If you are like most writers, when you are crafting your story, you want your readers to react, to lose themselves, to feel something rather than just observing. You can accomplish this by writing with emotion. But how do you pull off stirring up your readers’ feelings? Many stories fail at executing this technique, but writing with emotion isn’t as hard as you think.
The following are three tips to help you elicit the response you want from readers.
1. Emotion Must Feel Real
Think about what you are emotional about. When you are creating a scene, you want it to feel real for your readers. One trick is to write about something that brings out the emotion in you. Think about what makes you scared, ashamed, angry, sad, joyful, content?
Overcoming obstacles is something that makes me ecstatic. If my lead character triumphs over adversity, I can think back to how I feel after conquering an arduous task and use my experience as a guide to describing what my character feels.
For many writers, a helpful tool is starting a journal where you write about your daily emotional experiences. Include the circumstances that led to a reaction and journal in as much detail as possible what you felt. Then, when it’s time for one of your characters to have an emotional response, look back to your journal to transfer some of your emotional state into your writing.
2. Make Sure Readers Identify With Your Characters
Readers experience your story’s emotion through the eyes of your characters. Setting up a good backstory and plot points and devoting time for character development helps create relatable characters. This technique also helps draw your readers into your story and makes them invested in the outcome.
Developing your characters’ emotions will also help you allow them to act (or hesitate to act). While this may seem obvious, many writers create characters who are distant or detached from their emotions. Let your readers see your characters’ feelings. Don’t tell us Elizabeth is angry. Show us how upset she is by having her cry, yell, or slam doors. Then think about other ways the character can act. Does she twist her hands, do her cheeks burn?
What are the facial expressions and resulting actions? Let your reader see your character’s thoughts as well as their actions. When you have an emotional scene, slow down, and take the time to write the details that will engage your readers.
3. Appreciate Intense Emotions
When writing with emotion, readers will remember your characters’ more deeply felt emotions than those that are more shallow. Take the time to describe your heroine’s unbridled joy, her aching grief, and seething rage.
Creating scenes that are important, life-altering, or life-threatening can be a vehicle for your characters to experience intense emotions. Put them in realistic situations and force them to decide between a bad choice and a worse alternative.
When your reader experiences what your character is feeling, it will help pull them into the story and trigger their emotions.
Some Closing Thoughts
When writing with emotion, always keep in mind how your audience will react to your story’s events. Also, consider word choice because some words can affect your reader’s emotions. For example, repugnant nouns and verbs can be paired with your villain to elicit an immediate response from your reader. Consider words with sharp sounds to express negative emotions and softer sounding words for gentle emotions.
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