spoiler alert: there were! In fact, the more we studied them, the more we saw their multifaceted nature and scope, which extended far beyond what we originally imagined amplifiers could do. As well as altering a character’s emotional state, amplifiers serve as catalysts for conflict and tension, magnify internal dissonance and psychological distress, and even support story structure.

Now, many years later, we’re excited to share this information through an expanded edition of The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus.

Inside this second edition, you’ll find fifty-two states and conditions with the power to amplify a character’s feelings. You’ll learn how to deploy them to create friction and conflict. You’ll explore how to showcase the physical, cognitive, and psychological strain they cause. You’ll also discover how emotion amplifiers can destabilize a character’s equilibrium during important story moments.

Readers relate to and connect with characters in psychological distress because personal vulnerability is part of the human experience. This guide shows you new ways to bring readers in close as you cause trouble for your characters, pushing them onto shaky emotional ground when it most benefits your story.

WHY DO STORIES NEED EMOTION?

Imagine if, in the real world, your experiences were missing an essential ingredient that rendered them unmemorable. You’d hike to a lookout over a pristine glacial lake, yet gazing down at its mirrored surface, you’d feel nothing. Or on a whim, you’d cruise through your old neighborhood past your childhood home, but it would seem unremarkable—no different from any other house. Even on your son’s wedding day, his happy tears wouldn’t affect you at all.

Envisioning special moments without the emotions associated with them isn’t just disturbing, it’s terrifying. Emotion is central to who we are. It gives meaning, good and bad, to our experiences and shapes our desires, actions, and values as we move through our world. Emotion helps us evolve and grow and keeps us connected to others even as we navigate our individual paths.

As people, we love new experiences because they make us feel like we’re living life to the fullest. But work, family, and community commitments along with other constraints (like physical limitations, financial barriers, and too-little time) impair our ability to do everything we want. This is why stories are so appealing and addictive; through them, we can live many lives, encounter untold realities, and walk in the footsteps of others who think, act, and believe differently than we do.

But for a story to work, it needs emotion—and lots of it. Emotion is the bridge that helps readers slip from their reality into a fictional one, because when characters have needs and desires and feel things as people do, readers can relate. Even when a character’s goals and challenges are unfamiliar, their emotions offer common ground. Readers know the pain of loss, the devastation of letting someone down, and the sting of betrayal. They recognize the rush of satisfaction that comes from hard work and achievement. So when a beloved character faces situations like these, readers empathize.

Because emotion is central to the human experience, it should be easy to write, yes? Oh, if only. In truth, the more realistically a character is portrayed, the trickier it is to get their feelings onto the page. Authentic characters think and behave like real people—people who lock up their bigger emotions and want to avoid the discomfort of being judged and exposed, as we all do.

Characters who bottle up their feelings create two challenges for writers. First, readers may have trouble connecting with them and what they’re going through. It’s hard to empathize with a character who’s hiding their feelings; without that rapport, sooner or later, readers will close the book and move on. Writers must find ways to convey what characters are really feeling, even when the characters themselves are afraid to embrace those emotions.

The second challenge is that characters who repress their emotions tend to struggle to examine their deeper feelings and do the internal work needed to evolve. Without personal growth, their emotional blocks may continue to hold them back, preventing them from achieving what they want most, be it close relationships, meaningful goals, or self-acceptance. It’s no easy task to get a character to examine their own vulnerabilities, but this is what has to happen for their internal journey to unfold.

To create a compelling story, writers must know how to open a character’s emotional vault and let the ghosts out. We need to push our characters to face personal truths, even when it hurts, and crack their defenses so they can no longer hide from what they feel.

One effective strategy is to deploy an emotion amplifier, a specific state or condition that influences what the character feels by disrupting their equilibrium and reducing their ability to think critically. Distraction, bereavement, and exhaustion are examples of amplifiers that create friction. Emotionally speaking, they become the wooden blocks that destabilize the entire Jenga tower.

