Are you calm, unstressed, exhilarated about the holiday season? Hope so but your characters shouldn’t be.
A story set during a holiday season can be the most fun to write. Why? Well, you have the frustrated Ralphie trying desperately to make sure he gets his Christmas Red Ryder B.B. gun (did that bring a smile to your face?), the serial Easter Bunny on the loose with poisonous eggs, a Veteran’s Day hero who doesn’t feel like a hero, a mother viciously stuffing the turkey for an ungrateful brood, and the costumed killer during Halloween.
These are simple, familiar Holiday visuals but they are emotional and memorable to the audience because they’ve experienced something similar or know somebody who has. You want your audience to remember your story and visuals and you do that by connecting to their emotions visually, pleasant or not.
In your story, all should NOT be calm during the holidays. It’s not normal, unfortunately. If your protagonist is calm, there better be something bothering him internally and deeply or you don’t have a compelling character or story and the visuals won’t help if they don’t make sense.
During this holiday season, I suggest that you observe shoppers, their expressions, body language, interactions with others, facial expressions. What do they pull out of their purse or backpack? Why? How do they show frustration? What’s really behind their smiles? Listen to their dialogue. What problems are they talking about? It’s certainly not going to be about what mall they’re in for Christmas shopping.
Make a list of possible but relatable, common/uncommon emotional and visual elements of your story’s chosen holiday period that your characters (especially your protagonist) are calm but stressed or worried about…maybe your FBI protagonist notices that particular Christmas ornament the kid points to on the display tree. It’s the beautiful, extraordinary one. The kind that makes you calm and sigh. It’s the very one that when the kid touches it, the mall blows up.
I guarantee the FBI protagonist who survives cannot get rid of that visual and his emotions: anger, guilt and helplessness and those emotions are shown by his hand shaking as he tries to calmly carve the turkey…with a butcher knife. We can feel and see his emotions and understand why. That’s a visual emotion your audience will remember.
And I bet you’ll remember, too, when you soon carve your own turkey.
Happy Thanksgiving!
