Yeah, emotional stuff is hard to write. I completely agree! Especially when you get to a character like Henry or Lassie. You want so badly for them to express their emotions that the temptation is water the character down for the sake of an "aww" moment. Well-written emotional scenes involving Henry and Lassie that aren't OCC are hard to come by, unfortunately.
That's so funny that you say that since I think Henry and Lassie are the two people you write best for!
It seems like the challenge when it comes to emotion is keeping it straight. I mean, Henry and Lassie are pretty emotional people - it's just usually anger and disdain, which are kind of hard to write for if you aren't an angry or disdainful person.
Is disdainful a word?
lol! Henry and Lassie are definitely two of my favorites to write for. I've always said that Henry is the most emotionally complex character on the show. HE keeps his emotions about one inch beneath the surface, just deep enough to not be seen but close enough to the surface to come spilling out at any moment. But I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that the key to their characters is anger. Whatever emotions they feel tend to express themselves as anger or general grumpiness. One of my favorite things to do it to come to a Shawn/Henry scene and have to sit down figure out "Okay....what grumpy, Henry-esque way would Henry express himself here...?" Whether it's giving his son a gun or telling him to tuck in his damn shirt or yelling...I never know what he'll do, but it's always fun to find out.
