Writers - even the best ones - struggle with how to convey characters' emotions without breaking the golden rule of ‘Show Don’t Tell.’

Most times, who the characters are is best revealed by the emotions they forecast. Those same emotions may seem cloudy and unclear at first until we slowly unravel them, exposing their truth through actions, dialogue, and more. 

The reader wants to know: Who are these characters? What do they want? How do they differ from the other characters in the story? What makes the characters tick and why should we care? 

Whoever they are, in whatever role, we don’t want them to tell us any more than what we might learn on a first date or at a first meeting. We want to discover their dreams, quirks, and passions naturally, over time. 

We want those characters to show us who they are. We want to understand them more and feel their disappointment, jealousy, gratitude, or reluctance. We want to laugh, cry, cheer, and even...