Writing Research - Suspicion (2)

This weeks emotion is Suspicion. What is the most unusual thing you've seen a suspicious person do? What was the funniest? What mannerisms have you seen associated with Suspicion?

Writing Research - Suspicion

This weeks emotion is Suspicion. What mannerisms or behaviors do you associate with Suspicion?

Here are some prompting questions.

How do you know someone is suspicious?

What do they do that indicates they are suspicious?

What do they say and how do they say it?

Do they have involuntary responses?

Is there a physical response to Suspicion that only the person experiencing it is aware of?

All insight is appreciated!

Writing Research - Gratitude (2)

This weeks emotion is Gratitude. What is the most unusual thing you've seen a grateful person do? What was the funniest? Basically what mannerisms have you seen associated with gratitude?

Writing Research - Gratitude

This weeks emotion is Gratitude. What mannerisms or behaviors do you associate with Gratitude?

Here are some prompting questions.

How do you know someone is grateful?

What do they do that indicates they are grateful?

What do they say and how do they say it?

Do they have involuntary responses?

Is there a physical response to Gratitude that only the person experiencing it is aware of?

All insight is appreciated!

Writing Research - Curiosity

This weeks emotion is Curiosity. What mannerisms or behaviors do you associate with Curiosity?

Here are some prompting questions.

How do you know someone is curious?

What do they do that indicates they are curious?

What do they say and how do they say it?

Do they have involuntary responses?

Is there a physical response to curiosity that only the person experiencing it is aware of?

All insight is appreciated!

Writing Research - Anger (3)

This week's emotion is Anger. How would you describe the internal/physical response to anger? How does your stomach, head, etc feel when you are angry? Does your body shake or do you grow still? Or what have you noticed in others?

Writing Research - Anger

This weeks emotion is Anger. What mannerisms or behaviors do you associate with Anger?

Here are some prompting questions.

How do you know someone is Angry?

What do they do that indicates they are Angry?

What do they say and how do they say it?

Do they have involuntary responses?

Is there a physical response to Anger that only the person experiencing it is aware of?

All insight is appreciated!

Grief - Responses, Mannerisms, Behaviors

GRIEF

Thank you to everyone who posted comments. I appreciate all the input. If you know of anything that I have left out, please let me know! The next emotion I would like feedback on is Resignation.

I have divided the information into four categories: Medical Responses, Physical Responses, Emotional/Mental Responses, and Resulting Mannerisms.


Medical Responses

~ Diminished Immunity (Often results in Colds)
~ Medical conditions that existed before the loss might get worse
~ The stress of grief leads to the body working harder internally (higher blood pressure and pulse)


Physical Responses

~ Aches and soreness throughout the body
~ Clenched Jaw
~ Cold and Hot spells
~ Dizziness
~ Dry Mouth
~ Emptiness (feeling in stomach or middle)
~ Fatigue, Exhaustion
~ Headaches
~ Heaviness in the Chest
~ Insomnia (can't sleep)
~ No Appetite, Come and go appetite, Overeating, inability to swallow, or Nausea
~ Numbness
~ Sensitivity to noise
~ Shortness of Breath
~ Slowed responses (Can lead to more spills and messes)
~ Tension (throughout body)
~ Tightening Throat
~ Trembling (tingly, shaky)
~ Weakness


Emotional/Mental Responses

~ Aggression
~ Agitated
~ Anger (towards God, the departed, or others)
~ Anxiety
~ Apprehensive
~ Blaming
~ Confused
~ Denial
~ Depressed
~ Despair
~ Disbelief
~ Disoriented
~ Distorted sense of time
~ Drugged feeling
~ Embarrassment (about responses to grief)
~ Emptiness
~ Fear
~ Guilt
~ Hallucinations
~ Hatred
~ Helplessness
~ Hopelessness
~ Isolated feeling (from friends, family, life, reality)
~ Loneliness
~ Mood swings
~ Nightmares
~ Out of Control (feeling)
~ Overwhelmed
~ Pain
~ Panic
~ Regret
~ Relief (sometimes accompanied by guilt)
~ Restless
~ Sadness
~ Self-pity
~ Shock
~ Tearing apart inside (feeling)
~ There's no point to anything (feeling)
~ Unreal (feeling)

Resulting Mannerisms

~ Accident prone (due to slowed response time)
~ Arguing
~ Avoiding places, people, and situations that would act as reminders
~ Crying
~ Difficulty Expressing Yourself
~ Disinterest
~ Doesn't complete tasks/distracted/not organized
~ Easily flies off the handle
~ Forget to go about normal activities (eating, exercising)
~ Hallucinations
~ Hyperactivity (drowns sorrows in busyness)
~ Imitating mannerisms of deceased
~ Impatience
~ Increase of Bad Habits (smoking, drugs, tantrums)
~ Insomnia, waking during the night, nightmares
~ Joking
~ Laughter
~ Listlessness
~ Making decisions and solving problems is hard
~ Protectiveness of others
~ Random crying (brought on by anything)
~ Reminiscing (life and death of deceased)
~ Restlessness
~ See the deceased's face constantly in their head
~ Senses deceased, looks for them, expects to see them walk through the door
~ Sighing
~ Startles easily or more dramatically
~ Wandering aimlessly
~ Withdrawn

Character development – Types of Physical Responses Part 3 of 5

SUBCONSCIOUS MOVEMENT

Subconscious movements are the habitual responses we have to situations or emotions.

~ talking with hands
~ playing with hair
~ biting lip
~ bouncing knees while sitting

These are examples of things we do without necessarily intending to.

I just found myself pacing the house and clenching my hands together between composing sentences for this blog post. I know from experience that I pace whenever I'm restless, stressed, or thinking hard. I don't intend to pace or clench my hands, I just do it.

What are examples of subconscious responses you have?

Character development – Types of Physical Responses Part 2 of 5

INVOLUNTARY OUTWARD RESPONSES

Involuntary outward responses are reactions that are visible to those around us, but that we have little to no control over.

~ Blushing
~ Red Ears
~ Sweating
~ Teary eyes

These are all examples of involuntary responses. Involuntary responses are easily seen in others, but your point of view character would only notice the corresponding effects of the responses in himself/herself. For example my POV character would notice that his vision had blurred not that his eyes had teared. He would realize that it was tears that caused the blur.

If my face were to turn a different color, be that color red, white, green, or blue, I would not know it without the aid of a mirror. Instead, I would know that I felt sick or that my face was hot, cold, numb, etc . . .

What are examples of involuntary responses you have?

Character development – Types of Physical Responses Part 1 of 5

In the interest of developing characters that react to situations and feelings uniquely, I have come up with five different types of physical responses.

1st Undetectable Responses
2nd Involuntary Outward Responses
3rd Subconscious Movements
4th Conscious Movements
5th Verbal

This post will deal with the first.

UNDETECTABLE RESPONSES

Undetectable responses are reactions we have internally that are not visually evident to those around us. Only your Point of View character(s) will ever experience this type of response.

~ Butterflies in the heart or stomach
~ Pulse quickening
~ Ringing in Ears
~ Sudden tunnel vision
~ Migraines

These are all examples of physical responses that are only known to the person experiencing them.

I occasionally get a headache when I am really stressed. While this physical response to stress is painfully evident to me, it's undetectable by anyone else.

What are examples of undetectable responses you have?