Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Jane Austen Writing Lessons. With an image of the original cover page of Pride and Prejudice; a color image of Jane Austen; an image of tea and pastries with an open book, and an early cover of Sense and Sensiblity.

One of the best ways to learn to write well is to learn from the examples of great writers. Jane Austen Writing Lessons is a series of blog posts about creative writing principles from plot structure to character development to dialogue. This blog was selected by “The Write Life” as one of the 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2021.

New Posts 2x a Month

New Jane Austen Writing Lessons will be posted 2 times a month. Sign up for the newsletter to get a notification in your inbox anytime there’s a new lesson. Links to the previous lessons can be found below.

Examples from Jane Austen

Each lesson looks to Jane Austen’s novels and her other works for examples of excellent writing. Quotes from her six published novels and an analysis of her craft–and how we can apply it to our own writing–is included in each lesson.

Writing Exercises

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Each lesson includes 2-3 writing exercises that will help you practice the creative writing principle and apply it to your own writing.

Most Recent Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Jane Austen Writing Lessons #68: Establishing Relationships and Character Connections in Fiction
Jane Austen Writing Lessons 67. Creating an Emotional Map: Making Interconnected Emotions
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #66: Evoking Emotions through Objective Correlative (External Objects)
Mary Bennet and Mr. Collins. Why didn't they marry? Would they have made a good match?
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #65: Different Character Approaches to Dealing with and Expressing Emotions
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #64: The Size or Degree of Character Emotions
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #63: Four More Internal Emotion Techniques
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #62: Conveying Emotion Through Character Thoughts and Free Indirect Speech
Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #61: How to Convey Emotion. Planting Clues to What Characters Feel

Jane Austen Writing Lessons by Category

Overarching Principles - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

#1: Make Your Character Want Something
#2: Combine Multiple Elements to Create an Engaging Premise
#3: Use an Inciting Incident to Set the Plot in Motion
#4: Create an External Journey for your Character
#5: Make Things Hard for Your Character
#6: Use a Character Arc to Make Your Character Change and Grow
#7: Create Multiple Relationship Arcs to Show Your Character’s Journey in Relation to Those Around Them
#8: Use Setting to Influence Plot and Character
#9: Use Dialogue to Create Dynamic Interactions Between Characters
#10: Use the Reader-Writer Contract to Create a Satisfying Resolution for Your Readers

Recognition for Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Jane Austen Writing Lessons: one of the

Jane Austen Writing Lessons was selected by The Write Life as one of the “100 Best Websites for Writers in 2021.” They wrote:

“[Jane Austen Writing Lessons] is filled with blog posts about creative writing that use Jane Austen’s novels and other related stories to share what good writing looks and sounds like. Whether you’re interested in plot structure or character development to dialogue, each Jane Austen writing lesson focuses on one principle of writing at a time.”

About the Author

In addition to writing Jane Austen Writing Lessons, Katherine Cowley is the author of the novels The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet, The True Confessions of a London Spy, and The Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception. She teaches writing classes at Western Michigan University.

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #64: The Size or Degree of Character Emotions

#64: The Size or Degree of Character Emotions

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #64: The Size or Degree of Character Emotions

When we talk about emotions in writing, we often think of big emotions, when characters are very emotional and emotive.

Yet characters experience not only a broad range of types of emotions, but a broad range of sizes of emotions. Characters have emotions that are strong or overwhelming, but they also have emotions that are fleeting and less consequential.

When considering the size of the emotion, it’s useful to ask:

  • To what degree does your character experience this emotion?
  • How important is this emotion to the story?
  • How many emotional clues need to be planted to convey this emotion?

In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth experiences emotions in every scene—and in most scenes, she experiences more than one emotion. Let’s look at how Jane Austen conveys small emotions, mid-size emotions, and large emotions for this character.

Small Emotions

Small emotions are ones that the character experiences either for a short time, or only to a small degree. This might a small annoyance, a temporary flush of joy, a reaction to another character or something that happened.

While attending the Meryton Assembly, Elizabeth overhears Mr. Bingley trying to convince Mr. Darcy to dance, and Bingley points out that Elizabeth could be a good partner. Mr. Darcy replies:

“She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me.”

Illustration from 1894 by Hugh Thomson, featuring Jane overhearing Mr. Darcy tell Mr. Bingley "She is tolerable"

1894 illustration from Pride and Prejudice by Hugh Thomson, via Lilly Library, Indiana University, Wikipedia Commons

While this is a rather weighty insult, Elizabeth has only a small emotional response:

Mr. Darcy walked off; and Elizabeth remained with no very cordial feelings towards him. She told the story however with great spirit among her friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in any thing ridiculous.

Clearly she’s not happy with Darcy, but rather than wallowing in the emotion, she sees it as ridiculous and tells it as a funny story.

Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth often uses humor as a lens to deal with small emotions. For some character, this event could create a much larger emotional response, but for Elizabeth it remains small, and she moves on.

It is a key emotional moment for the reader–one of the most memorable moments in the novel, that sets up their antagonism–but it doesn’t require very much space on the page.

At other times emotions are implied or are barely brushed upon. It’s important for the reader to understand what the character’s emotion is, but it’s a small emotion that needs only a small amount of space.

For example, after Mr. Collins’ arrival, he starts showering compliments on the family:

He had not been long seated before he complimented Mrs. Bennet on having so fine a family of daughters, said he had heard much of their beauty, but that, in this instance, fame had fallen short of the truth; and added, that the did not doubt her seeing them all in due time well disposed of in marriage.

And then, Austen gives us the emotional response of Elizabeth and her sisters, in contrast to Mrs. Bennet’s response:

This gallantry was not much to the taste of some of his hearers, but Mrs. Bennet, who quarrelled with no compliments, answered most readily.

It’s a simple phrase—“not much to the taste of some of his hearers”—but it does all that is needed to do to establish Elizabeth’s sentiments towards her cousin.

Hugh Thomson 1894 illustration from Pride and Prejudice. Five sisters sit on chairs, as if on display, and Mr. Collins inspects them. Mrs. Bennet adjusts the pose of one of her daughters. Jane has a sign over her head that says "Not for sale"

1894 illustration by Hugh Thomson from Pride and Prejudice. Jane, of course, is “Not for Sale,” but Mr. Collins is welcome (according to Mrs. Bennet) to choose any of the other daughters. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Mid-Size Emotions

Mid-size emotions are ones that are larger for the character. They occupy more of the character’s heart and mind—they linger, have consequence, or are not as quickly resolved. They have a weightier impact on the character, and they often require more sentences on the page—more emotional clues.