Consider Jake, a character who awakens to hot fingers of illness creeping through his body. On the cusp of a long-overdue promotion, he doesn’t dare call in sick, so he showers and heads to work. At the warehouse, he climbs into a forklift and begins his day of moving pallets and loading trucks in the pickup bay. Two guys on his crew haven’t shown up, making the shift even rougher. Everything requires more effort. Jake’s head buzzes. Noises bug him. He feels like he’s moving through molasses, but he’s got to work at double speed. As he rushes back and forth across the floor, he’s growing lightheaded. Where the hell is his foreman, who promised to pitch in?

Can you feel the strain Jake is under and how close his emotions are to the surface? How long until the weight of sickness causes him to snap at a co-worker, make a rash decision, or become so flustered he injures someone?

Amplifiers are an added condition or situational burden that must be coped with on top of everything else. They’re a challenge, conflict, and emotional destabilizer rolled into one, capable of causing physical, cognitive, and psychological discomfort. The presence of an amplifier makes it harder for a character to think things through and stay in control of their emotions. And if characters become more volatile or lower their guard because they’re distracted, they’re more likely to miss something important and make a mistake.

Let’s say Jake’s dulled reflexes cause him to drop a pallet of product, ruining the inventory and creating a safety hazard. He’s reprimanded by his foreman, who never did come to help but has plenty of criticism to hand out. Hot with fever and frustration, Jake goes off about how he’s always the one who shows up, even when he’s sick, but never gets any appreciation. One outburst and a few ill-advised words later, Jake’s hopes for a promotion lie in ruins among the crushed cargo.

Although amplifiers can wreak havoc by disrupting the status quo, that doesn’t make them inherently negative.

This is true for Yara, single and forty, who has spent her life being perfect—the perfect daughter who chose the major her parents wanted, endured law school, and became a top trial lawyer like her dad. She’s the considerate neighbor who keeps her lawn mowed and retrieves her garbage bin as soon as the truck goes by. At her firm, she’s the partner willing to take the difficult cases. She’s the aunt who gets her nephew exactly what he wants for his birthday. And Yara’s the one who shuttles her elderly parents to appointments because her siblings always have other things to do.

Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? Being all things to everyone, never disappointing. In fact, some days Yara can barely force herself out of bed into another day of exceeding expectations. But she hides her exhaustion well because she’s learned that not being perfect means being less loved.

Then one day, smiling her way through a routine follow-up with her doctor, Yara gets the shock of her life: She’s pregnant.

She sits there, breathless, hands clasped on her knees. She was careful. Used protection. It was a one-time thing, a rare invite home after that charity dinner! Her chest squeezes, and her lower lip starts to tremble. Not only is her perfect, boxed-in life falling apart, but the wall holding back her emotions is also crumbling. The doctor struggles to handle this new Yara, who is bent over and spilling out questions between sobs.

Pregnancy itself is not negative. But for Yara, it will drastically disrupt her life, bringing increased exhaustion, morning sickness, and more. How will she fare, considering the responsibilities already on her plate? Will she freak out at work and embarrass a senior partner in front of a client? How long until her resentment at always sacrificing for Mom and Dad becomes full-on rage toward her siblings, who never share the load?

Emotion amplifiers, both large and small, are ideal for pushing a character over the edge—because sometimes, that’s exactly what writers need to happen. Smart, savvy characters who always make the right choices aren’t very interesting. But characters who blunder, lose control, or forget their filter? Now we’re talking! We relate to those characters because we all own the I overreacted T-shirt.

These challenges can also generate a much-needed change of perspective for the character. Yara’s pregnancy could be the catalyst that nudges her into rejecting unreasonable expectations and, through her own child, discovering unconditional love.

EMOTION AMPLIFIERS AND INTERNAL DISSONANCE

Amplifiers are useful for introducing friction and making a character more reactive, which puts their true feelings on display. But they have an additional superpower: shining a light on contradictions within a character that create significant mental distress.

