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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36623
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36623
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I think there is a difference between making the reader angry, and making a character angry.

First, to Totomus's idea of looking to Internet trolls: Notice they attack their targets **_personally_** with insults, lies, non-sequitur, idiot "logic" and twisting what was said, putting words in the mouths of their victims. Trolls are ad hominem attackers, disputing the veracity of their victims, using insults to argue their victims have no social worth or standing and basically do not belong or have no right to make arguments. **_You cannot do that in writing for mass consumption,_** these are **personal** attacks.

However, you can study Internet trolls if you want a _character_ to be angry at another _troll character_ in the story. Do a competent job and you can expect your reader to _understand_ that anger, but not necessarily **_feel_** that same anger. If the emotion is felt by the MC and the reader identifies closely; you may create in them a kind of sympathetic shadow of the MC's emotion; kind of like remembering having had that emotion, or having a friend that has that emotion.

Speaking to a fellow analytic, the same goes for love, contentment, sadness, despair, guilt, etc. The major emotions have been studied by professionals. There are several clinical signs of somebody being in love, for example. I don't know how scientific your particular book is; but the trick is to understand how an emotion manifests in a person IRL, and then translate those manifestations into your fictional character and their setting, and voilà: Your character is plausibly feeling that emotion.

For example, if we look at romantic love; there are a list of ramifications to choose from.

- A bit of OCD with constant intrusive thoughts about the loved one, mentally playing over and over trivial incidents like having made the loved one smile or laugh, investing great emotional significance in minor gestures or trinkets, like a plastic ring or a picked flower given by the loved one. 
- Feeling out of control; passion feels involuntary. Feelings of helplessness and knowing they are being irrational but unable to stop. 
- Emotional dependency. Possessiveness, jealousy, fear of rejection, separation anxiety. Cravings for emotional union and/or sexual union (different things). 
- Empathy and Sacrifice, a willingness to sacrifice for their lover: change jobs, drop out of school, change sexual practice, change their politics or religion, fight to punish those that make their lover unhappy. 
- A forcing of alignment; reordering priorities, changing clothing, mannerisms, language, habits and values to work better with the beloved.
- Sexual desire with a craving for exclusivity, extreme jealousy at any hint of your lover's infidelity or even a hint of sexual interest in another. Combined with the previous trait of "sacrifice" this can produce social isolation of the lovebirds.

The trick for the writer is to take this laundry list of ramifications, and select **a few** of them to **show** in scenes, and figure out how these kinds of feelings would manifest in the character(s) you want to be in love. Not every trait has to be felt; some are ramped up or down depending on culture. In a conservative culture where women are raised to be virginal before marriage, that "craving for sexual union" may be fantasies of embrace or kissing and nothing more; and her attempts may go further in the craving for emotional union; in the form of talk.

In a more liberal setting where pre-marital sex is common and knowledge of it is common, those cravings and the OCD may be far more pornographic.

The same goes for other emotions; look in your book (or on the Internet) for generalizations that can be turned into such laundry lists of traits, then pick a few of these generalizations and remake them as **specific** things for your specific character, how that person specifically manifests that trait.

For **_writers_** the point is to make a plausible character experiencing that emotion. If your reader has empathy and sympathy, they will not necessarily feel out of control in love, but will enjoy seeing their friend feel it: Your MC.

And that in turn is how you make the reader feel dread, anticipation, triumph, etc: The character's feelings make them **like** her and understand her and then when the story turns and puts her in danger, or threatens to upend her plans, or the love of her life turns out to be a fraud: The reader wants her to be alright, or survive, or triumph, and keeps reading because they have an emotional need to know what happens to her.

Original score: 5