I'm in the middle of a writing project written exclusively in the format of diary entries. I won't go into too much detail about it as to not confuse anyone, but the person writing in the diary is an extremely emotional and biased person. What I need assistance on is a way for the protagonist to describe a particularly upsetting event coherently enough that the readers understand what had happened but also projecting the right amount of distress from the protagonist. Does anyone have any ideas on what I could do?
As unhelpful as this advice might seem: just try writing it out first and then get some feedback on the actual writing would be my easiest way to do it. I don't know just how biased this character is, so I can't judge based on just that. Are they illogically biased to the point of near-insanity?
She is, so mch so that she is prone to delusional behaviors. But I do thank you for the advice. I'm still extremely new and am not well-versed in the etiquette of posting direct excerpts so I went with this safe option.
Well, if you'd like to post an excerpt, I'd read it. I know there's some sort of strict rules around here for posting things for review and whatever, but if you want to PM me, I'll take a look at it.
Pick the right words and the right punctuation . An extremely emotional person doesn't have to be an incoherent, blabbering mess. It's your job as a writer to sprinkle little clues in their speech and do it in a way that would be understandable for the reader. "Projecting the right amount of distress" is no different then projecting anything else from your character into the reader's minds. Some writers use lots of words, some use less, some use lots of action some use none, some use strong words and some use subtlety. Can you think of a character from another book who has a similar disposition?
