The most effective way to convey emotion on the page is through interiority. It lets the reader know who the character is as a fully formed person, including their worldview, desires, fears, motivations, and goals. While what happens to the character is interesting, it is the character’s reactions that really keep the reader turning pages. Any good story is about the protagonist’s transformation, and the reader wants to not only come along for the ride but also be invested in the outcome. The reader must connect to the protagonist on an emotional level and that means, as writers, we need to let the reader in.
Interiority is also a way to create tension by showing the conflict between what is happening and what the character thinks and feels about a situation. Relationships between characters are clearer when the writer shares the protagonist’s true feelings towards other characters, while their behaviour shows another element of who they are as people. If the story moves from one plot point to the next without the character’s inner reactions, we risk losing tension and the reader’s interest.
When sharing a character’s internal dialogue, there are a few things that one can do. Writers might sprinkle internal thoughts and feelings throughout a scene instead of writing a long soliloquy with no action or plot. Avoid signal words like “thought” or “wondered” because the reader will know they are inside the character’s head without being told and the interiority will flow more naturally between moments of action, dialogue, or description. In any scene, ask yourself a few questions about the character’s inner circumstances. What is their goal? What is happening in the scene? What is the character doing and how are they feeling at the beginning of the scene? How are they reacting to the situation? Are they conflicted? What are their thoughts and feelings during a conflict? How do they feel at the end of a scene? How will this affect them moving forward? How do they feel about their next steps or choices? While you might not answer every question for every scene, understanding how the character feels and thinks is integral to giving the reader a reason to care about the protagonist’s journey.
Conveying interiority is not just about sharing big emotions, describing physical gestures, or using sensory details. Interiority is about letting the reader understand what the character is thinking, how they are reacting, and how that makes them feel and evokes a response in the reader that can only be achieved by this means. It’s why readers, despite the myriad of other available choices, return to written stories time and again, and why writers need to get interiority on the page.
Liisa Kovala is a Finnish Canadian author and book coach.
Her first book, Surviving Stutthof: My Father’s Memories Behind the Death Gate (Latitude 46, 2017), was shortlisted for a Northern Lit Award and published in Finland under the title Stutthofin selviytyjä (Docendo, 2020). Sisu’s Winter War (Latitude 46, 2022) is her debut novel.
Her work is inspired by her Finnish heritage and the northern landscape she calls home. She lives in Sudbury, Ontario.