So, what are internal contradictions? The best way to explain is by posing a question: Have you ever experienced internal tension from an unsettling situation, like a neighbor who keeps his dog chained up day after day? Or maybe you’re doing something you don’t feel one hundred percent good about, like pulling into McDonald’s when you’ve been trying to make better choices and eat healthier.

This tension is called cognitive dissonance, the psychological discomfort caused by contradicting thoughts, perceptions, values, or beliefs, and it’s quite common. It may present as a small niggle in your everyday decision-making or a haunting problem that keeps you up at night.

When dissonance bubbles to the surface, people experience anything from confusion and indecision to worry, guilt, regret, or shame. For example, maybe you’ve talked yourself into getting McDonald’s because it’s been a hellish week, but you still feel guilty as you order. When the food arrives, you indulge—it’s so good! But your Big Mac euphoria lasts only as long as the burger does, and now you’re regretting the decision to cave to your craving. Worse, you’re mentally beating yourself up for not having the willpower to resist. Cognitive dissonance is powering this discord, because you (a) like eating Big Macs but (b) want to lose weight and be healthy.

What triggered this inner tug of war? Stress. Had your work week been a breeze, this amplifier would not have intensified your longing for a delicious fast-food reward and overpowered your commitment to healthier eating.

Another form of internal contradiction is emotional dissonance, where you find yourself pretending to feel an emotion that doesn’t align with what you’re experiencing—for instance, faking enthusiasm about your boss’s terrible marketing strategy. You’re a team player, and you know from experience that he won’t listen to contrary opinions, so you put on your rah-rah face like everyone else. In this case, the dissonance is mild because you’ve weathered his bad ideas before and you aren’t invested enough to state how you really feel.

But emotional dissonance isn’t always minor. Sometimes the emotion you’d have to fake is so far from what you feel that it clashes with your values or personal identity. Acting in alignment with an untrue emotion can mean sacrificing your belief system and going against who you are.

Let’s say your boss’s marketing strategy is driven by a closely guarded secret: the company needs to dump a supply of expired baby formula that’s been repackaged with fresh dates. The sales manager explains that the product is fine and this happens all the time, so just keep quiet and get out there and sell, sell, sell.

But can you, knowing the formula could be contaminated? Will you be able to feign confidence as you hit up those neonatal units and pharmacies to convince people to buy your product? Or is this something you can’t do because it crosses a line and violates your core values, regardless of how badly you need the bonus for meeting your sales quota?

Here, the divide between your true feelings (contempt and shock) and the emotion you’d need to fake (confidence) is much wider. Whichever you express reveals your identity: Are you the sort of person who does what’s right or what makes money?

Everyone protects their self-perceptions—things they believe to be true about themselves. Characters are no different. Emotional dissonance raises the stakes by challenging their view of themselves, creating confusion, uncertainty, or regret.

Ongoing emotional dissonance that threatens someone’s identity can do a lot of damage. A character enduring domestic abuse but who pretends to others that everything’s fine risks eroding her own self-worth. A protagonist repressing who he is because he feels unsafe may become disconnected from his authentic self. The longer identity-focused tension persists, the more harm it does. If this struggle is central to your character’s arc, be sure to explore how emotional dissonance is powering it.

Thoughts and feelings often intertwine, so a character’s internal dissonance may include both cognitive and emotional forms, especially when they’re making decisions, creating a prickly knot to untie . . . if they can.

FORCING CHARACTERS TO DEAL WITH THEIR DISSONANCE

Internal conflict is fed by cognitive or emotional dissonance. A character who wrestles with incompatible wants and goals or discovers information that challenges their views of the world, themselves, or others will experience psychological distress. Try as they might to ignore or suppress it, this distress typically grows to the point that they feel compelled to resolve it.

But inner conflict is called conflict for a reason: the character is pulled in different directions and doesn’t know what to do. When the right or best decision means a harder road, the choice becomes even more difficult.

Introducing an amplifier at an emotional crossroads applies the additional strain needed to force a character to deal with their discomfort rather than hide from it.

