We have all felt anger.
We have all seen other people angry. We know that not everyone spits and
shouts when their choke-collar becomes a bit too tight. But we don't always
know how to show anger by doing anything other than saying "Mary shouted
obscenities at him, the venom of her words scoring his flesh like acid."
The following exercises will hopefully give you a few more ways of looking
at this overpowering and yet subtle emotion.
1. Imagine the following
scene: a character has just said to another, "Actually, this isn't my first
pregnancy. I gave a baby away for adoption twenty years ago, when I was
in art school." First, who is receiving the news? The woman's mother? Her
husband? Lover? Best friend? Business partner? Next, write a response from
the character's point of view. Be sure the response leads the character
through at least three emotions. Anger should be one of them. Look for
creating an emotional arc.
2. Write a paragraph
in the voice of someone who talks about hate but conveys anger. First,
choose two emotions that feed off each other the way hate and anger do
(try one with fear and something else - anger, awe, etc.). Some other suggestions
are: passion and love, fear and shame, loneliness and despair. Be sure
the voice owns up to one of the emotions and doesn't mention the other.
How convincing is the unmentioned one? Is it identifyable?
3. Look in a thesaurus
for all the words synonymous with anger. Then, make a line, using ten degrees
of anger. Choose any ten synonyms. You might start with irked and end with
enraged. Be sure to move from mildest to strongest. You might choose all
degrees of mild anger or all degrees of explosive. The point is to build
from the first one to the tenth.
4. Take a character.
Describe him or her when riled. When annoyed. When furious. Pay attention
to their physical reactions as well as internal. Do they sweat? Grind their
teeth? Punch a wall? Do they clam up? Seethe? Lash out at an innocent?