In Pride and Prejudice, after Elizabeth and her sisters meet Mr. Wickham, Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy see them—and Mr. Darcy sees Mr. Wickham. Elizabeth witnesses their emotions, and has her own emotions (particularly her curiosity) piqued.

[Mr. Darcy’s eyes] were suddenly arrested by the sight of the stranger, and Elizabeth happening to see the countenance of both as they looked at each other, was all astonishment at the effect of the meeting. Both changed colour, one looked white, the other red. Mr. Wickham, after a few moments, touched his hat—a salutation which Mr. Darcy just deigned to return. What could be the meaning of it? It was impossible to imagine; it was impossible not to long to know.

Here, Elizabeth notes the interaction, and her questions and her longing to know show her curiosity.

Later on in the scene, we read:

As they walked home, Elizabeth related to Jane what she had seen pass between the two gentlemen; but though Jane would have defended either or both, had they appeared to be in the wrong, she could no more explain such behaviour than her sister.

Elizabeth comes back to her emotion, she comes back to her puzzlement and her curiosity by raising it with Jane.

Mid-size emotions often need either more emotional clues, or recur again at some point in the scene.

1895 illustration by C.E. Brock of the arrival of Mr. Wickham and other officers at a gathering held by the Phillips family. Via Wikimedia Commons.

It’s not long after this point when Mr. Wickham’s confides in Elizabeth, telling his story of how he has been wronged by Mr. Darcy. This revelation produces emotions in Elizabeth that are larger than the emotions she felt upon seeing their initial antagonism, but still mid-sized in comparison to some of her emotions in other scenes.

Elizabeth is shocked, and we see this shock and surprise in her speech:

“This is quite shocking!—He deserves to be publicly disgraced.”

In the scene that follows she then asks follow-up questions. She pauses when speaking. She reflects. She remembers things Mr. Darcy has said in the past that would seem to corroborate Wickham’s claims. These emotional clues are layered on each other, giving a sense of how she feels.

She also uses many more exclamation marks than in her normal dialogue, and uses strong word choice:

“How strange!” cried Elizabeth. “How abominable! I wonder that the very pride of this Mr. Darcy has not made him just to you! If from no better motive, that he should not have been too proud to be dishonest—for dishonesty I must call it.”

Even once her conversation with Mr. Wickham is over, she keeps returning to it in her mind. Her emotions on the matter, and on Mr. Wickham more generally, become her entire focus:

There could be no conversation in the noise of Mrs. Phillips’s supper party, but his manners recommended him to everybody. Whatever he said, was said well; and whatever he did, done gracefully. Elizabeth went away with her head full of him. She could think of nothing but of Mr. Wickham, and of what he had told her, all the way home; but there was not time for her even to mention his name as they went, for neither Lydia nor Mr. Collins were once silent.

And her emotions don’t end in this scene. The next chapter begins:

Elizabeth related to Jane the next day, what had passed between Mr. Wickham and herself.

Note how much more page time is given to this emotion than to when Mr. Darcy insulted her at the ball. Note how much more it consumes her—how it engages her in different ways and uses a larger variety of emotional clues.

Large Emotions

Large emotions are bigger for the characters. They are often more personal and have larger consequences. They can accompany events or knowledge which is life changing or life shattering. Often these emotions are large because the circumstances require the character to develop a new understanding of the world and their place in it.

Like with mid-size emotions, large emotions require more page time, a layering of emotional clues, and a return, multiple times, to the emotion. Large emotions also provoke stronger reactions, stronger or more extreme physical sensations, and lead the character to engage in behavior that is outside of their norm.

1894 illustration by Hugh Thomson of Colonel Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Elizabeth is extremely upset when she finds out from Colonel Fitzwilliam that it was Mr. Darcy who broke up Mr. Bingley and her sister Jane. He says simply,

“There were some strong objections against the lady.”

Paragraphs follow in which Elizabeth deals with her emotions, thinking about what happened. She considers how in  some ways Mr. Darcy is right to have objections, but then she counters her own thoughts by thinking about how much Jane has been wronged.

The agitation and tears which the subject occasioned, brought on a headache; and it grew so much worse towards the evening that, added to her unwillingness to see Mr. Darcy, it determined her not to attend her cousins to Rosings, where they were engaged to drink tea.

For most of her smaller negative emotions, Elizabeth has used humor. For mid-sized ones, she grapples with the problem, considering it from many sides—which she also does here. But this is emotion to a new degree. This has caused tears and a headache. And while Elizabeth is normally very correct in her behaviors and social expectations, she does not go to Rosings as she normally would.

In the next chapter we see the continuation of this emotion as she goes through all of Jane’s letters, trying to read Jane’s emotions and see how Mr. Bingley’s absence has impacted her sister.

It’s only a few pages later that Mr. Darcy proposes to her. She angrily turns him down, expressing her emotions to him in multiple ways. Even after he has gone, we continue to experience her emotions with her, and we have a longer shift into free indirect speech than we’ve experienced at other points in the novel.

The tumult of her mind, was now painfully great. She knew not how to support herself, and from actual weakness sat down and cried for half-an-hour. Her astonishment, as she reflected on what had passed, was increased by every review of it. That she should receive an offer of marriage from Mr. Darcy! That he should have been in love with her for so many months! So much in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections which had made him prevent his friend’s marrying her sister, and which must appear at least with equal force in his own case—was almost incredible! It was gratifying to have inspired unconsciously so strong an affection. But his pride, his abominable pride—his shameless avowal of what he had done with respect to Jane—his unpardonable assurance in acknowledging, though he could not justify it, and the unfeeling manner in which he had mentioned Mr. Wickham, his cruelty towards whom he had not attempted to deny, soon overcame the pity which the consideration of his attachment had for a moment excited.

She continued in very agitated reflections till the sound of Lady Catherine’s carriage made her feel how unequal she was to encounter Charlotte’s observation, and hurried her away to her room.

Illustration by C E Brock -- Mr. Darcy greets Elizabeth at the gate. He holds out a letter. Text reads, "Will you do me the honour of reading that letter?"

1895 illustration by C.E. Brock of Mr. Darcy giving Elizabeth a letter. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Later, she receives his letter full of explanations. During the letter, we just read it with Elizabeth–the whole letter is included with no interruptions, no character actions or thoughts. We experience our own emotions as readers, and can guess at Elizabeth’s. Then after the letter, we have lengthy passages in which she walks, she re-reads, she analyzes specific phrases, she reflects. Her emotions undergo multiple shifts—and we go with her through these shifts.