Imagine Silva, who is shocked to learn that her best friend Claire is cheating on her husband, Rick. Claire begs Silva to keep the information secret, and normally, she wouldn’t share something told in confidence. But this? Staying silent doesn’t sit right. Silva has strong beliefs about fidelity and views an affair as the worst type of betrayal. She hates the whole situation and wishes she could go back in time to when she was blissfully ignorant. Instead, she has an agonizing decision to make—say nothing out of loyalty to Claire or stay true to her moral code and tell Rick.

Dissonance caused by a clash of core beliefs and high stakes is hard to resolve. After all, if Silva tells Rick, she’s nuking her friendship with Claire. But if she says nothing, she’ll struggle to be around her friend, not to mention look herself in the mirror, because keeping the secret makes her feel complicit. To figure out what to do, she applies emotional reasoning, weighing and measuring the various factors in the hope of gaining clarity about her path forward.

For example, it might be easier for Silva to keep this information to herself if Claire’s husband isn’t a nice guy—say, if he’s verbally abusive or controlling. Silva might resolve her dissonance by telling Claire that his behavior is further proof it’s time to leave the marriage.

But what if Rick is a good guy, maybe even someone Silva considers a friend? In this case, keeping the secret means protecting one person by betraying the other. Another factor is whether the two have children. What if revealing the truth triggers a divorce and turns the family inside out?

As she grapples with what to do, Silva considers other factors, like how good a friend Claire is. She tries to think back to a time when she kept the truth from someone, or if she’s ever felt as Claire does (needing love in a way her partner doesn’t provide). And if Silva herself has ever experienced betrayal, especially the sort that would put her in Rick’s shoes, this too plays into her reasoning.

As Silva weighs each factor on her mental scale, she may come to any number of conclusions.

1. She’s lost respect for Claire and their friendship might not survive, but despite believing the affair is wrong, she agrees not to tell Rick. Silence comes at the cost of her integrity, but she refuses to be responsible for unraveling their family.

2. Her morals won’t let her keep Rick in the dark, and she’s upset Claire has put her in this situation. She decides Claire should bear the brunt of the emotional discomfort and delivers an ultimatum: Either you tell Rick, or I will.

3. She doesn’t want to keep this secret, but she also doesn’t feel right delivering news that could break a family apart. If she continues to run into Rick, she’ll have to say something, so she removes herself from her friends’ lives.

Difficult decisions usually carry a price tag—in this case, pain for either Silva or her friends. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but there’s no way to avoid it. And one way or the other, she’s being forced to sacrifice friendship, integrity, or both.

So what emotion amplifier created dissonance for Silva? It was the pressure of being asked to keep Claire’s secret. That pressure made Silva deeply uncomfortable, pushing her to sort through her conflicted feelings and values for a solution to end her discomfort.

However, amplifiers are a double-edged sword. As they squeeze a character, forcing them to address their situation and the dissonance it’s caused, amplifiers simultaneously charge the character’s emotions, making rational thought a challenge. This complicates the weighing-and-measuring process. As the strain increases, the character may start looking for an easy way out. A reflexive choice—cutting corners, compromising, surrendering the decision-making duty to someone else—creates a bigger mess down the road that must eventually be dealt with.

But hey, conflict is good for the story, right?

The truth is, there’s no easy fix for problems that create dissonance. That’s what makes internal conflict so agonizing. Even if a character takes their time and works through their situation carefully, they may still end up regretting or second-guessing their choice. But through the process itself, they’ll come to understand themselves better, and this is necessary for growth. Their struggle also invites readers to a private viewing of their inner struggle and vulnerability, strengthening the reader-character bond and encouraging engagement, because readers empathize with the pain of having to make hard decisions.

For help figuring out your character’s personal weigh-and-measure process and how cognitive dissonance will impact their decision-making, see Appendices B and C.

THE UPSIDE TO EMOTIONAL STRESS

It might seem evil to intentionally cause internal discomfort for our characters, but there’s a good reason to do it—a lot of good reasons, actually—and they’re all related to character development.

