Once more with feeling

Today I'm thinking about the emotion conveyed by my characters. We read because we want to empathise with the characters, we want to see through their eyes and feel what they feel.

There are several ways to show emotion.  A character's dialogue and thoughts can show their mental state.  Another, more subtle way, is by showing the reader how they act in response to news and events, and how they react - i.e. what they do in response.

  
If a character is scared, telling the reader about her thumping heart and sweaty palms shows that.  He might shrug his shoulders when told important news.  The reader knows this is vitally important to the character, but by his reaction she sees there is something else going on. 

Sometimes we get more impact from an unexpected reaction. Panthera : Death Spiral starts with Ren Hunter looking down at three little bodies and sighing, which seems odd when you learn in the next few sentences that these are the third set of dead kingcat cubs she's investigated in three months.  I wanted to get across Ren's weary acceptance that something bad was happening, and that she was powerless to stop it. 

Readers remember characters, not plots, and the most effective way to get them remembering yours is to bring them alive with emotion.