Large emotions are often more complicated. They are not as clear cut—anger, joy, frustration, forgiveness can all be complicated and filled with nuance. Large emotions are bottles filled to bursting, and often require the character’s exploration and the narrator’s. They shift, they grow, they lessen, they increase again, and as we ride this roller coaster with the character, we empathize and at times even have a cathartic experience.

Conclusion

If you attend a symphony, you will not hear all the instruments playing at full volume the entire time. That would not be good music. Instead, some movements may be performed at quietly, while others will swell to fortissimo, some sections may highlight the violins, while others may feature brass instruments, and other still use a solo. We may only hear the cymbal a handful of times, but when we do, it will be at key moments.

We should do the same when we write character emotions: include a range of emotions, some of which are focused on at different times. Sometimes we touch on an emotion for only a moment; other times we explore the emotion for an extended period, or bring back an emotional theme later in the story. Including varying degrees of emotions—small, mid-sized, and large—creates contrast and emphasis, directs the readers’ attention, and serves to better illustrate character, as we see how they react and change in moments big and small.

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1: Emotion chart

Reread a book or rewatch a film you enjoy. As you do so, create a chart of character emotions. You can focus on the main character’s emotions or chart the emotions of multiple characters. Track the types of emotions experienced by the character(s), the size of the emotions, and what emotional clues are used.

Does a character experience or express large or small emotions differently? How do the biggest emotions line up with the biggest plot moments?

Exercise 2: Emotion reversal

Write about a small emotion you had in a large way—with several paragraphs and a layering of emotional clues. For example, spend a significant amount of time writing about mild irritation at no ripe avocados, a small amount of joy from getting the day’s Wordle, etc.

Now, write about a large emotion you had in a small way. This might be a phrase or a few sentences. You might dismiss the large emotion, compare it to something else and move on, etc.

Now, reflect. While often it’s useful to write about bigger emotions in a big way, and smaller emotions in a small way, in what circumstances would it be useful to do the reverse?

Exercise 3: Planning (or revising) a story

Plan out a novel that you intend to write. Which three scenes do you want to have the biggest, most explored emotions? How will the placement of these emotional scenes help the story? (You can also do this with a short story—however, choose one scene or moment to have the biggest, most explored emotions.)

If you are revising a story, find which scenes already have the biggest, most expressed emotions. Are these the scenes that should have the most emotional weight? Are they expressing or layering in the most effective way? As necessary, revise.

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #63: Four More Internal Emotion Techniques

#63: Four More Internal Emotion Techniques

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #63: Four More Internal Emotion Techniques

In Jane Austen’s novel, Northanger Abbey, the character of Catherine Morland is filled with emotions, so much so that she is sometimes carried away in flights of fancy. Austen uses many of the techniques we’ve already talked about to plant clues to her emotional state, including sharing character thoughts, free indirect speech, relationship to setting as a window into emotion, concrete actions and behavior, awareness/lack of awareness, body language, verbs and adjectives, and dialogue.

There are four more key techniques that Jane Austen uses to convey emotion. These techniques work best for viewpoint characters, because they often require being in the character’s head. They are tools that can be applied for both very emotive characters, like Catherine Morland, and for characters that keep their emotions more concealed, subdued, and in check, like Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility.

Additional Internal Emotion Techniques (which are especially useful for viewpoint characters

  1. Punctuation, Syntax, and Rhythm
  2. Pointing to the past and/or to the future
  3. Repetition
  4. Physical sensation and internal physical sensation

We’ll consider two scenes from Northanger Abbey that demonstrate these four internal emotion techniques.

Internal Emotion Technique 1: Punctuation, Syntax, and Rhythm

Punctuation, syntax, and rhythm can be a powerful tool for conveying emotion, especially when the punctuation, syntax, and rhythm are markedly different from other sentences, passages, or scenes.

In Northanger Abbey, Catherine has met many new acquaintances. In particular, she has fallen for a certain Henry Tilney, and she has also become friends with Henry’s sister, Eleanor.

Eleanor wants a companion, so she and her father, General Tilney, invite Catherine to come stay with them at their home, Northanger Abbey. The narrator then gives us a sense of Catherine’s reaction. Take note of the punctuation, the syntax, and the rhythm that is employed:

Northanger Abbey! These were thrilling words, and wound up Catherine’s feelings to the highest point of ecstasy. Her grateful and gratified heart could hardly restrain its expressions within the language of tolerable calmness. To receive so flattering an invitation! To have her company so warmly solicited! Everything honourable and soothing, every present enjoyment, and every future hope was contained in it; and her acceptance, with only the saving clause of Papa and Mamma’s approbation, was eagerly given. “I will write home directly,” said she, “and if they do not object, as I dare say they will not—”

Note the heavy use of exclamation marks, the short sentences and other phrases that build with rapid commas, and the way that the rhythm builds to match her excitement.

Exclamation marks and commas aren’t the only punctuation marks Jane Austen employs to convey emotion—at other points in her novel she uses em dashes, question marks, and periods in revelatory ways. Long and short sentences, sentences with broken rhythm and smooth, sentences which feel like poetry—all of these are tools Austen uses to impact the reader’s experience of the character’s lived experience.

In a prior post, I analyzed Emma’s large discoveries near the end of the novel Emma. These discoveries show her that she has been wrong in so many ways, and this realization impacts her emotions. If you reread those passages, you see that punctuation, syntax, and rhythm are constantly in play to help us understand Emma’s experience.

While punctuation, syntax, and rhythm are especially useful at conveying the emotion of the viewpoint character, they can also be used to for non-viewpoint characters, but typically only in their dialogue. (We have no way of knowing their internal thoughts, but the way the punctuation, syntax, and rhythm of how they speak can definitely be effected by their emotions.)

Internal Emotion Technique 2: Pointing to the Past and/or the Future

In a previous lesson, we talked about how we can access a viewpoint character’s thoughts on a subject, and this can be used to reveal emotion. This technique is an extension of that. An extremely effective way to reveal emotion is to have a character think of something that happened in the past or in the future.

Past events can be ones which we experienced earlier in the novel. Pointing again to them creates emotional resonance between those events and the new passage. It can show the character creating meaning or connection, for good or for bad. It can recall prior emotions, or reinterpret past emotions into something new.

You can also point to past events that did not occur in the novel—that happened before the pages. This provides backstory, it paints a fuller picture of the character’s lives, and it can also illuminate why something might impact a character in a certain way.