FACILITATING SELF-AWARENESS

Most of us find it difficult to look within ourselves at our areas of struggle, and characters are no different. They may be in denial about many things, including how fear is holding them back—the fear of disappointing others, of stepping out of their comfort zone, or letting go of the past to become who they were always meant to be. When we force characters to endure emotional stress, they have no choice but to examine themselves and the inconsistencies they live with. It also gives them a chance to set aside false beliefs and discover their own strength.

Let’s imagine your story has a character with self-esteem issues, either because they lack self-belief or others doubt them. Day-to-day, they take a back seat to other people and avoid situations that would call attention to their perceived weaknesses. But when something meaningful is on the line, an amplifier like competition or scrutiny can produce additional stress and help build resiliency, allowing them to see what they’re capable of. And down the road, if they face a situation that normally would have made them afraid to act, their newfound confidence can give them the courage to step up. This type of growth becomes possible because of the emotional stress they endured.

ENCOURAGING SELF-ADVOCACY

Another potential positive of emotional stress is when it pushes an overloaded character to advocate for themselves. Consider a teacher who oversees an after-school program for teens that provides a safe space for them to come together and socialize. She started the group with a handful of kids, but it quickly grew, and with it, the work of organizing activities, providing snacks, and managing a range of personalities. The school’s administration is quick to promote the program and brag about it in the media, but when funding or volunteers are requested . . . crickets. Because this teacher loves her kids and she knows how much the program is needed, she soldiers on.

But if we add an amplifier such as burnout in the classroom, an emerging mental health condition, or chronic pain from an injury, the teacher could reach a point where she must find her voice and demand help. Emotional stress often has to reach a critical level before characters will extricate themselves from an unsustainable situation and stand up for themselves.

UNDERSCORING THE NEED FOR CAUTION

Amplifiers sometimes act as false flags, lowering a character’s guard and lulling them into thinking they’re safe and everything is fine. When a character experiences attraction or arousal, for instance, their emotions are activated as they focus on the other person, engaging in playful conversations, becoming more intimate, and pursuing pleasurable sensations. But as their attention is diverted, they may fail to notice an enemy closing in or an ally being compromised. During a private moment with their partner, they might let slip a weakness or vulnerability, something that can be used against them.

The repercussions of being caught up in the moment generate emotional stress one of two ways, producing complications the character must address or alerting them to a close call they’ve narrowly escaped. Regardless, the experience teaches them to be more aware and may help them avoid disaster later in the story.

PROMPTING CHARACTERS TO HONE THEIR SKILLS

Emotional stress from a challenge or problem can force a character to shake the rust off old skills or, out of necessity, learn new ones. Consider mortal peril, when life hangs in the balance. In this situation, the need to act and save themselves may cause a character to snap back into who they were in their combat days—a lethal killer. Or imagine an urban youth who is the sole survivor of a plane crash in the wilderness. To overcome hunger, thirst, and danger,they’ll have to develop survival skills on the go.

In circumstances like these, the emotional stress arising from an amplifier drives characters to take the steps required to successfully navigate their situation.

INDICATING A NEED TO SEEK HELP

Emotional stress often helps a character recognize when they’ve lost control. For example, the psychological strain of an extreme amplifier like possession could understandably cause a character to break. They might become hysterical or disassociate, shutting down completely. These acute responses demonstrate the presence of a true crisis, and when the character comes back to themselves, they’ll realize the situation is beyond their control and seek help.

While high emotional stress can feel unbearable, the body’s automatic response comes with a safety feature: it stimulates the part of the brain that feels empathy. This means that characters undergoing intense strain are more likely to feel a kinship with others who are suffering. Internal stress, especially when it’s shared, brings people together in a way that external pressures do not. They commiserate, pool information, and become more open to offering and receiving help. This is why, when the chips are down, characters who don’t normally see eye to eye often come together.

