How to Write Emotional Roleplaying Posts

Methods Used To Describe Emotion

The following methods can be used to describe your character's emotion in a tasteful manner.

Using People in Real Life

1. Find a person who has a personality similar to your character (eg: easily scared). It would help if you knew that person well enough (eg: friend or family member). Otherwise, you might confuse yourself.

2. Imagine what would happen if that person was trapped in your roleplay. For example, picture them stuck with a robber grinning at them. Your easily frightened neighbor would scream bloody murder and run around like a headless chicken, right? Your character would most likely do the same, if she has the same personality as your neighbor.

3. Write according to that person's reaction.

Using Images

1. Pick out the right words to describe emotions, using an image. While it may be easy to imagine a scene, you might find it difficult to choose enough words. Fortunately, it's not that hard. Let's take a look at a few examples:

   1. If you were to use images to describe joy, you might imagine sunshine, brownies, hot chocolate, etc. Take those images and inject them into your posts about joy. For example:
      1. "She had always wondered what joy felt like, but she no longer needed to wonder. A warm feeling began to tingle inside of her. It was like hot chocolate on a cold, winter night."
      2. Sadness is another popular emotion. The words in bold will be the images: "He tried so hard to hold back his tears, but in the end, he had to give up. They came pouring out rapidly like a flood. His screams were the thunder, and his sobs were the lightning, striking suddenly and unexpectedly while choking him.

2. Use other objects to describe emotions, instead of nature. Look around you, and select everyday household items. Don't limit yourself. Use your imagination, and be as creative as possible. Examples are:

   1. Ugly green curtains - "He felt like an ugly, green curtain - worthless and unloved."
   2. A broken clock - "The sadness in her heart was painfully frozen like a broken clock."
   3. The awkwardly clogged toilet - "Her emotions wouldn't disappear, no matter how hard she tried to shove them away. They were accumulating rapidly in her body like a clogged toilet that refused to flush."

Using the Human Body

1. Realize that the human body often betrays its inner thoughts without realizing it. The subtle clenching of a fist may suggest boiling anger. A quick flash of sadness in the eyes is more than enough to reveal feelings of betrayal or hurt. This is what makes roleplaying fun. By using the body (body language), you can tell other characters what your character is feeling without saying anything to them at all. The great thing is that they can simply react to those emotions while continuing the roleplay's story.

2. Use the human body to betray emotions as much as you can. Take a look at these two posts. Compare them, and see which one expresses the girl's emotions the best:

   1. First Post: Belinda walked into the kitchen. She saw Mike. "What are you doing here?"
      1. The first post positively reeks of lameness. It's tasteless, unappetizing, and probably causes the reader to turn away in disgust. You can barely tell what she was feeling.
   2. Second Post: Belinda slammed the door and stormed into the kitchen, her eyes boring in on Mike. Her hands clenched into fists at the sight of him, and her entire body stiffened. "What are you doing here?" she snapped, hatred dripping from her words.
      1. The second one is a little different. While the roleplayer never said that Belinda was angry, Belinda's actions suggested it. Look at the way she closed the door and reacted to Mike's presence.

3. Make it easy for other roleplayers to read your character's emotions. While you don't need to make them an open book, at least prevent them from being emotionless. There is no such thing as a person without emotions - it's not natural, unless surgery has been done or something drastic has erased their emotions.

Personifying Emotions

Emotions are fun to personify. They all come with their own unique personalities, and it's fun to express them.

1. Think of emotions as people - very cute people. Their personality will be according to the emotion they represent. However, be careful when trying to personify them. Don't get them mixed up with other emotions (eg: Anger is happy).

   1. Let's imagine Joy for a moment. She can possibly be pictured her as a delicate, skipping figure with golden hair and merry blue eyes. Joy could also be described as a happy, go-lucky boy with messy brown hair and rosy cheeks. In this example, Joy will be a girl:
      1. "Joy gaily skipped around me, her musical giggles causing my heart to rise. She blew a kiss at me, tossed me a wink, and disappeared. I tightly hugged the warm feeling she left me. A smile tugged at my lips, and I let it blossom."

2. Have your character interact with the emotions. Remember that you can choose for the emotions to appear invisible or visible to other characters. Note that visible emotions may get confusing, especially since people experience so many. Here is an example of invisible emotions (visible only to the main character):

   1. Fear slides up behind me and grasps my shoulder. I try to pull away from her, but her grip tightens. My eyes widen as Anger shoves Fear aside and unexpectedly slugs me in the stomach. I wince and throw a dark glare at him, but a smirk lifts his mouth.

3. Limit the emotions that appear in your story. Only allow a few main ones (ex: Love, Hatred, Anger, Fear) or it'll get too confusing since there are so many different types of emotions. You can have a few minor ones (ex: Common Sense restrained me) that pop up once in a while.

Reacting to Emotions

1. React appropriately according to your character's personality. It's only natural for him to tolerate his emotions in his own way. Depending on his personality, he will either react to them in the right or wrong way. However, we live in a fallen world where no one is perfect. That means your character can't be perfect either. Of course, he will have to make mistakes once in a while and choose the wrong decision.

2. React to other characters' emotions appropriately. If your character happens to stumble upon a girl crying, he may stop to comfort her or look around for her parents. If he isn't good in social situations, he might awkwardly stand there or ignore her. For a character with a nasty personality, he might seize the chance to steal her backpack or laugh at her pain. His actions will depend on his personality, but remember that people can change.

   1. For this example, let's take a shy, nervous guy who is socially awkward:
      1. Rick couldn't stop staring down at the crying girl. She was tightly curled up into a ball and clinging onto his legs. Quiet sobs exploded from her mouth, and her shoulders were shaking. Rick thought he heard her saying something, but she was pressing her face into his faded jeans. It muffled her words and made it impossible for him to understand her. He wished he was back at home, safely nestled in front of his laptop. Unfortunately for him, he was in an old alley, being hugged by a broken human being.