The next passage is a little later in the same scene, after the Tilneys have invited Catherine to visit Northanger Abbey. In this passage, Catherine looks back on all her experiences in Bath, even the ones that were not always positive (some of the scenes with her friend Isabella were rather fraught) in a rosy light, as leading to this moment. How she is analyzing and calling upon the past gives a strong sense for her present emotional state.

The circumstances of the morning had led Catherine’s feelings through the varieties of suspense, security, and disappointment; but they were now safely lodged in perfect bliss; and with spirits elated to rapture, with Henry at her heart, and Northanger Abbey on her lips, she hurried home to write her letter….By the kindness of her first friends, the Allens, she had been introduced into scenes where pleasures of every kind had met her. Her feelings, her preferences, had each known the happiness of a return. Wherever she felt attachment, she had been able to create it. The affection of Isabella was to be secured to her in a sister. The Tilneys, they, by whom, above all, she desired to be favourably thought of, outstripped even her wishes in the flattering measures by which their intimacy was to be continued.

The paragraph continues by pointing to the future. Catherine immediately begins imagining and envisioning what her experience at Northanger Abbey might look like.

She was to be their chosen visitor, she was to be for weeks under the same roof with the person whose society she mostly prized—and, in addition to all the rest, this roof was to be the roof of an abbey! Her passion for ancient edifices was next in degree to her passion for Henry Tilney—and castles and abbeys made usually the charm of those reveries which his image did not fill. To see and explore either the ramparts and keep of the one, or the cloisters of the other, had been for many weeks a darling wish, though to be more than the visitor of an hour had seemed too nearly impossible for desire. And yet, this was to happen. With all the chances against her of house, hall, place, park, court, and cottage, Northanger turned up an abbey, and she was to be its inhabitant. Its long, damp passages, its narrow cells and ruined chapel, were to be within her daily reach, and she could not entirely subdue the hope of some traditional legends, some awful memorials of an injured and ill-fated nun.

Pointing to the future is a powerful tool to convey emotion, because it can reveal what a character expects, what they hope for or fear, whether they are high strung or analytical or relaxed. A character has no way of knowing what the future will actually hold, but how they think about the future reveals their current state.

Once again, this is a tool that is largely used for viewpoint characters.

Internal Emotion Technique 3: Repetition

Repetition is a powerful tool. Jane Austen uses repetition of action, of thought, of imagery, of attention, of words, and of certain sounds. You can repeat anything, as long as it creates a building sensation.

Repetition can connect things together. It shows what the character is focusing on, what their thoughts can’t avoid, what they keep coming back to. It can create rhythm, it can call back to something from earlier, or it can further develop an emotion or thought.

In the previous scene, we already saw the repetition of the word every (emphasis added):

Everything honourable and soothing, every present enjoyment, and every future hope was contained in it.

Later, when Catherine is at Northanger Abbey, she has a frightening night in her bedroom, partly because she has convinced herself that frightening things have happened in this space.

She wonders what is in an old-fashioned cabinet, and throughout the scene, she tries to open it again and again—a repetition of action. There is also a repetition of her experiencing the wind. Some characters might notice that it’s stormy, and it’s mentioned once, but in this scene, wind is mentioned again and again, and each time it shows the building of her emotions.

The window curtains seemed in motion. It could be nothing but the violence of the wind penetrating through the divisions of the shutters; and she stepped boldly forward, carelessly humming a tune, to assure herself of its being so, peeped courageously behind each curtain, saw nothing on either low window seat to scare her, and on placing a hand against the shutter, felt the strongest conviction of the wind’s force. 

A little later in the scene we read:

The wind roared down the chimney, the rain beat in torrents against the windows, and everything seemed to speak the awfulness of her situation. 

And again:

A violent gust of wind, rising with sudden fury, added fresh horror to the moment.

Later still:

She had not been used to feel alarm from wind, but now every blast seemed fraught with awful intelligence.

And one final reference to the wind:

The storm still raged, and various were the noises, more terrific even than the wind, which struck at intervals on her startled ear.

In early drafts, I sometimes include unneeded repetition. I’ll accidentally repeat a word or a phrase, I’ll start too many sentences in the same way, or I’ll have a character do the same thing twice for no reason. I always try to cut the accidental repetitions. The intentional repetitions can be powerful, though I always test them on readers to make sure my use of repetition is building something rather feeling like sloppy writing.

There is a myriad of ways you can use repetition for viewpoint characters. For non-viewpoint characters, repetition is most likely to be seen either in their dialogue or the in repeated actions.

Internal Emotion Technique 4: Physical sensation and internal physical sensation

For viewpoint characters and non-viewpoint characters alike, a character’s actions, behavior, and body language are a strong indicator of their emotions. Does a character drop a letter, walk slowly, run up the stairs, or fidget restlessly? Each of these can be an outward expression of their internal state.

For viewpoint characters, we can also use their physical sensations—things happening to their body—and their internal physical sensations—things happening inside the body that other characters cannot possibly know.

The following paragraph is from the scene with the wind, while Catherine is trying to open the cabinet. I’ve bolded a sentence that reveals Catherine’s physical sensations.

It was some time however before she could unfasten the door, the same difficulty occurring in the management of this inner lock as of the outer; but at length it did open; and not vain, as hitherto, was her search; her quick eyes directly fell on a roll of paper pushed back into the further part of the cavity, apparently for concealment, and her feelings at that moment were indescribable. Her heart fluttered, her knees trembled, and her cheeks grew pale. She seized, with an unsteady hand, the precious manuscript, for half a glance sufficed to ascertain written characters

Catherine is feeling her heart flutter. Her knees are trembling. And her cheeks are growing pale. Each of these physical sensations are her body’s manifestations of her emotion.

Her heart fluttering is a truly internal physical sensation. It is inside her body, and it effects and reflects her experience when she finally manages to open the cabinet.

Her cheeks growing pale is also a physical sensation, though it has an external component that other characters could notice, were they in the room. Her knees trembling is a physical sensation that would be rather unlikely for other characters to notice, but possible in certain situations.

Regardless, these are all physical sensations belonging to our viewpoint character that are part of her experience and are fair game for the narrator to mention.

If you want a resource on how to write about internal and external physical sensations, as well as body language and actions that might reflect certain emotions, I highly recommend the book The Emotion Thesaurus.

While some authors rely heavily on physical sensation and internal physical sensation to convey emotions, Jane Austen uses it sparingly. However, when she uses it, she does so to great effect.

