Getting Your Mad On (Sharing the Darkest of Emotions)

The final chapter of Book #1, Series #1, is filled with anger and grief. During the book, a five-year-old goes from a happy-go-lucky child to a willing destroyer, and in that last chapter, she destroys everything in sight.

Coming from a family where negative emotions were considered far too negative and were not to be experienced (don't cry, don't get angry, don't be upset), not pulling back from these emotions in order to share them is a challenge.

Reader's read for emotional connection. It's the primary job of the writer to make the reader feel. For writers, experiencing and facing dark emotions must proceed sharing those emotions. Bottom line, you can't share 'em if you don't feel 'em.

Fear, Anger, Hurt, Revenge, Grief, Vengeance, Hopelessness, etc., are all part of the real full-spectrum of human emotions, which includes these dark feelings despite attempts to ward them off by not living through them or acknowledging them.

When things happen, we experience the full range of emotions. Taking away the "dark" ones robs us of the ability to feel the "light" ones. (Sadly, we can't pick and choose between experiencing one type or the other.) So, we wind up with two choices: feeling or not feeling.

In the final chapter, the main character embraces her anger and grief, and get's her mad on, and when she does, bad things happen. Hmm, maybe in this case, warding off those emotions might have been a much better option, especially for those that get in her way.