Checkpoint piece

Let's apply everything you've learned with a checkpoint piece.

The point of this checkpoint is to write a scene in which you represent emotions through a variety of techniques.

You can:

Label emotions
Describe feelings
Describe behaviour
Describe the world in a way that reflects emotion
Use emotional dialogue

There is a snippet below if you want a model.

It shows one character trying to figure out what a couple of other characters are thinking and feeling.

We've highlighted emotion-behaviour loop elements in this snippet to help you see the structure, if you wish to use it.
However, you can write any scene so long as you show different ways of representing emotion.
You might find it helpful to find an inspiration image, otherwise you can use your memory/imagination.

From my bedroom that evening I hear my parents in the kitchen speaking in hushed voices. My stomach clenches. Are they talking about me? My graduation? My going away to college?

Carefully I make my way down the stairs. As though sensing my presence, my mother turns around.

"Beta." She motions with her hand for me to join them.

She called me beta. And the way she said it, as though I am her daughter again.

I feel myself choking up with gratitude. Maybe Saif is right. Maybe things are going to be okay.

My mother looks at my father, who is looking off toward the window. He grips his cell phone in his hands. "Your father and I discussed everything that happened," she says.

I tense and glance at my father. He still won't look at me.

Written in the Stars(2015)

Here are a few tips.

The point of the scene

If you step back, this scene is about one character trying to figure out what a couple of other characters are thinking, feeling, planning.

Getting the answer is really important to her; she knows they are upset, and now she's afraid of what they will do.

Ingredients for the scene

If you want to use this snippet as a model, you'll need:

A main character
One or more secondary characters
A relationship between them
A reason for why the main character wants to know (but can't easily find out) how the other characters feel

Example ideas

Members of a team, and one has choked in performance
A couple (or close friends) and one has betrayed the other in some way
Coworkers who are planning a suprise, and the target suspects something is up
Fantasy creatures negotiating over loot, but one side is scamming the other

Structure

If you look closely you'll see there are four triggers.
Three of them create loops, and one ends the snippet.
Each trigger sets off a combination of feelings, thoughts, and sometimes behaviour.

To get started

All you need to do to write the scene is choose your characters, relationship, and reason for their being hidden feelings, and then set up your first trigger and follow your nose from there.

Write a scene which expresses character emotions.

Emotion 2: Representing character emotion