Into the Fire

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Passionate: right or wrong. Writes love stories with a passion. Raw Romantic Redemptive

It’s just emotion . . .

  

So. Emotion is never "just" emotion. To a writer it's an essential element to lead a reader into story, into time investment for that story, to connect with that story's characters and circumstances, locales and structures, even with the weather and season. It doesn't matter if the writer doesn't consider him/herself "emotional". It does matter that they convey enough emotional investment into the story to captivate their reading audience.

Emotion touches the heart and soul. We recognize that melodrama can overdo emotion. We understand that little or no emotion puts a character into sociopath mode. Each character must establish his/her personality and the story will indicate how emotional responses play out in its telling.

Romances typically create intense emotional reactions and situations for the characters. Thrillers tend to elicit emotional responses from their readers such as fear or anxiety as they dart through the pages of roller coaster events. When humor breaks through in moments of intensity, the reader is grateful for the laugh. When conflicts are resolved, relief is present. The reader can finally relax.

Emotion must be written well in order to reach the particular audience each story solicits. Hearty historicals might only include a few highly emotional scenes while epic sagas of star-crossed lovers will warrant plenty of available Kleenexes for its readers. Whether few and far between or abundant, emotion is necessary to draw the readers into the characters' stories and make them care enough to finish the book. 

 

Father, thank you for your emotional investment in us. We need it and we are desperate for you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

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3 responses to “It’s just emotion . . .”

  1. Nicole Petrino-Salter Avatar
    Nicole Petrino-Salter

    (I apologize if anyone tried to comment here today. Apparently, Typepad had some glitches in the comment menu. Please try again. Love to hear from you.)

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  2. Brenda Jackson Avatar
    Brenda Jackson

    Yes, the use of emotion in a book has a great deal to do with whether a book seems flat or not. When you get feedback from someone and they don’t feel connected to the character(s), they might ask “what is the character’s motivation?”, etc. And pretty much all of that is rolled up into the idea of emotions—whatever it is that drives a character, makes them intense whether in a good or a bad way.
    I think my writing tends to fall on the side of not being too emotional filled—sometimes not enough. It’s one of the things I am working on with my writing. I think I sway too far in that direction because I have seen a lot of overly emotive stories where I just wished the writer would get on with the story already.
    As with all things, it requires balance. I haven’t found that yet. 😎
    But you know I got a good lesson on writing emotion yesterday from Facebook, of all places, in a way you wouldn’t expect. The post was one of those “Who remembers doing this when you were a kid?” posts that circulate on Facebook.
    In this case, it was about growing up back when cassette tapes were used and we recorded songs off the radio or made recordings from the TV. That idle post brought up a heap of emotions in me because it reminded me of the time I recorded the Simon & Simon theme music from the TV one Thursday night, and I remember it with fondness because my Dad coughed right at the beginning of the recording and I always thought it was cool that I had my Dad’s cough on tape (Everything about my Dad was golden, including his coughing. 😎 Now, even though I no longer have that cassette tape, the memory means even more to me since my Dad has been dead for 2 years.
    The point this example taught me is that if the writer can finds ways to evoke emotion indirectly, it packs a powerful punch. Now I doubt there’s any writer out there saying “I wonder if anybody was moved by their Dad’s cough on tape?”, a writer can use the familiar as a potential to evoke an emotional response in a reader. They may not have experienced EXACTLY the same thing, but may have experienced something similar enough that it brings on that reaction.
    I will be more aware of that going forward.

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  3. Nicole Petrino-Salter Avatar
    Nicole Petrino-Salter

    Really good points, Brenda. And sometimes when I sneeze, I think of the sound of my dad’s sneezes – so I get that. Completely. And feel the same way about my dad who’s been gone 9 years. Golden.
    Funny thing about recording stuff as young people. I had a Dave Clark Five album and a new recorder. So I thought, “What if I recorded a song off the album and made it sound like a live concert?” So I recruited my mom and a friend to scream during the song. My mom was a great sport. (I miss her too so much, and she’s been gone since ’85.) It worked! Sounded like a live recording. It was hilarious sitting in the living room screaming “like little girls”. Okay, there’s our parent stories. 😉

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