During an interview with the Creative Penn podcast, Roz Morris offers advice on writing emotion. Some questions and excerpts include:
How do we create that emotional connection between a reader and our characters?
Morris: What you have to do is show why something matters. A mistake that I see in a lot of manuscripts that I’m given, is that we don’t understand why something matters. It’s as if I can feel the writer thinking, “Well, the reader will just assume it matters.” Well, no, they won’t. They actually have to be educated at the start of the book about why a particular situation matters. Then much later on, they will understand why it matters, and you won’t have to do nearly so much explaining.
Does a character have to be likable for us to care what happens to them in the story?
Morris: Not necessarily. They have to be curious about what will happen. They have to care what happens next. They don’t necessarily have to like the character, but they often have to see something that will make them a bit intrigued. If readers see that someone has got something they care about, or something that might hurt them, something they’re protecting themselves against, while they may not necessarily be likable, the reader might understand that there is a piece of vulnerability in them.
How do we do “show, don’t tell” with emotion?
Roz: It’s a question of emphasis. Sometimes you don’t need the reader to feel what it’s like to get wet. Sometimes you just need to know she got wet, and then you move on because something else is more important. Sometimes it’s important to dwell in that moment and give the reader the experience of getting wet, or feeling angry, or noticing something.
You just have to experiment and think, is there more to find out about this that would actually make the book a better experience and would give the reader the experience that I am directing them towards?
How can we use setting and atmosphere to enhance the emotions?
Roz: Description for its own sake, that’s boring usually. Description for the sake of highlighting an emotion, or contrasting an emotion, or showing something impending, something worrying coming towards you for instance, that’s always really interesting to the readers. You have to think, what will the reader be interested in?
What are some ideas or tools for people who are struggling to name or write about what they’re feeling?
Roz: First of all, that struggle is really interesting. Embrace it, because it shows that there is something you want to do, and you want to find out how to do it. I read other people who’ve done it well, and obviously not to copy them, but just to see how they did it. The other thing is, it’s practice as well. Don’t be afraid of writing something that’s bad at first. It’s private for you, nobody’s going to see it.
Read the rest of this lengthy interview at the link below.
