EXPLOSIVE EMOTIONS

EMOTION EXPLOSION ©2000-2008, Vicki Hinze

WARNING: This is a no-edit zone...

Between a contentious election, the economic crisis and all of the additional challenges triggered by both, emotions are running high.

Doubt it?

Philadephia wins the World Series, and fans and supporters react by rocking cars, doing damage to a news van and setting fires in the street. This is not normal “we’re happy about this” behavior.

This morning, a San Francisco WGO radio talk show host called for the death of Joe the Plumber. A citizen whose only crime was to ask a question that some don’t like the way their candidate responded. This is not normal “we’re upset with our candidate’s answer” or “we wish you would never have asked” behavior.

A young woman “gets in the face” of a seventy-year-old woman because she didn’t like her political button. This behavior was urged by the candidate. “Get in their faces and....” This is not appropriate conduct, or being respectful for anyone’s freedom of choice. It was wrong for the confrontational woman. It was wrong for the candidate.

This morning, we’re waking up to news that one of the candidates’ plans, if implemented, will bankrupt the coal industry and for everyone energy costs will skyrocket. (The candidate’s words, not mine.) That’s got a lot of people erupting in an emotion explosion.

Everywhere we look, people are acting as if they’ve lost it, saying and doing things they would normally never do. It’s a time of hyper-stress. Hyper-emotion.

Characters endure times of hyper-stress and emotion, too. But I would be judicious in having a protagonist act in the unacceptable conduct ways that the individuals referenced above behaved. Why?
READ MORE

Tags: emotional reactions, heroic behavior, emotion explosion, Vicki Hinze, writers library, authors, novelists, emerald coast writers, creative writing