Emotion 1: Emotional cause and effect

Emotions tell us what characters want

On the previous page we looked at how emotions create meaning out of what characters experience.

But emotions can also help us understand what characters want and value.

Look at these two characters.

There’s not a lot of information to go on in this scene, but what do you think they each feel?

And based on that, what do you think they each want?

An excited-looking girl sits next to a glum-looking boy on a park bench.
From 'Drama' by Raina Telgemeier (Source)
What do you think these characters are feeling? And what do each of them want?

We can infer a lot from subtle cues.:

  • She looks like she’s waiting for something, maybe she’s even hopeful or expectant.
  • He looks sad, maybe about something that’s happened or is about to happen.

Let’s look at the next panel in the sequence and see if it clarifies anything:

A boy, looking sad, says, "Bonnie broke up with me." The girl's face is lit up with joy as she responds, "She did?"
With this new information, what do you think has happened leading up to this, and what do you think each person wants to happen next?

With just a few additional details, we can infer a lot about these characters and their situation:

  • Callie's romantically interested in Greg, she's been sitting on it for a while, waiting for an opening with him and his current girlfriend—and now it's come up she can't contain her excitement.
  • Greg's preoccupied with his girlfriend and breakup and not all that aware of Callie romantically-speaking.

We can fill in a lot of blanks in part because most of us know what it’s like to be romantically interested in someone who is in a relationship with someone else, as well as what it’s like to have someone break up with us. 

Imagine if they were talking about something we didn’t understand:

Drama park bench panel 2 nonsense

Even if we change the content so we don't understand exactly what's happening, the clarity of the emotion tells us that whatever happened must be bad for him and good for her.

Just that hint at what they care about is enough for us to be engaged and follow along.

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