Conclusion

There are so many tools that can be used to convey a character’s emotions. For viewpoint characters, we have the additional opportunity to submerse ourselves into their emotions, by using tools that aren’t as readily available to use on non-viewpoint characters, such as internal physical sensations, repetition, pointing to the past or future, and syntax.

In the next lesson we’ll look at the size or degree of emotions—the differences between conveying small, medium, and large emotions. I hope that you’ll join me!

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1: Chart your own physical sensations

Over the course of a day or a morning, record your own physical sensations and internal physical sensations. Did you touch something scratchy? Did something taste sour? Did the chair feel hard? Did your knee itch? Did your eyes feel unfocused? Did your back hurt? Did you lose your balance?

If relevant, jot down a word or two that captures your emotional state at the time. Was your physical sensation reflecting your emotions at the time? Did your physical sensations contrast your emotions? Did your physical sensations and internal physical sensations change your emotions?

Consider what you learned about physical sensations and emotions, and how you can incorporate that into your own writing.

Exercise 2: Finding a Place to Live

Write a brief scene in which a character is touring apartments or other places to live. In this scene, try to incorporate each of the techniques talked about in this lesson:

  1. Punctuation, Syntax, and Rhythm
  2. Pointing to the past and/or to the future
  3. Repetition
  4. Physical sensation and internal physical sensation

Exercise 3: Emotion Revision

Take a scene in a story you are writing and see if you are incorporating any of these techniques. If so, are there ways you could strengthen your use of the technique? If not, at what points would one or more of these techniques be useful? Now revise the scene.

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #62: Conveying Emotion Through Character Thoughts and Free Indirect Speech

#61: Conveying Emotion through Character Thoughts and Free Indirect Speech

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #62: Conveying Emotion Through Character Thoughts and Free Indirect Speech

In the previous lesson, we analyzed a scene in Sense and Sensibility and discovered 10 emotional clues that Jane Austen uses to convey what characters feel to the reader. These ranged from concrete actions to impressions to shifts to dialogue. These clues are extremely useful, because they can create an emotional picture even for minor characters, far removed from the narrator’s perspective.

But what if you are writing in close third person—from a narrator’s perspective, but with close access to a character’s viewpoint, thoughts, and perspective? Or what if you are writing first person, and the narrator is one of the characters? Or what if you are writing from an omniscient point of view, and the narrator has the ability to dip into the minds, viewpoints, and eyes of multiple characters?

If you are trying to convey the emotion for a viewpoint character, there are additional emotional clues that you can use. In this lesson we will focus on two related but separate tools: revelations of character thoughts and free indirect speech.

Emotional Clues for Viewpoint Characters: Revelations of Character Thoughts and Free Indirect Speech

One of the most powerful tools for a viewpoint character is the fact that the writer can directly convey the characters thoughts. This is only possible for a viewpoint character—only for a viewpoint character can the narrator be seen to know, fully and completely, what that individual is thinking.

Emotional Clues Technique 11: Reveal the Thoughts of the Character. (Jane Austen Writing Lessons.)

There are many ways that a narrator can reveal character thoughts. Often this occurs through:

  • Summarizing the character’s thoughts,
  • Stating the character’s thoughts
  • Making statements on/connections related to the character’s thoughts.
Emotional Clues Technique 12: Free Indirect Speech. (Jane Austen Writing Lessons.)

Another related method to reveal character thoughts is free indirect speech. Free indirect speech (also known as free indirect discourse) was not invented by Jane Austen, but she was one of the first writers to use it in large amounts. So what is free indirect speech?

Free indirect speech is when the narrative shifts from a slightly more distant perspective of the narrator, to directly and fully into the character’s perspective, thoughts, and visceral experience.

Examples of Conveying Emotion by Revealing Character Thoughts and Free Indirect Speech

A passage from Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park will illustrate both types of emotional clues more fully.

This is a scene from the second half of the book. Fanny’s female cousins have left home, and her uncle, Sir Thomas, is truly noticing Fanny for the first time. Sir Thomas decides to throw a ball. He informs Fanny that she is going to open the ball—a position of great honor.

Throughout this passage, the third person narrator sticks close to Fanny’s perspective. This provides an opportunity to describe Fanny’s thoughts and reflections, her reactions and her emotions. At just a few points, the narration slips into free indirect speech, and we are completely immersed in Fanny’s perspective. The sentences which use free indirect speech are bolded. (Note that in the original, there is no bolding—there is nothing that distinguishes or separates the free indirect speech visually from the narrator’s descriptions and summaries of Fanny’s thoughts.)

In a few minutes Sir Thomas came to her, and asked if she were engaged; and the “Yes, sir; to Mr. Crawford,” was exactly what he had intended to hear. Mr. Crawford was not far off; Sir Thomas brought him to her, saying something which discovered to Fanny, that she was to lead the way and open the ball; an idea that had never occurred to her before. Whenever she had thought of the minutiae of the evening, it had been as a matter of course that Edmund would begin with Miss Crawford; and the impression was so strong, that though her uncle spoke the contrary, she could not help an exclamation of surprise, a hint of her unfitness, an entreaty even to be excused. To be urging her opinion against Sir Thomas’s was a proof of the extremity of the case; but such was her horror at the first suggestion, that she could actually look him in the face and say that she hoped it might be settled otherwise; in vain, however: Sir Thomas smiled, tried to encourage her, and then looked too serious, and said too decidedly, “It must be so, my dear,” for her to hazard another word; and she found herself the next moment conducted by Mr. Crawford to the top of the room, and standing there to be joined by the rest of the dancers, couple after couple, as they were formed.

She could hardly believe it. To be placed above so many elegant young women! The distinction was too great. It was treating her like her cousins! And her thoughts flew to those absent cousins with most unfeigned and truly tender regret, that they were not at home to take their own place in the room, and have their share of a pleasure which would have been so very delightful to them. So often as she had heard them wish for a ball at home as the greatest of all felicities! And to have them away when it was given—and for her to be opening the ball—and with Mr. Crawford too! She hoped they would not envy her that distinction now; but when she looked back to the state of things in the autumn, to what they had all been to each other when once dancing in that house before, the present arrangement was almost more than she could understand herself.

There is so much incredible emotion conveyed in these two paragraphs. We feel as if we are with Fanny, next to the dance floor. We are with her in thought, in perspective, in the moment.

Let’s look at the difference between when the narrator conveys Fanny’s thoughts through summary, statement, and analysis, and when the narrator conveys Fanny’s thoughts through free indirect speech.

She could hardly believe it.

Her thoughts flew to hose absent cousins with most unfeigned and truly tender regret

She hoped they would not envy her that distinction now

But when she looked back to the state of things in autumn…the present arrangement was almost more than she could understand herself.

