Go Ahead — Write This Story: Anger

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For a good story, characters must have emotions. Anger, for example. But how to show this? With people suddenly fighting or shouting? This doesn’t tell us much about their anger. Instead you might show the character’s journey from frustration to self-blame to anger, or from fear to hatred to furor, or from irritation to exasperation to outrage. If you need an angry story idea, here are a few:

• This is an end-of-civilization story in which Earth respects its own sacred sites but unintentionally defiles a site sacred to extraterrestrials.

• This is a heroic high fantasy novel that takes place during a hostage situation in which a would-be rescuer must defy the theory of gravity to gain access to a floating city.

• This is an alternate history horror story in which the banshees repel a Nazi invasion of Ireland.

— Sue Burke