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I have all ways placed high expectations on myself on everything I do. At times its annoying and frustrating.

I could use some help. Again its about characterization and character voice.

I could use help for my Dean voice because I have him too OPEN and VULNERABLE in a domestic requested fic.

I'm asking for help and I'm so frustrated since I'm a Dean girl and some how I can't even manage to get his voice to come out of my head.

So any help and support will be great!!!!!

Again, its all about my journey in writing and I feel I will not progress in writing at all.

My dear friend,

marchia43 - I love you for being my beta and helping me out!!!! I love your honesty and support - don't think I don't!!!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

majestic-duxk.livejournal.com

I'm not back home until Wednesday, but I am more than happy to have a look through!

Dean can be tough, I think, because the way I see him he IS emotionally vulnerable. he just really, really hides it.

From:

yonkyu.livejournal.com

I'll send it your way!!! Thanks for the help.

HUGZ!!

From:

majestic-duxk.livejournal.com

happy christmas!

how is the fic going? do you still want feedback?

xo

From:

yonkyu.livejournal.com

Merry Christmas!!!

The fic is going. I re-wrote part of it and then on Christmas Eve, I started rewriting it again. I would love feedback. Just PM me email and I will send it to you. I'm trying to work on Dean's voice and characterization and the ability of SHOWING versing TELLING in my story. I'm loving the feedback from all that are helping me, but so frustrated that, well, I'm so afraid the person will hate it, and that I'm not like other writers. Its hard and I really have not found my writing style and voice for fics. So, any and all feedback is helpful.

Its a learning curve that makes me so emotional I cry because I'm trying so so hard to improve. :/

From:

sylvanwitch

I can offer some advice, if you'd like. Dean's voice always came naturally to me because I'm basically Dean with breasts and no penis--lol! But here's what I do when I have to get an emotion across for a character that is traditionally suppressive of his emotions.

First, figure out what the emotions are that you need Dean to express in the scene.

Then, write down how YOU'D express them (words, actions, facial expressions, gestures, even proximity to the person to whom he's directing the emoting).

Okay, now you've got what you NEED him to get across to the other character. (For the sake of this example, I'm going to assume that you have Dean talking to Sam, but obviously, it could be anyone.)

Dean's number one mode of operating is to deflect. Is it making him uncomfortable? He turns it into a dirty joke OR he insults Sam. Deflection is what Dean does. He lives and breathes it. So if he's being forced to feel things, first he tries to brush it off with humor, often of the raunchy or insulting variety to derail the person who's making him feel things he doesn't want to feel or express.

Then, if the deflection backfires, he's got two tried and true secondary responses, and depending on the level of emotion and tenseness of the scene, one or the other would be his second choice:

Either he's going to get angry--usually, this involves barking his words and indicating that the other person is being ridiculous/unreasonable/off-task/unfocused, etc.

Or, he's going to walk away. This option can be accompanied by (a) more humor (if he's trying to make light of the situation) or (b) some comment about how Sam isn't pulling his weight or how they don't have time for this because there's a case on or insert some other excuse here.

Now, of course, Sam knows all of these methods of Dean's. Depending on Sam's mood, he might accept Dean's deflection, sigh, go silent (aka sulk--lol!), or, more likely if he needs Dean to really talk about it, call him on his bullshit and make him talk.

Typically, Sam opens Dean up only when he talks about how Dean's behavior is affecting him (Sam) OR when Sam invokes the Family Rule (as in, we're family, you're all I've got, we have to talk about this, etc.). Depending on what season the story is set in, he might also try to make Dean feel guilty, insult Dean right back, etc. It really depends on the situation.

The thing is, with all of these methods of pushing Sam away, Dean IS revealing himself. Sam's the only one who knows all of Dean's weak spots and tells. And while Dean isn't just going to flay himself open and spill his guts with manly tears (usually), he will eventually, if pushed to it and if he knows Sam needs to hear it, tell Sam what Sam needs/wants to hear. And usually, he'll keep it short, but he'll put it in fairly self-aware terms. That is, Dean knows he's screwed up. He knows his way of "dealing" with emotion isn't dealing at all. He knows that Sam can (typically--situation and season depending) be trusted with his (Dean's) emotions. He just needs pushing. Lots of it.

Once you get them to the point at which Dean's ready to share, remember that he's not going to be all feminine in his expression. He's still going to use vulgarity, dirty humor, etc., to deflect away the most vulnerable bits, the parts he is terrified to say out loud. He's trusting Sam to read him, and he knows that Sam will.

You have to trust the reader to understand that, too. Remember if it's Sam in the scene with Dean that Sam's responses can actually relay to the reader *DEAN'S* emotions. Sam can soften his expression, or sigh and say, "Dean" softly, or raise his hands, palms-up, in a helpless gesture. Sam's response to Dean's words can be as revealing to us about Dean's feelings as you TELLING us that Dean is feeling X or Y or Dean SAYING it. It's all about the show and less about the tell.

I don't know if that helped at all. If you'd like a specific example, I can probably send you one or two. Let me know. :-)

Good luck! *hugs*

Edited Date: 2014-12-15 01:58 am (UTC)