In each of these phrases, we have access to Fanny’s thoughts, but it is through the filter of the narrator. These thoughts are summarized, they’re condensed, they are stated, they are made beautiful through connection and analysis. And these thoughts certainly give the reader a lens clearly into Fanny’s emotions, in a way that’s only possible because she is the viewpoint character.

In the sentences that use free indirect speech, this narrator’s filter—even though it is a close third person filter—is removed. We are completely in her thoughts, in the moment, with no summary or larger picture perspective:

To be placed above so many elegant young women! The distinction was too great. It was treating her like her cousins!

These are Fanny’s actual thoughts, in the moment—this is her emphasis, her internal exclamations. And then, a few lines later we read:

So often as she had heard them wish for a ball at home as the greatest of all felicities! And to have them away when it was given—and for her to be opening the ball—and with Mr. Crawford too!

The power of free indirect speech is that in these moments of immersion we, as the reader, become one with the character and her perspective. Nothing separates us—for a moment, we become her.

In this last sentence of free indirect speech, note how the syntax changes. We have three clauses, all starting with “and,” stacked on each other using em dashes. For this sentence, it creates a sort of miniature use of stream of consciousness—the natural, continuous, not always sequential direction of thoughts. (Authors who are famous for their use of stream of consciousness, like Virginia Woolf, use it for much longer passages. In this passage by Austen, this sentence leans towards stream of consciousness, but because of its length is properly categorized and free indirect speech.)

The Power of Conveying Emotion Through Character Thoughts and Free Indirect Speech

One of the powers of novels and short stories is that you can convey the viewpoint character’s thoughts, perspectives, and emotions, through summary, statement, making connections to other things, and free indirect speech. This is an opportunity that is not present in the same way in other mediums (for example, the only way movies and TV can do this is through voice over narration, and this only is effective for certain stories).

While free indirect speech has the advantage of immersing us fully into the character’s thoughts and perspectives, other sorts of revelations of character thoughts (like summary, statement, and making connections) have their own advantages: they can provide context, weave in themes and insights, create layering, and sometimes create an important distance between the reader and the emotion.

Like any tools to convey emotion, these should not be used exclusively, but when coupled with other tools, these techniques can help the reader feel a connection to the characters and understand their state of mind throughout the story.

A Few Final Notes: Italics and First Person Narrators

  • Instead of using free indirect speech, some modern stories will italicize character’s direct thoughts. This draws attention to it as a thought, separate from the main narrative, but has many of the same effects as using free indirect speech.
  • Texts written in first person rather than third person are, by definition, entirely in the thoughts and viewpoint of the first person narrator. However, there is still often a sense of the narrator as the storyteller—the narrator is still a filter. This is especially the case with a first person past tense point of view: there is often the sense that the story is being told later, and sometimes with accompanying reflection. At times, the descriptions and thoughts will feel even closer, more immediate, and more immersive, and this can create a similar effect as using free indirect speech.
  • First person present tense is meant to feel even more immediate than first person past tense, as everything is unfolding before the character (and the reader) in the present. Yet like with first person past tense, at times we can feel even closer and more submersed in the character’s perspective.
Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1: An Imitation

Write an imitation of the two paragraphs from Mansfield Park. You should use your own characters, and a new situation which parallels the original (instead of a ball, another situation in which a character might be surprised, like being asked to demonstrate something at work, or being chosen as a starter in a soccer game).

As you write your own two paragraphs, try to match Austen’s use of emotional clues. When she summarizes an emotion, try to summarize your own character’s emotion. When she uses free indirect speech, use free indirect speech. When she makes a connection to something that happened in the past, make a connection to something that happened in the past.

Once you’re finished, read the paragraphs aloud and see how the emotions build for your character.

Exercise 2: Italics vs. Free Indirect Speech

Write two versions of a paragraph in third person where a character experiences emotion. In the first version, choose one to three spots where you express the characters thoughts in italics. In the second version, incorporate these same thoughts but using free indirect speech. Which approach works better for your particular passage and writing style?

Exercise 3: First Person Analysis

Choose a book or a short story written in first person. Read a few passages, analyzing how the emotion is conveyed through thoughts. Despite being third person, are there portions where we are farther from or closer to the character’s emotions?

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #61: How to Convey Emotion. Planting Clues to What Characters Feel

#61: How to Convey Emotion: Planting Clues to What Characters Feel

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #61: How to Convey Emotion. Planting Clues to What Characters Feel

It took me several years of writing fiction to really learn how to convey emotions. As a writer, you often know what your characters are feeling, but how do you convey that to the reader in a way that helps them to believe it, and sometimes even to feel it with the characters?

One of the ways I learned to write emotions was by studying writers who excel at it. Jane Austen is a master of emotion. Let’s look at a passage rife with emotion from her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility.

At this point in the novel, most characters assume that Marianne Dashwood and John Willoughby are engaged to each other. The other Dashwood family members leave the house, knowing it is likely that Willoughby will call upon Marianne.

They return to witness a flurry of unexpected emotions.

“They were no sooner in the passage than Marianne came hastily out of the parlour apparently in violent affliction, with her handkerchief at her eyes; and without noticing them ran up stairs.”

First, let’s consider the word apparently. Marianne is “apparently in violent affliction.” This word choice is important. Marianne is not a viewpoint character in this chapter—the point of view is from Elinor’s perspective. Elinor and her mother cannot actually, with any certainty, know how Marianne feels. They cannot peer into her mind. And even if she were to tell them, it would be filtered through both language and what she wants them to know.

As such, they are forced to interpret her behavior in order to understand her emotions. Readers must do the same thing, especially when reading about non-viewpoint characters. We look at clues that indicate how the characters feel, and, like Elinor and Mrs. Dashwood, we come to conclusions on someone’s emotional state.

What are the clues in this sentence?

  1. Marianne came hastily out of the parlour
  2. Apparently in violent affliction
  3. With her handkerchief at her eyes
  4. Without noticing them
  5. Ran up stairs

These clues can be categorized into different types of clues that you can use as a writer to convey emotions:

Emotional Clue Technique 1: Concrete actions and behavior

Emotional Clue Technique 1: Concrete actions and behavior

Marianne moves with speed; she has her handkerchief pressed to her eyes (and we can assume she is crying); she runs up the stairs.

Concrete actions and behavior are the results of choices made by a character, and choices are always influenced by a character’s emotions. Different characters react to different situations in very different ways—not everyone expresses strong emotions with strong outward displays. But even if a character is suppressing or hiding their emotions, it will impact their actions and behavior.

