The #AtoZChallenge 2017 Theme at Operation Awesome is the Publishing Journey.
At Operation Awesome, we strive to provide writers and readers with the resources they need to succeed, at every stage of the journey. With that in mind, let's discuss the importance of writing the manuscript that's close to your heart.
Can you tell when a novel you're reading just isn't working for you? The writing is good, the plot is interesting, and the setting is lifelike... but when you put the book down at night, you're not counting the seconds until you can pick it up again. This happens to all of us, both when reading and when writing. I can count on both hands the number of works-in-progress I've shelved because *something* just wasn't working. It's a sharp contrast to those manuscripts I can't wait to work on, the ones that keep me awake at night, the ones that invariably get the best reactions from beta readers.
So what is that nebulous *something* novels need? More often than not, it's an emotional connection. Meaning, there's something about the way the characters are written, the way they experience their lives, the way they interact with the other characters, that touches readers on a more visceral level than an intellectual one. I cried my eyes out at the end of The Fault in Our Stars. My heart pounded during the last chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, wondering how in the world Harry and his friends would get out of their latest mess. And I couldn't keep a smile off my face while reading The Hating Game, hoping the two main characters would realize their animosity for each other would be better expressed as romance.
Why do these novels succeed in invoking emotional reactions from readers when so many others fail? There are a lot of possibilities (and check out the book below if you want to explore further), but the one I'll discuss here is creating investment in characters. In real life, we might hear about a plane crash in a foreign country that killed hundreds, and it doesn't affect us emotionally. But if a friend or family member passes away, it hits us like a ton of bricks. That's because, at least in part, we have familiarity with the people we're close too, and we're invested in them.
It's the same for fictional characters. Show the reader your characters' backstory, how that backstory impacts how they see the world and interact with others, how your character talks, thinks, and acts. Sprinkle in details about your characters' hopes, wishes, dreams, and fears. Put them in terrible situations and have them use their strengths or wits to get out of them... or have them fail. Make them unique, and make them relatable, and in the eternal words of James Earl Jones' character, Terrence Mann, in Field of Dreams... "people will come." If readers care about your characters, if they feel an emotional connection to them, then readers will flock to your books, wanting to experience that emotion again and again.
Another suggestion: Draw from your own life experiences to create scenarios that ring with authenticity, so the reader will feel the emotional connection is tied to something real. Once, in my early 20s, I ran out of gas on a highway in the middle of nowhere, no cell phone, over thirty miles from the nearest gas station. I can draw on that experience to describe a character's desperation, hopelessness, and fear when placed in a similar situation. Because I've experienced it (everything turned out fine in the end), the reader will sense that authenticity of both the situation and the character's reactions, and believe the emotions that scene might evoke.
So what is that nebulous *something* novels need? More often than not, it's an emotional connection. Meaning, there's something about the way the characters are written, the way they experience their lives, the way they interact with the other characters, that touches readers on a more visceral level than an intellectual one. I cried my eyes out at the end of The Fault in Our Stars. My heart pounded during the last chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, wondering how in the world Harry and his friends would get out of their latest mess. And I couldn't keep a smile off my face while reading The Hating Game, hoping the two main characters would realize their animosity for each other would be better expressed as romance.
Why do these novels succeed in invoking emotional reactions from readers when so many others fail? There are a lot of possibilities (and check out the book below if you want to explore further), but the one I'll discuss here is creating investment in characters. In real life, we might hear about a plane crash in a foreign country that killed hundreds, and it doesn't affect us emotionally. But if a friend or family member passes away, it hits us like a ton of bricks. That's because, at least in part, we have familiarity with the people we're close too, and we're invested in them.
It's the same for fictional characters. Show the reader your characters' backstory, how that backstory impacts how they see the world and interact with others, how your character talks, thinks, and acts. Sprinkle in details about your characters' hopes, wishes, dreams, and fears. Put them in terrible situations and have them use their strengths or wits to get out of them... or have them fail. Make them unique, and make them relatable, and in the eternal words of James Earl Jones' character, Terrence Mann, in Field of Dreams... "people will come." If readers care about your characters, if they feel an emotional connection to them, then readers will flock to your books, wanting to experience that emotion again and again.
Another suggestion: Draw from your own life experiences to create scenarios that ring with authenticity, so the reader will feel the emotional connection is tied to something real. Once, in my early 20s, I ran out of gas on a highway in the middle of nowhere, no cell phone, over thirty miles from the nearest gas station. I can draw on that experience to describe a character's desperation, hopelessness, and fear when placed in a similar situation. Because I've experienced it (everything turned out fine in the end), the reader will sense that authenticity of both the situation and the character's reactions, and believe the emotions that scene might evoke.
This book, Donald Maass's most recent, has been invaluable to me as I've worked through my latest manuscript revision. It's got dozens of exercises to help you incorporate emotion into your writing, and contains lots of excerpts from published books so you can learn to recognize 'writing with emotion' firsthand. Here's the Amazon link.
How do you incorporate emotion into your writing?
