Emotion in Writing - Writing Help

When reading a book, you like to be touched by the story. When a character feels emotions, you as reader can relate to them. Having emotions in writing is a good technique to make your story more likable.

But how do we do this?

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• Show, don’t tell •

No one becomes excited reading about a report. But we do over the results a character is experiencing due to emotions.

For ex.:

Sam was afraid telling her crush that she loved him. She watched them from the other side of the room, doubting if she should go talk to them.

vs.

Sam’s hands were trembling and she was moving closer towards her crush. She bit her lip while reconsidering if she should tell them how she felt. She wanted them to know she was in love with them, but was afraid they would turn her down. A shiver shook her. She inhaled deeply, then struggled for another.

• Sympathetic •

When a reader can identify with a character—due to certain dreams, habits or choices—they can also identify with emotions—pains and joys and sorrows.

Make your character believable and sympathetic so the reader wants to be that character, wants to go through everything he goes through for the length of the story.

• Unsympathetic •

A character who is hated has already created an emotional response in your reader. I’m not talking caricature or stereotype here. I’m talking about creating a character who is soul ugly or evil or unfeeling, but one who belongs in one story and no other.

Cruel characters doing cruel things—cruel in the eyes of the protagonist or the reader—can affect the reader. If the character reacts to the cruelty, the reader can as well. Or, if the reader feels something because of what a cruel character does, you’ve already stirred his emotions.

• No holding back •

If you want to reach the reader’s emotions, you need to write emotion-evoking scenes. Killing or injuring a character’s child, pet, or loved one can touch the reader, if the reader has sufficient investment in the character.

Don’t be afraid of killing off someone close to your main characters or of taking away something else dear to them.

Death or injury aren’t the only ways to hurt your characters. Misunderstanding, betrayal, and forced choices that hurt their friends are all ways to agitate characters. And when characters are agitated, readers can be as well.

• Teasing •

You see this in romantic comedies, the backward and forward dance between a couple just falling in love. The tease, the delay, the anticipation makes the payoff dramatic and satisfying.

In mysteries and suspense, anticipation increases tension and therefore increases the emotional impact. Fear drawn out to just the right degree gives a satisfying snap when hell breaks loose.

• Word choice can affect reader emotions •

Some words are triggers in themselves and can be used to set off the reader. Putting an especially nasty cuss word in the mouth of a character who doesn’t curse can jolt the reader. It’s a strong signal that something is very wrong.

Verbs or nouns that are socially loathed or that remind readers of hated people or abhorrent practices can be used to instantly rouse the reader. Of course, you can’t use this technique too often because the reader will feel manipulated and feel anger toward you, the writer, rather than with a character or the story on the page. You can manipulate readers; you shouldn’t let them feel the manipulation.

Some words convey lightness or humor or ion. Other words have little emotional shading. Choose your words with their impact potential in mind.

• Decision making •

This kind of situation pulls the reader in whether he knows the reason for those bad choices or not. The reader feels for the character, for him having to make bad decisions that both character and reader know will cause even more problems.

• Move the story •

Don’t dwell so long on an event that the reader loses interest or the urgency wanes.

• Reduce unnecessary detail •

Characters involved in chases don’t notice the flowers or the store fronts decorated for Christmas. Lovers in their first sex scene don’t notice every object in the room; they’re far more interested in one another.

Stay in the moment and only turn the reader’s attention to what’s important for this moment and this scene and the characters involved.

There are, of course, exceptions to this piece of advice. Yet, when you’re trying to build emotion, don’t dilute it or distract the reader with unrelated details. Use your details in other scenes, when it’s appropriate to introduce them.

Do use detail that will heighten emotion.

• Use sense details for making reality •

What can the character hear and smell? What does a change in sound mean? What does the absence of sound mean for the character and the reader? When a character reaches into a dark hole and feels something brittle, does the reader break out in goose bumps? What if the character felt something soft and silky, something like springy curls? Does the reader’s pulse jump?

Play with all five senses to keep your readers involved, maybe off balance, but always interested in what’s coming next.

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