This is an important emotional clue to place, whether or not you are attempting to capture the viewpoint character’s emotions, or the emotions of another character.

Emotional Clue Technique 2: Awareness/lack of awareness

Marianne does not notice or acknowledge her family members, even as she rushes past them.

Certain types of emotions will point a character outward—charitable emotions, or concern for others. Other emotions will point a character inward or narrow their focus to a smaller awareness.

This emotional clue is one that Austen uses less frequently, but to great effect. In terms of viewpoint characters, a viewpoint character may not realize what they are aware or not aware of, but it will impact the sort of description that is used in a scene.

Emotional Clue Technique 3: General impressions

Marianne is apparently in violent affliction.

Here, Elinor and her mother are interpreting their general impressions—their feel of the situation. This is likely influenced by dozens of tiny details that Austen does not describe. Maybe Marianne’s face is pale; maybe her arms hang a little limply; maybe she’s sniffling. All of the time, we interpret dozens of tiny details—sometimes subconsciously—and come to conclusion. Rather than including every possible detail, we are given Elinor’s conclusion, which is useful in that it brings us back to the viewpoint character and how she is processing the events.

When a character interprets someone’s emotions, it’s often useful to have a qualifier that signifies that the point of view character is making an interpretation (so readers do not confuse it with the narrator proclaiming this emotion as fact, which can read as a point of view shift). Austen uses “apparently” but writers also use “likely,” “probably,” “it seemed that,” and a number of other signifiers.

More Types of Emotional Clues

Austen goes on to use more types of emotional clues in the passage (and she plants more emotional clues in the categories we’ve already established). Let’s read more of the scene and look for additional types of clues:

Surprised and alarmed they proceeded directly into the room she had just quitted, where they found only Willoughby, who was leaning against the mantel-piece with his back towards them. He turned round on their coming in, and his countenance showed that he strongly partook of the emotion which over-powered Marianne.

“Is anything the matter with her?” cried Mrs. Dashwood as she entered—“is she ill?”

“I hope not,” he replied, trying to look cheerful; and with a forced smile presently added, “It is I who may rather expect to be ill—for I am now suffering under a very heavy disappointment!”

“Disappointment?”

“Yes, for I am unable to keep my engagement with you. Mrs. Smith has this morning exercised the privilege of riches upon a poor dependent cousin, by sending me on business to London. I have just received my dispatches, and taken my farewell of Allenham; and by way of exhilaration I am now come to take my farewell of you.”

“To London!—and are you going this morning?”

“Almost this moment.”

“This is very unfortunate. But Mrs. Smith must be obliged;—and her business will not detain you from us long I hope.”

He coloured as he replied, “You are very kind, but I have no idea of returning into Devonshire immediately. My visits to Mrs. Smith are never repeated within the twelvemonth.”

“And is Mrs. Smith your only friend? Is Allenham the only house in the neighbourhood to which you will be welcome? For shame, Willoughby, can you wait for an invitation here?”

His colour increased; and with his eyes fixed on the ground he only replied, “You are too good.”

Emotional Clue Technique 4: Stating the Emotion

Emotional Clue Technique 4: Stating the Emotion

Elinor and her mother are surprised and alarmed.

The emotion of the viewpoint character can be stated, as Austen does here. This is not a technique she frequently uses—if used improperly, stating an emotion feels like cheating. If it feels unearned, we won’t necessarily believe it. When Austen states the emotion, it’s almost always in moments like this, where the situation and our past knowledge of the characters makes it obvious in and of itself that this would be the emotion felt by the viewpoint character. Of course Elinor and Mrs. Dashwood are going to be startled and alarmed by Marianne’s extreme emotional reaction. Stating it allows Austen to quickly solidify the reaction and move on to more important parts of the scene.

Most of the time, stating the emotion needs to be for the viewpoint character, unless it is the viewpoint character’s interpretation of another’s emotions (see clue technique 3).

Emotional Clue Technique 5: Body Language

Willoughby is leaning against the mantle-piece with his back towards them.

Body language is a powerful indicator of a character’s emotions. If a character is feeling confident, upset, flustered, or distracted, it will often have an impact on their body language. Some characters have little control or awareness of how their body language is conveying their emotional state; other characters will attempt to control their body language to mask emotions.

Emotional Clue Technique 6: Facial Expressions

Emotional Clue Technique 6: Facial Expressions

His countenance showed that he strongly partook of the emotion which over-powered Marianne.

Facial expressions often provide clues to a character’s emotions. Austen typically uses this type of emotional clue when capturing the emotions of a non-viewpoint character. Viewpoint characters, when experiencing emotions, are not always likely to think about what facial expressions they are using (though in some situations it can work).

Emotional Clue Technique 7: Verbs and Adjectives

Emotional Clue Technique 7: Verbs and Adjectives

Cried Mrs. Dashwood; with a forced smile; he coloured.

While this technique often overlaps with other techniques, it is such a powerful technique that it is useful to consider on its own. What verbs will best express someone’s emotion? What adjectives can enlighten the emotions of a scene?

Mrs. Dashwood does not just ask what is wrong with her daughter—she cries it. Calling a smile forced reveals that it does not feel genuine, and thus hints at the real emotion beneath. The fact that Willoughby’s face colours hints at shame or embarrassment in key parts of the conversation.

It’s important not to overindulge in this technique. Note that most of these lines of dialogue don’t include a verb that describe the characters, or how they’re saying their lines. Using verbs and adjectives that convey emotions can be most powerful when used sparingly, because we’re not inundated and it focuses the reader on the key, compelling details.

Emotional Clue Technique 8: Dialogue

Emotional Clue Technique 8: Dialogue

Mrs. Dashwood has asked Willoughby a question about Marianne, but then his dialogue focuses on himself and his troubles. Mrs. Dashwood’s continuing questions indicate that her constant surprise and changing understanding of the situation. Willoughby keeps most of his statements very formal and factual. While at this point readers cannot be conclusive about Willoughby’s motivations or the deeper layers behind his dialogue, readers discover this later in the book.

What a character says can reveal or conceal their emotions. Ultimately, dialogue is an action taken by a character, and what they choose to say and how is influenced by their emotional state.

Emotional Clue Technique 9: Shifts of Emotion

Emotional Clue Technique 9: Shifts of Emotion

As the conversation continues, there is a shift in Willoughby’s emotions. Not only is he feeling whatever emotions were incited by his conversation with Marianne, but a new emotion arrives: a discomfort and a desire to escape the situation.

