So I'm exhausted.
A ton of things I'm juggling in real life plus emotional baggage plus stuff I'm doing online plus art = exhausted Tantz.
And because my brain refuses to focus on anything else, I thought I'd talk about how using exhaustion can be a cool character beat in narrative works, especially in webcomics, because body language is conveyed with a single powerful image.
Once a character's range of emotional reactions to different things is established, and the audience expects them to act or react a certain way in certain contexts, changing the way they react to those same things due to exhaustion can be extremely showing without telling.
A character has just been through a tremendous emotional roller coaster and thus is too exhausted to properly react to something that would normally anger them or make them laugh. Exhaustion can make them almost unresponsive, or extremely irritable (especially if they are a child).
A character has just given it all in a physical exertion task, and the exhaustion sets in. They can't join the rejoicing if it's a success nor can they cry or react if it's a failure. They can just …be there, without much more to offer than a deflated balloon. Or they can try to respond, and only produce a faint echo of what their normal reaction would be.
Exhaustion is not depression. Proper rest will reset them- which means they will react as typically they do once they have the energy to do it. If they've had time to cerebrally process a situation and then get to be able to react to it, the impact might be somewhat muted but no less profound within their typical range. It goes for any reaction to any stimulus, good or bad.
A character that seems tireless finally becoming exhausted can also be a really powerful point in the story, communicating a whole lot more than a wall of text about how much the story has taken a toll on the character.
Have you ever written a character being truly exhausted, with nothing left to give? How did you convey it?
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Exhaustion is a character beat
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 23, 2024
6 likes!
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Ozoneocean at 6:50PM, Nov. 24, 2024
I wish I had the range for that XD
PaulEberhardt at 2:45AM, Nov. 24, 2024
I was ranting about the lost art of being thick-skinned enough to sort all the actually unimportant things (always 90% of them) from the ones that actually need to be cared about and saying "F...procreate all that" to the rest, but realised it looked way more obnoxious than I intended. Sorry. I wasn't thinking.
PaulEberhardt at 2:42AM, Nov. 24, 2024
I was sure I've done this kind of thing before, I know I must have, but I can't seem to find it. Dammit! That's curious. I've certainly got a tons of scripts for future comics addressing exactly this whenever I manage to draw them. Exhaustion from my work and some family stuff keeps holding me back, in fact. It's all so relatable, to me especially maybe, but surely relatable in general - and to those who can't relate at all: tough luck you lucky lazy ba$%&ds! --- Anyway, my way of portraying it involves a lot of body language; essentially I pretend that my character is moving in a high gravity field set to three times normal. I might add some of the mindscape, cluttering the picture with all the many things that keep rushing in at once. And after many panels, depicting how everything goes slowly and sluggishly, there will be the ARGH! explosion of relief, which isn't often included in real life, but so satisfying to imagine.
dragonsong12 at 8:56AM, Nov. 23, 2024
I'd say I've used it a fair bit, yes. XD But on that note, it's sort of my favorite thing to put characters in these types of..."altered states" I guess? (for lack of a better word). Moments where it's acknowledged that they're human (or whatever your story's equivalent is) and that adventures take their toll. Actions have consequences. Exerting yourself too much SHOULD result in some negative effects even if the goal is ultimately achieved. In fact, giving up something in pursuit of it makes it mean that much more.
Andreas_Helixfinger at 7:09AM, Nov. 23, 2024
Well I think one little example could be in Molly Lusc. Not to spoil anything but there's a moment in the comic where she stumble upon an act that should make her rightfully outraged, but she's too emotionally torn and tattered at that moment from the stress of dealing with the problem in the scene before, and from wrestling with the anxiety of revealing her own dirty secret to muster up more then a dry, out-of-place joke (trying to take the sting out of the situation instead of lashing out) followed by a depressed and deflated expression, carrying out a limp inquiry with her gun lowered. Understanding how strange this response may seem, what I was trying to get across with that response was simply "Molly just got out of an incredibly intense and stressful situation and is currently dealing with the mounting anxiety of preparing to reveal a secret that could destroy the life she has now. Her energy to rightfully lash out in this situation just isn't there."
plymayer at 3:17AM, Nov. 23, 2024
Seems like I am always tired.