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Hellooo everybody! Today we're talking about emotion in fiction...again.
You guys probably know I made a video all about how to evoke emotion through
your writing just a short while ago. However, I had so many points to cover I
decided to divide this topic into two videos. If you haven't watched my first
video, check it out! It's linked in the description below. I covered ten (10) tips for
creating an emotional reaction in your reader, and today I'm dishing out ten (10) more
tips to go along with it! Before we get started, as you guys know, my dark fantasy
novel The Savior’s Sister is currently available for presale - also linked below.
It's available in eBook, paperback, and hardback, and if you pre-order a copy, you
can enter my presale giveaway! I am dishing out over 35 prizes, plus everyone
who enters automatically will receive a five (5) chapter teaser of TSS! I am dishing out
one of those 35 prizes today, and that prize is a signed copy of The Helm of
Darkness by A.P. Mobley! If you're into young adult fantasy with heaping doses
of Greek mythology and action-packed high stakes, this series gotcha covered. I
will be announcing the winner at the end of this video, but first let's talk about
how to evoke emotion through your writing. And while you're here, subscribe
to my channel and ring that bell! You'll get all of my writerly tips, you'll get
all of my publishing information, PLUS you'll hear me bitch about tropes and
all that good stuff! It's a fun time! Ring the bell. On to the tips! Number Eleven (11):
Unreliable narrators. When people hear the term ‘unreliable narrator,’ they think
of a narrator who lies to the reader. But there are other, subtler ways that a
narrator can be unreliable that'll also enhance the emotion of a novel. For
example, it's human nature to exaggerate or embellish. Maybe your character is
sitting in a boring meeting, and rather than say, “the meeting is boring,” the
narrator states, “a million years later, the meeting finally ended.” The reader
knows ‘a million years’ is an exaggeration, but that statement
conveys the absolute perfect emotion of the scene:
boredom. Similarly, it's human nature to have opinions, whether they're factual or
not. If your character is talking to someone they hate, rather than having the
narrator say, “she hated this woman,” the narrator could refer to the woman as
“the bitch.” This creates emotion in a single word without any effort because
the narrator is being human. Number Twelve (12): Silence. If you really want to punch your
reader in the gut, silence is the way to do it. I don't mean literal silence. I
mean hard, abrupt stops at points of high intensity, suspense, or tension. These
abrupt stops can be reflected in scene breaks, or a chapter that ends in a
cliffhanger. The reader is just about to learn who the killer is
and...just kidding! Chapter’s over. Another example is a brief or abrupt line within
the scene itself. The character is running toward her father, she wants so
badly to protect him from the gunfire, and then a stream of bullets pierce his
chest. The next line is a very short four words:
“She was too late.” Sometimes there is power in brevity, and if you're going for
a wind-sucked-out-of-your-lungs kind of feel, this is the way to do it.
Number Thirteen (13): Utilize the setting. A lot of people assume that the only way to
express emotion is through the characters, and that is completely false.
The setting, or your character's interpretation of the setting, can do a
lot to convey emotion. Some people love the rain! They describe it as cleansing
or fresh. This creates a vibe of optimism, maybe even rebirth or redemption. The
same rain can be described as gloomy. A dreary downpour that's coming from a
grey sky. This creates the exact opposite emotion. It's depressing. Think about how
the character is envisioning the world around them, and describe the setting
using the correct emotional tone. On a related note, Number Fourteen (14): Shut the fuck up.
It's helpful to utilize the setting, but overloading the reader with lots of
irrelevant details is the quickest way to suck the emotion right out of the
scene. In my first video on this topic, I mentioned a
book I was reading where a woman discovers that she was kidnapped, and
right after discovering she was kidnapped, she describes the weather and
how it would be the perfect day for gardening. This is a bad idea for a few
reasons, and one of them is because it creates an instant tonal shift. She's
been drugged, she's in danger, why are we talking about sunshine and vegetables?
It's likely the author just wanted to set the scene, but they could have easily
done that without describing the weather, which was irrelevant to the character’s
situation. Delete the stuff that doesn't matter in order to avoid tonal shifts
and emotional disconnection. Number Fifteen (15): Get inside your body. This is a piece of
advice I've been giving for years, and guess what? Shit's still relevant. All of
us feel physical reactions to emotion. They affect us in a visceral way. Think
about how emotions physically impact you, or how they might impact your character,
and describe it. Obvious examples are when a person's gut sinks. This is a
very common reaction to disappointment or dread. Another popular example are
goosebumps, or when the hair on the back of your neck stands on end. This is a
normal reaction to nerves, fear, or excitement. Some emotions create a
feeling of a pain in your chest, a tightness in your muscles, or a strain in
your lungs. Capturing these reactions will go a long way to making your reader
feel emotionally connected to the moment. Number Sixteen (16): Relatability. It's a hell of a
lot easier to get your readers emotionally invested in a story if
you're writing about a relatable, sympathetic character. Relatable means
your character has traits or struggles that your readers can identify with.