The conversation continues with Mrs. Dashwood emphasizing that Willoughby is always welcome at their cottage, and then we read:

“My engagements at present,” replied Willoughby, confusedly, “are of such a nature—that—I dare not flatter myself—”

He stopped. Mrs. Dashwood was too much astonished to speak, and another pause succeeded. This was broken by Willoughby, who said with a faint smile, “It is folly to linger in this manner. I will not torment myself any longer by remaining among friends whose society it is impossible for me now to enjoy.”

He then hastily took leave of them all and left the room. They saw him step into his carriage, and in a minute it was out of sight.

Emotions—whether large or small—are not static. They can change or shift within a sentence or scene, or they can be joined by other emotions. Conveying shifts of emotion is a useful technique that helps the reader understand characters and the situation.

Emotional Clue Technique 10: Silence/Pauses

Emotional Clue Technique 10: Silence/Pauses

Mrs. Dashwood was too astonished to speak. Another pause succeeded—neither Willoughby or Elinor speak either. In fact, Elinor has not spoken yet during this scene, perhaps because she feels it is not her place.

Silences and pauses can be powerful tools to reveal emotions. Sometimes emotions can be too strong for action or dialogue. Sometimes inaction reveals an inability to process an emotions. Sometimes pauses are because an emotion makes it difficult to see a way forward. Who breaks the pause and how can also be revelatory.

Recap/Conclusion

In this short scene, Austen uses ten techniques that provide emotional clues to the reader, to help the reader understand—and experience—the emotions of the characters.

Let’s look at them again, in list form:

  1. Concrete actions and behavior
  2. Awareness/lack of awareness
  3. General impressions
  4. Stating the Emotion
  5. Body language
  6. Facial expressions
  7. Well Chosen Verbs and Adjectives
  8. Dialogue
  9. Shifts of Emotion
  10. Silences/pauses

This scene is a key emotional scene—it’s a turning point in the novel, where everything changes for Marianne and the other characters. So it makes sense that it uses ten different techniques that provide clues to the reader.

These aren’t the only techniques that Austen uses as emotional clues. In a previous Jane Austen writing lesson, I discussed how setting can be used to complement or contrast emotions. In the coming weeks, I’ll discuss other techniques for emotions that work particularly well for viewpoint characters (like free indirect speech, repetition, and punctuation). We’ll also talk more about differences between conveying small, medium, and large emotions, and ways that different characters express or deal with their emotions.

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1: Incorporating emotional clues

Part 1: From the list of ten emotional clues, choose the three that you are most comfortable using to convey emotions. Now write a paragraph or brief scene that uses these three emotional clues.

Part 2: Now return to the list of ten emotional clues, and choose the three that you are least comfortable using to convey emotions. Rewrite the paragraph or brief scene using these three emotional clues instead.

Exercise 2: Random number generator story

Step 1: Choose an everyday task (going to the grocery store; attending school; working out; etc.)

Step 2: Choose a predominant emotion (happiness; anger; frustration; fatigue; etc.)

Step 3: Use a random number generator to select 5 numbers between 1 and 10 (there can be duplicates). Write them down in the random order generated by the widget.

Step 4: Write a scene that has a character complete the everyday task and incorporates the predominant emotion. Each type of emotional clue should be used in the storytelling. These emotional clues can be grouped together in the scene, or spread throughout the scene, but they must be included in the order dictated by the random number generator.

Exercise 3: Analyze the writing of an author you love (who is not Jane Austen). What emotional clues do they use to hint at or convey the characters’ emotions? Do they use the same emotional clues as Austen uses, or different ones? How are they incorporated into scenes?

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #60: Getting in the Mood for Writing

#60: Getting in the Mood for Writing

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Jane Austen Writing Lessons. #60: Getting in the Mood for Writing

There are days when writing comes easily for me: when I’m excited to get started, when I feel a spark, an unstoppable drive to write.

But then there are plenty of times when I have the time to write, when I’ve scheduled and planned out writing time, and I get to the computer and have a difficult time getting started.

Jane Austen had her difficult writing days as well. In a previous post, I discussed how distractions (like visitors and thoughts of mutton) made writing more difficult for her. There were also other days when she found difficulty writing because she was fatigued or because her pen was too hard.

On October 26, 1813, Jane Austen wrote a letter to her sister Cassandra and in her very first paragraph noted: “I am at all in a humour for writing.”

It’s comforting that Jane also had days where she was not in the mood to write. But what’s interesting is that her sentence doesn’t end there: she uses a semicolon. Here’s the full statement:

I am not at all in a humour for writing; I must write on till I am.

For Austen, the solution to not being in the mood for writing is simple: to write.

I’ve found that 95% of the time, this works for me too. If I can sit down and truly write (without getting distracted by twitter or anything else), then I start to feel like writing. A lot of times I set a timer for 30 minutes. I make a commitment to myself: I don’t feel like writing, but I have to do at least 30 minutes. And then I can walk away. But by the end of the 30 minutes, most of the time I am in the mood for writing and keep on going.

The 5% of the time when this doesn’t work for me, there’s something else going on. Mary Robinette Kowal has an excellent blog post titled “Sometimes Writers Block is Really Depression” where she talks about some of these other reasons we get stuck and don’t feel like writing, whether it’s plot problems or depression. Recognizing what the plot problem is can often help me get in the mood for writing. In the case of depression, taking steps like Mary Robinette did can help me improve my mental well being and make realistic goals for myself, which, in turn, can help me be in the mood for writing.

How do you get in the mood for writing? How do you get past the difficulty of starting? It doesn’t have to be Jane Austen’s method, but if you can figure out what works for you, it will help you make more of your writing sessions feel worthwhile. I know some writers who have a song they always listen to before writing, or who meditate for five minutes. I know some writers who think about their story while taking a shower, and then sit down at the page. I know some writers who turn off the internet or hide their phone. Regardless, whether it’s deciding to write until you feel like writing, or using another method, there truly are things you can do to put yourself more in the mood for writing.

If you have other methods that help get you in the mood for writing, please share in the comments!

Writing Exercises - Jane Austen Writing Lessons

Exercise 1: Plan out a few writing sessions for the next week. These don’t have to be long. And then when it is time for these sessions, write even if you don’t feel like writing.

Exercise 2: Spend fifteen minutes writing in a form that you don’t normally use to write. This might be in a notebook, in cursive, through dictation, on notecards, etc. Then reflect on the experience: how did this change your writing process and your thoughts about writing?

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