USING AMPLIFIERS TO REVEAL PERSONAL GROWTH

Although amplifiers activate emotions, increasing the chance of a bigger response from the character, they don’t always result in missteps or mishaps. Instead, over the course of a story, they could show how the character is growing.

Amir is a recent university graduate with great job prospects. Three companies have offered him positions that would kick-start his career in biometrics—exciting but nerve-racking, because it’s such a big decision. It doesn’t help that one of his classmates is a few weeks into her first job and already regrets her choice.

With each passing day, Amir grows more conflicted, unable to choose. He has trouble sleeping, and his temper flares at the smallest thing. His girlfriend, tired of getting her head bitten off, has had enough and calls it quits. Then, after weeks of waffling, the most promising offer is rescinded, leaving Amir with the two least favorable options.

Fast forward six months and Amir is facing indecision again—this time, regarding his living situation. A big rent increase is coming, so he must choose to remain in a cramped, expensive apartment near his friends or relocate to a more affordable place closer to work. The hold on the new apartment expires in a few days; as the deadline looms, his old insecurities and panic rise.

Once more, everything seems to set Amir off. He becomes aware of how often he’s apologizing for being a jerk, and he remembers what that cost him last time. His decision paralysis is familiar, too; it cheated him out of a great job opportunity before, and he doesn’t want that to happen again. He realizes he must change the way he responds to indecision, so he sits down and creates a list of pros and cons for moving. An obvious choice emerges, and he informs his current landlord that he’ll be gone at the end of the month.

Hitting Amir with the same amplifier—indecision, in this case—is a way to showcase his growth. The first time around, he flounders and flails. But the second time, armed with hindsight and a new sense of self-awareness, he rises to the occasion.

Personal growth is especially important for characters traversing a change arc, and it doesn’t happen all at once. The path to internal examination and maturity is lined with many milestones indicating progress. Let’s look at a few of the incremental benchmarks you can build into your character’s journey.

Recognizing Landmines: In the past, the character failed to spot danger until it was too late, and they suffered terribly. The upside of this experience is that they’ve learned to be attentive and prepare more thoroughly. If something happens now, they can react from a place of strength, better positioned to save themselves from preventable fallout.

Setting Boundaries: The character sees how their inability to say no in the past resulted in stress, exhaustion, pressure, or even danger. Setting reasonable boundaries now to protect themselves and minimize the effects of new amplifiers is a sign that they’re moving in the right direction.

Asking for Help: Some trials are too difficult to navigate solo, a lesson that a stubborn, independent, or untrusting character may need to learn the hard way. Once they do, however, the desire to avoid needless suffering teaches them to better recognize situations where they need help, and by asking for it, they demonstrate maturity.

Choosing Positivity: If a character tends to be negative, show growth by shifting their mindset. This could mean they focus on strengths instead of weaknesses, engage in positive self-talk, see the good side of trials and troubles, or practice gratitude. Transformation typically begins in the mind, so even a small change like finding the silver lining in a single bad situation shows readers that change is underway.

Regulating Emotions: Self-control is a major aspect of emotional maturity. Things are simple when life is peachy but become harder when an amplifier like pressure, illness, or pain is in play. Recalling the problems that were caused by a past loss of emotional control may encourage the character to restrain themselves this time around.

Using Self-Distracting Techniques: Unpleasant circumstances aren’t always avoidable. Sometimes characters simply must get through them. Self-distraction strategies like entertaining themselves when they’re bored, focusing on something else when they’re hungry, or noticing the good when they’re stuck in a crappy situation are all healthy responses. Using these techniques after failing to do so in the past shows readers how far they’ve come.

Not Giving Up: A character’s transformation journey isn’t linear; there will be ups and downs. In the beginning, when facing difficulty, they often revert to their previous dysfunctional ways, which doesn’t work—but hey, there’s comfort in familiarity. As they mature and grow, returning to old habits stops being their go-to response, and instead of giving up, they try again or try something new.

Emotion amplifiers are perfect for testing a character’s growth because their response highlights their progress (or lack thereof). But when in their journey should growth markers occur?

