3 Practical Tips To Write Truly Emotional Stories
Manipulating your emotional barrier and selective word choice helps to create dramatic content
Let’s get it out of the way:
“If you — as a writer, actor, painter, or any other type of artist — can’t manipulate your emotional barrier, you won’t be making true dramatic art.”
— Tiffany Lawson Inman
If we want our readers to be unable to put our books or articles aside, we need to understand how to create captivating stories. We want them to be lured into a world they cannot escape. We want them to write reviews, confessing they cried for days or burst out laughing when reading our book.
If people aren’t talking about your books this way, maybe it’s because somethings missing to evoke the desired feelings. Read on to find out what this puzzle stone could be and how you can bring it to life in your writing.
What’s The Magic Behind Sentimental Writing?
Putting words on paper is an act of expressing ourselves. We would assume that authors, who have an inner motivation to tell stories, are also willing to share their most private concerns, fears, and delights.
But that’s not the case. Surprisingly, those who thrive on expressing themselves are still threatened by crossing their emotional barriers. Among all the manuscripts I’ve read, only a handful of authors created true emotion in their books. Some get really close. Most, however, miss the mark.
Emotions make readers lose themselves in books because reading can feel more real than real life. It’s the relationships they build with characters that make them continue with a title because they somehow say exactly what’s on their minds. But authors cannot invent such strong emotions. It’s simply not possible.
Bookworms feel when the author simply assumed the emotions described or if he/she knows exactly what he/she is talking about. If they do, they quickly throw the title away. Knowing comes from experiencing. If you didn’t go through the situations yourself, you must find people who have and who are willing to share their emotions with you.
There is no magic behind really sentimental books. It’s fieldwork.
Jodi Picoult, one of the most talented emotional writers, does this type of research for all her books. In Small Great Things, she writes about an African American nurse who gets indicted for murder. She never could have written Ruth’s thoughts and feelings in a credible way, without talking to people of the same ethnicity, with the same experiences.
To bring these strong emotions into your stories, you have various options at your disposal. I will explain three methods that are most commonly used:
3 Methods To Write That Freaking Sentimental Piece
Pay attention to word choices
Words aren’t just part of the alphabet. They are triggers. It’s possible to direct the reader into feeling a certain way by selecting specific verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
Putting a dirty word in the mouth of a protagonist who doesn’t normally curse, for example, tells the readers that something is really, really wrong. Also, socially loaded words like nigger quickly turn a character into the most hated person in your book. Here is one example from Small Great Things:
“Maybe that’s why I felt like shit all the time, like I wanted to fucking bust someone’s face in constantly, just to remind myself that I could.”
But this is how I see it: If that nigger hadn’t been driving that night, my brother wouldn’t be dead.
The sentences are explanations by Turk Bauer, a character of Picoult’s novel. A very charming person, right?
If you don’t know where to start, The Persuasion Revolution uploaded a list of 380 high-emotion words to get you into the flow. You can use harsh or sharp words for strong emotions and soft-sounding words for gentle ones. But, take care. Don’t overdo it because this can make your characters feel superficial all over again.
Be vulnerable by observing your inner self
The emotions we write must be as close to reality as possible. We can achieve that by either observing ourselves or talking to other people. That might not be a surprise, but very few people actually confront themselves with their feelings.
The best stories come from something we’ve already experienced. Because we can describe the situations in full context. We know how we felt, what we said and thought, and how our facial muscles moved in that specific moment. We don’t have to invent or assume anything. We know, if we pay enough attention.
The next time when you feel an emotion crawling up your stomach, making its way to your heart and eyes, pressing out these hated tears — welcome it. Embarrass it. Observe. Instead of picking up the phone to distract yourself from this uncomfortable situation, write your thoughts and feelings down, so you can come back to your notes when you need them.
That’s exactly what actors do when they have to shoot a sad story. They put themselves into a moment of their past in which they cried, so bring up the same emotions, thoughts, and facial expressions. Because that’s when their performance looks the most credible.
Of course, you will not have lived through every scenario that you want to write about. That’s when observing other people, talking to them about their thoughts and feelings comes into play.
Add emotional layers
As you write a scene where something happens, you will probably start by describing the most obvious emotion your character can have. So the reader can feel it too. That’s only logical.
You can let that predictable emotion come out, but instead of leaving it at this, layer it by adding another unexpected, underlying emotion. Was there something in the past of the character that coats the situation? Something that needs to be hidden? Anything the protagonist cannot admit to himself?
You can use a flashback to introduce the underlying sentiment. Why is this a good idea? Because it’s how our brains and emotion really work. When we are mad at our partner— let’s say because he/she didn’t do the dishes — it’s often because we’ve already been angry with the world for another reason. Like our boss telling us, we cannot get the pay raise because he’s not satisfied with our work. Emotional outbursts or conflicts are multilayered.
Everybody sees the first emotion, anger, but it’s the underlying emotion of shame that drives our behavior. Using this technique can help to add depth to the emotions of your characters.
Final Remarks
Tapping into our own emotions is an opportunity to polish our craft. It’s the demons inside our brains and hearts that produce those amazing, credible stories that express all the things readers cannot pronounce themselves. It’s what the audience wants to see and what authors have to give them.
For some becoming aware of all the facets of their emotions is easy. For others, it's not. But it can be practiced with the methods mentioned above.
- Pay attention to word choices
- Be vulnerable by observing your inner self
- Add emotional layers
It’s worth the effort, opening your Pandora's box of emotions. It will help you to become a better writer and it will sentimentally attach people to what you write.
Nina is a PR and marketing expert for authors and books. Join the growing newsletter talking books if you’re interested in great reads, interesting industry interviews, and inspirational marketing tips particularly for writers.
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