Sympathetic means they have traits or struggles that your reader can feel
feelings about. When you make your characters relatable, readers can see
themselves in their position. When you make your character sympathetic, readers
can root for them, and both of these trigger emotional connection. This
doesn't mean the character has to be perfect. In fact, that's the quickest way
to make them unrelatable. But crafting your character to have struggles that
readers can relate to, or at the very least sympathize with, is a
tried-and-true method for making your readers root for the character, and thus
become emotionally invested in their story. Number Seventeen (17): Be
realistic. “But Jennaaa, I want to write about wizards and dragons. I don't want
to write about real stuff!” That's not what we're talking about, dummy. The
details and setting of your story can be magical and fantastical, but your
character’s traits, struggles, reactions, and of course, emotions, need to be
realistic. It's not good form to write about a character taking an action, or
having a reaction, that wouldn't realistically happen based on their
background or experience. It also means they need to react to the circumstances
of the story in a realistic fashion. This is why so many readers complain about
insta-love, or the all-powerful hero. These things
are unrealistic and most importantly, when you remove the element of realism,
readers are reminded that this plot is completely fake, and thus their emotional
bond to the story is severed. Number Eighteen (18): Up the stakes. The higher the
stakes, the easier it is to evoke emotion through your reader. If the character is
at risk of losing their job, that's bad. If they're at risk of losing their
entire family, that's a whole lot worse. That's not to say your book NEEDS a
life-or-death conflict, it's just that it's a lot easier to get your readers
emotionally invested if that's the case. It's also not to say that ALL you need
are higher stakes, because if your character isn't sympathetic or your
writing isn't evocative, it won't matter how high the stakes are. The point
is, you can use stakes to your advantage to up the emotional intrigue. If your stakes
aren't that high, there are still ways to make them feel a lot more urgent and
important. For example, you can set a time limit. She absolutely needs a fake
boyfriend before the wedding date, and worse, it's only a week away! Tick-tock,
motherfucker! Or add pressure through secondary characters. He absolutely HAS
to pass this exam or his overbearing father will never forgive him!
Number Nineteen (19): Actions. In anything you write, your character is gonna take action. It's
something that sentient creatures often do. But the actions your characters take
goes a long way in expressing their emotions.
We already discussed dialogue in my first video on this topic, but sometimes
people don't talk about how they feel - they act. It could be something overt. A
character is enraged, so they punch a wall - or a face. A
character is terrified, so they run. These are very direct ways to convey emotion
without stating it. You don't have to, because it's VERY clear how the
character is feeling. And Number Twenty (20): Think about YOUR emotions. Because you're
a person. You feel feelings, right? If you're ever confused about how to evoke
emotion in a scene or what kind of emotion to convey, think about your own
emotions. How would YOU be feeling in the character's position? This is not to say
the character should be a reflection of you - we are all different people and we
react to things differently, but it's at least a starting point. It'll help you
when you're in a bind and give you some direction for how to properly convey
emotion within a scene. So that's all I got for you today! I could probably make
a zillion more videos about this because there are a ton of ways to evoke emotion
in your writing. The key is to be conscious of it. Understand that your
readers want to feel something. That's why they picked up the book! So don't let
‘em down. Now we got a prize to give away! One amazing person who pre-ordered
The Savior’s Sister is walking away with a signed copy of The Helm of Darkness by
A.P. Mobley and that winner is...this person! A huge thank you for pre-ordering TSS
and, of course, a huge thank you to A.P. Mobley for supporting my presale
giveaway! I've got her information below - definitely check her out! She is
incredible! I've got a bunch more prizes to hand out, so if you want a chance to
win big and you want to read an awesome book, pre-order The Savior’s Sister and
enter my presale giveaway! I have all of the information in the description below,
it is super easy to pre-order, it's super easy to enter, so you have no
excuse! Don't forget to subscribe to my channel! I post new videos on Wednesdays,
and if you want to be alerted as SOON as I upload, ring that bell! And be sure to
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See you soon!