Luckily, that’s already been mapped out; we simply need to take a closer look at story structure to see where these important moments should fall.

USING AMPLIFIERS TO SUPPORT STORY STRUCTURE

Earlier, we talked about how important emotion is to the success of a story. But there’s another element that must be in place for readers to get the most out of their emotional ride with your character: structure.

If you’ve researched this subject, you know there are many story models out there, and they’re all slightly different. The most popular forms tend to follow the three-act structure, which resonates with many readers, regardless of genre or format.

Act 1 sets things up for readers by establishing the protagonist, their story goal, the setting, and all the basics.

Act 2 builds on that information, introducing escalating conflicts (both internal and external) that block the character from their objective.

Act 3 resolves the story conflict in a showdown that determines whether the protagonist succeeds or fails at achieving their goal.

Within this simple framework, certain events need to happen not only to progress the plot, but also to encourage the character to become more self-aware, make positive internal progress, overcome setbacks, and so on. This journey is essential if your character is to progress realistically from Once upon a time to The End. It’s not an easy path, though, and sometimes characters balk; they’d rather stay where it’s comfortable and safe, thank you very much. The status quo may be stagnant or even unhealthy, but it’s what they know.

But a stalled character means a stalled story—which is death for reader engagement. At times like these, your protagonist needs a nudge (or a full-fledged shove) to reach the next important story event.

This is where amplifiers come in.

To illustrate how emotion amplifiers get a character moving while also supporting story structure, let’s examine our favorite model, Michael Hauge’s Six-Stage Plot Structure, which is beautifully explained in his book Writing Screenplays that Sell. This model divides a story into three acts and shows the key points in each. In the right order and at the right places, these points move the character through the story in a logical fashion without sacrificing pace.

SIX-STAGE PLOT STRUCTURE MODEL

Setup: The protagonist is living in their everyday world, but they’re emotionally stuck or dissatisfied in some way.

Opportunity (Turning Point 1): Called the catalyst in other models, this point consists of a challenge, crisis, or opportunity that pushes the protagonist into pursuing a certain story goal. That decision sets them on a journey that sweeps them out of their ordinary world and into a new one.

New Situation: The protagonist is adjusting to their new world, figuring out the rules and their role while dealing with obstacles that crop up. At this point, the character is largely unaware of their own faults and how they contribute to a lack of fulfillment.

Change of Plans (Turning Point 2): Something happens that creates an awakening for the protagonist, clarifying what they need to do to achieve their goal. They begin moving purposefully in that direction.

Progress: Fully conscious of their goal and their new plan, the protagonist takes steps toward success by gaining knowledge, honing skills, or gathering resources and allies. Although they may be growing in self-awareness, they’re not yet able to fully comprehend the depth of internal change that needs to occur.

Point of No Return (Turning Point 3): The protagonist’s situation becomes more difficult than ever as a death or significant loss pushes their goal seemingly out of reach. Forced to face what’s holding them back (their flaws, fears, lies they’ve embraced, and so on), they commit to changing their dysfunctional methods and evolving in the pursuit of their goal.

Complications and Higher Stakes: Though dedicated to personal change and healthier methods, the protagonist is assailed by escalating conflicts and increased stakes that make it more important than ever to reach their objective.

Major Setback (Turning Point 4): The protagonist experiences a devastating setback or failure that makes them doubt everything. Their plan forward will no longer work, and all seems lost. Finally rejecting any beliefs, biases, or doubts that were holding them back, they adapt their plan.

Final Push: The protagonist pushes forward with everything they’ve got, proving through their choices and actions that they’ve fully embraced the internal changes necessary to succeed.

Climax (Turning Point 5): This is the final challenge, the big showdown between the protagonist and the force(s) opposing them, that definitively establishes the victor in the story.

Aftermath: Readers glimpse the protagonist’s life in the aftermath of the climax. If they’ve succeeded in achieving their goal, they’re evolved and emotionally fulfilled; if they’ve failed, they’re back to where they started (or worse).