As a writer I feel it's important to be in touch with the emotional side of your personality. Each of us, as writers or non-writers, goes through a massive stream of emotion each and every day. As adults we've learned ways to cope with this cycle of feeling. If we haven't it means we subject ourselves to an emotional rollercoaster. This could be exhilarating, except it gets quite sickening after a while. Most of us get the sense to learn ways to deal with it or seek medical assistance. It could be necessary as a way of coping.

For myself I think I really grew up once I figured ways to live with my emotions. They ruled me for some time, a most unpleasant time, too. I may still have my good days and my bad days, but I am in far greater control. But as a writer there is a lot to learn from emotion. For a start, any character we want to write about, so long as we want them to appear real, will need emotion. Without it they're just cardboard characters and no one wants them in their fiction. We want characters that live and breathe, characters that take big chunks out of life and have trouble coping with that mouthful. This is what makes reading exciting. The very fact we are emotional beings makes reading about the daily struggle others go through something we can relate to.

Perhaps this is the real reason online blogs are so interesting. We have permission to peek into the life of an ordinary person. They're a lot like us and yet they are also very different. They go through their daily struggles and their lifetime battles. We read and understand how they feel but wouldn't want to be them, either.

As far as adding life to our characters we can do no worse than mine our own life experiences. Each of us has experienced emotion at different levels. We've all known pain in some way or another. There’s the pain of loss, unrequited love, abandonment, physical ailment or labour in bringing our children into the world. The memory of this pain is there free to mine as the raw material of your own experience. Take it and shape it into something precious that will make your character alive and thriving. Your readers will feel the echo of their own pains as they identify with your character.

This is why something has to happen in fiction. Not specifically in fiction, but something has to happen to your character. I heard it described once as "getting your character up a tree and throwing stones at them." Not only do we need to have them in a bad situation we also need to have things going from bad to worse. Your character may go through challenges you've never faced, but you have experienced that same emotion on a lesser level. You can use the memory of the loss of your beloved pet to understand the loss of a loved one, if you've never had that experience yet yourself.

As we live our lives we store up a vast resource we can always use for our writing. Everything is worth noting. For just one day try to write down the emotions you experience. There's the frustration of waiting in traffic or in the endless line at the bank. You feel intimidated by the bossy receptionist or superior to the silly checkout girl. You feel angry at your husband for overlooking your needs, again. The kids get you cranky by not doing attending to the small details you asked them to. The joy of small discoveries and the things that make you laugh, write them down, too. The possibilities are there in your day, which is likely to be vastly different from mine.

Just make a quick entry at the time you feel the emotion. Later, go through the list and write short descriptions of how you felt at the time. Details such as body language, the way you actually felt inside, and the words you muttered to yourself are all important. Now try and put these onto a character you're working with in fiction. It doesn't matter if you never use the piece in your finished work. What is important is that you get to know your characters in an intimate way. You begin to feel empathy for them, to understand their hurts and joys. I hope this helps someone. I need to finish here, because I'm way over time, again.