268. Writing Big Emotions

Whether you are writing nonfiction essays or books or novels and short stories, the most compelling pieces include emotional resonance. As readers, we are often sucked in by the feelings our characters are experiencing. We want to follow them through the story to see what happens next and the unique ways they experience and express their fear, joy, sadness, love. Our characters' emotions provide conflict and tension and reveal who they are. And as in life, the emotions on the page, often motivate a range of behavior. But writing big emotions can be fraught because we've got to imagine, or feel them ourselves. In this episode, we explore the importance of allowing the people in your stories to express their big feelings and the techniques we can use to make them universal and unique. It's not enough to say your character is scared, you've got to show us what that looks like so we can feel it too. This episode will offer some tips to do just that and also explain why there are some pieces we should put on hold until we have time to process the emotional moments before we write about them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices