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*feels qualified as INTJ vibe intensifies*

Well…

For starters, body language. By outwardly emotional, I’m assuming a lot of that refers to voicing emotions and things like crying/etc? Those are pretty big signals of emotion, but there are more subtle ways to show emotion through basic body language. Characters who don’t voice their emotions but instead hint at them through body language(even in a vague manner) often seem most realistic to me. For example: when have you ever seen someone just opening admit they’re frightened, especially teens/young adults, who aren’t very mature? Or even more stoic people who are older, who don’t voice their emotions? I haven’t seen many. Children and mature adults, perhaps – but in between there lies a vast realm of those unaccounted for.

Now – how many times have you seen someone act a little neurotic, fidgety, avoiding eye contact, constantly trying to find a job, or even act really bold in the face of something that seems a little risky? Bravado, my friends, is a lovely tool. You’ll never get a teenage boy to admit he’s scared of bridge jumping, but you sure can hint at it with body language. Your “unemotional” character might not show much in terms of body language either, but there’s always little things you can pick up on – for example: does your character stand in a sort of slouched, confident manner, or does he hold himself straight as stick with confidence. Is he confident in an assertive manner, always telling people how and what to do, or does he show his confidence by always rushing eagerly into situations with little thought for planning? The way you frame one emotion like confidence can make a big difference in how people perceive your character.

Secondly, sincerity when the character does show emotion goes a long way. Likelier than not, the character who shows little emotion will show only his very genuine and very strong emotions. An unemotional, stoic character isn’t going to likely talk back to authority unless he feels very strongly about the matter, and in that case he’s going to come off very “powerful” and typically assertive. A stoic character also isn’t likely to smack someone upside the head should they act stupidly – they’re probably more likely to just glare and then make things difficult in a subtle manner for that person for the next few days. If you’re really going for a stoic character, I wouldn’t make him voice his thoughts very often either – only when it really matters to him personally. Most stoic characters and people seem to have some sort of vendetta that is what matters most to them, and they don’t take time out of their day to think about much else. (The best part of these characters is when they start to un-thaw and think about other people.) So he’s not going to get super involved in things he doesn’t really care about or that aren’t correlated to his goal – so when he does get super involved or fired up about something, you know something is wrong.

Some characters who are “unemotional” get very quiet and reserved to avoid speaking to other people or having to voice their opinion/feelings on a subject(Mr. Darcy is a good example I think… at least the Mr. Darcy from the newer movies seems so.). They might simply be shy or nervous, or they don’t want anything to do with things that can cause them to voice their own feelings/opinions on things. Others might be quiet, but sort of passive-aggressive like. Overall, I think most of the “power” that is in their emotions comes from the sincerity behind them. Unlike many people, they don’t really voice their opinion/feelings on many things and don’t feel the need to outwardly express their feelings on everything. So when they do, we realize how much it really matters to them. And you also realize which characters are really important to them, likely by who they voice their opinions/feelings to.

In short – body language and sincerity. I think that’s a good start.