Do you feel emotion? Are you an “emotional” person? Do you wear your heart on your sleeve? Do people criticise you for being “too emotional”? Depending upon your cultural background, the level of acceptable emotions will vary greatly. But, by the time we become adults, we’ve come some way to controlling our emotions within those cultural boundaries. Well, hopefully.
But there are triggers, aren’t there? Everyone has their limits. Especially your characters. You’ve no doubt heard it said that “action is character”. It’s my belief that “emotion is (also) character”. Play things right, and by the midpoint you should’ve put your protagonist through so much drama, he’s an emotional wreck. He’s second guessing every decision, and probably driving everyone else crazy too. And your reader will know so much about him that any error in voice is notable. How to achieve this?
Show real emotion
Well, back to those triggers. Your protagonist’s triggers, informed by his flaw, are what you need to lean on if you want to show his true emotions. List the triggers—fodder from his past, his relationships, his dreams, his failures, and so on. These should form the backbone of your protagonist’s journey. Each scene should have a trigger to which your protagonist must react. When he reacts, he must be true to himself and to the emotion of the scene. What do I mean by that?
Well, if something happens that an “ordinary” person would react to in a particular way, your protagonist should react that way. You don’t want him ignoring the fire that’s just started in aisle five—it doesn’t ring true, and it will put your reader off. But he should also react based on his triggers. His reaction will be unique to him, but still true to the broad emotional range of the “ordinary” person.
The exception is if you are trying to paint your protagonist as someone who specifically does not react the way an “ordinary” person would react. For example, in the series that begins with The Rosie Project, the protagonist and narrator Don Tillman has a very different set of reactions to your average bloke. These reactions play off against his romantic interest to great comedic effect, but they are entirely real and true to Don Tillman.
Testing your work
How do you test if your character reactions are en point? Good beta readers are a great resource. But before you even get there, just have someone read it aloud to you. Or even read it aloud to yourself. It should become abundantly clear whether your characters are reacting in a realistic and true-to-character manner. If it isn’t, then maybe you need to add some more emotion!