Writers are given a lot of advice for creating a true experience for their readers. Write what you know. Write what you feel. But how do you do that? How do you identify and capture your honest feelings and translate them to the page?
In an article for Writer’s Digest, Kris Spisak offers advice for tapping into your memories to share emotional truths. “Emotional authenticity and character depth embolden storytelling,” Spisak writes. “If we examine our own impulses from different moments in our lives, we can tap into the genuine magic of experience and memory, transferring our own longings, aches, fears, and urgencies to the page.”
While you may not have experienced the exact emotional scenario you’ve set for your characters, you’ve probably felt something similar: an unrequited love, a moment of fear, a longing for something that seems unattainable. Spisak suggests some questions and writing exercises that can put you in the right frame of mind.
Some questions you may ask yourself include:
- When in your life have you felt an acute urgency to act?
- When was a moment in your life where you felt extreme [insert the needed emotion here]? How did that emotion change your viewpoint?
- When have you been up against a roadblock, when you’ve been unsure how you would ever get past it? How did you react? What did you do? What was brewing inside you?
Answer these questions in writing and allow your thoughts to go back to those times of intense emotions. Channel those memories onto the page. Explore your old diaries if you have any. Even if you don’t, Spisak says you should trust your own lived experiences. You’ve had moments of intense feeling; you only need to tap into them. “You don’t need to be fuming, crying, or grinning like a Cheshire cat at your computer screen, but being able to recall your own truths allows for connectivity and realism that your readers will feel and embrace,” Spisak concludes.
