Bringing Emotion To Your Readers

Love and Joy

Two powerful emotions are pictured here. We know there are others, as well. Consider fear, anger, sadness among them. To write successfully, we need to learn how to make our readers feel emotions. 

I recently read a book titled Downfall written by J. A. Janice. The book is one of a series about an Arizona female sheriff named Joanna Brady. It's the only one of the series that I have read but the author gives enough info about previous happenings in the sheriff's life that it was easy to keep up. Of course, the sheriff has a difficult murder case to solve, all while dealing with planning a funeral, as well. The book held my attention and kept me reading longer than I needed to at any one sitting. And guess what else it did? It made me cry. A murder mystery that makes one cry has to have some very good writing. I'm guessing this author writes with emotion and passes it on to her readers, a very fine ability.

Whether writing a memoir, a fiction story, or even a poem, the writer has to allow the emotion within to be released. Does that sound simple? It's not! As writers, we need to learn to release the emotion within us as we write as that doesn't always come naturally. All too often, we're afraid to do that. 

Why? I'm no psychologist but perhaps if we allow our emotions to burst forth, even in our writing, we have to face them. Maybe we liked having them secreted in our hearts. It might be easier to release any joys and love we feel but what about the anger, the sorrow, the grief? Those are the ones that are more difficult to deal with. 

If the writer doesn't write with emotion and just proceeds to tell the reader that the character is angry or sad, he/she is not going to reach out and grab the reader. They might respond internally with a Oh, too bad, he's a sad guy right now. Or Hmm, she seems to be angry. And then they move on to the next section.  If the writer shows the character feeling whatever the emotion is, he/she has a far better chance of having the reader understand and feel it, as well. 

My dad often mentioned that his mother loved to go to movies but she felt she never got her money's worth unless she had a good cry. Considering that she was seeing films in the silent movie days, that's saying something. The writers who got the emotion across were ones that gave her what she wanted--a good cry because of emotions that transferred from that screen to my Grandma Laura sitting in a darkened theater. 

To sum up, showing rather than telling helps bring emotion out in our reader. Also, being able to release our own, possibly pent-up, emotion helps the reader to feel, too. 

Write From Your Heart

I have a coaster on my computer desk that says a lot in a few words. Words are the voice of the heart. I bought it several years ago while browsing in a gift shop. When I spotted it, I stopped to contemplate the saying and it moved me, so, of course, I bought it.

I keep it where I see it every day for a reminder of one of the reasons I write, and many of you, as well. I write what I feel and what I believe in. Our best writing comes from our heart. If you're only pounding out letters that become words that become sentences that have no heart behind them, you are less likely to have that work published.

If writing a memoir piece and all you do is report what happened, your memoir is not likely to win a contest or be published. Not will it move readers.

When we write from the heart, connecting with readers is much more likely. If we put some emotion into what we offer to readers, there is a better chance they they will also react with emotion. If our writing comes from the heart and shows feelings--note the show not tell--we're far more apt to get into quality publications.

I think readers love reading words that come from the heart, words that make them laugh or cry or feel warm and cozy. People read to be informed and to be entertained but they also like experiencing the emotions of the characters in fiction or the ones in memoirs or personal essays. When I read a book that appeals to my emotions, I usually remember the book for a long time. Sometimes forever!

In the newspaper world, writers must stick to the facts. They are to report an event, a crime, or a financial crisis without putting their own emotions into the story. The stories I enjoy most in the newspapers are the ones that are more akin to a personal essay where the reporter can write from the heart and include feelings. There was a great sports writer who worked for the Kansas City Star who could write a story about a player or a game or a series that appealed to the personal side of sports fans. Joe Posnanski let other sports writers give the facts of the game while he appealed to the human side. I don't remember those other sports writers but ones like this who write from the heart stay with me.

There is one small problem with writing from your heart. It's not always easy to bare our soul to others. As writers, we need to get around that. We must be able to dig deep into our emotional piggy bank and spend some of it by incorporating our feelings into our writing. The more we write this way, the easier it will become.