Writing Tips

Smack them in the face with Emotion

A note to start: I am no expert. I never will be, and a lot of the info you'll find in this book is stylistic. But I've had enough people comment on certain aspects of my writing to encourage me to share the tips others have gifted me.

Writing powerful emotions that your readers will feel.

I really wasn't going to start here. In truth, it's an odd place to start. We should really be talking about making characters feel real, because without that, the rest is pretty hard lol. But this is what is fresh in my mind, and the tips I've learned regarding this are something I don't see often, even in successful published works. (Totally acceptable; as I said, it's all stylistic.)

Alright, let's dig into it.

Filter words. A lot of you probably already know what these are, but I'm gonna include them, because they're such a huge part of connection to characters. Particularly in first person.

Take the following two sentences:

I saw a man across the parking lot.

A man stood across the parking lot.

In the first sentence, you are a bystander, watching the character see this man. In the second, you become the character. You are closer, and therefore, more immersed in what's happening. By going through your work and revising all instances of I saw, I heard, I smelled, and I felt, you can create an experience in which the reader is there.

Once you have your readers close to the character, it's time to make them feel what the character is feeling. One way you can easily achieve this is by removing emotion words from big moments.

There are many different things you can do besides telling the reader what the character is feeling.

I am sad.

Physical reactions: My heart ached. My breaths broke apart inside my chest. My stomach dropped.

Character monologue: She was gone, and it felt like I was detached from the Earth. She'd given me life, and although I was grown, I needed her. The world seemed so much larger, so much emptier, so foreign, and I was an orphan who would never again experience the love of a mother.

Fun fact: I almost used "I felt like an orphan" in the above example, then realized I was contradicting myself lol. That's a good point though, and none of this is to say that you should never use filters or emotion words. It's a balance, really. It depends on the moment. Is this scene important? Make it big. Do we need to move the plot forward? Keep it small.

Metaphors and similes are my absolute best friend when trying to describe emotion. When you have a well planned character (I'll get into that.) then you can embody them. Become them. Sit and allow yourself to imagine it was you, that you just lost someone close to you. Perhaps you have a specific experience you can pull from. Then think deeply about how you felt, and try to describe it in a way that doesn't include telling. A lot of the time, I'll compare it to something else entirely. Sometimes, I keep it more straight forward. As I said, this is all stylistic.

Another thing you could do to show emotion, is adjust your prose to match the way your character is feeling.

For example: If a character is in a high action scene, I'll use short, quick sentences to convey a racing mind.

Silence. Long and heavy. It filled the space, more ominous than any noise, and the waiting began again. Terrifying. Muscles aching from their tense position. Ready, but not ready. Never ready. The same thing, night, after night, after night, but never ready.

If the situation is meant to be calmer, you might lengthen the sentences and make them more descriptive.

And of course, the love scene. Now, I'm not here to say there's anything wrong with good, old-fashioned smut. Personally, it's all about the emotion for me, so I try hard to convey the heat without losing that in physical description. Most of the time, I shoot for metaphors. I won't post an example here since they're all quite lengthy, but the chapter Sweet Cherry Pie in Boondocks is a personal favorite of mine. (That's saying a lot, since I tend to be excessively self-critical.)

If you made it this far, thanks for listening. I've almost made this book quite a few times now, but have always backed out. It's hard to talk about writing. I never want to sound pretentious or like I think I'm smart lol. But I know how long it took me to get someone to say these things, and I figured I'd put them out into the universe for anyone else still hunting.

Feel free to give any of these devices a try in the comments. I'd LOVE to hear what you all come up with. And any questions as well, I'd be happy to answer. Or, have any tips of your own? I'd love to learn them.

Much ❤️❤️