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Emotional Importance in Crafting a Good Story mar. 2019
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The writing of a good story, whether it is a novel, short story or essay, has a common link between the author and the reader. This commonality lies in the emotion that is bestowed by the author and to the reader. The author is charged with creating a picture that is locked in place in the reader's mind. How is this done? The key is emotion. Anyone can explain events that may occur, but only when there becomes a connection to that story is the reader engaged and invested in that story. The reader longs to be tied to the story, unable to pull themselves away from it. As an author we must enlist emotions; joy, fear, anger, sadness, hatred, love, the list could be endless. Every reader and every author experiences emotions daily; put them into play in your writing. Use them to lock the reader into the story. The secret is to take the reader on an emotional roller coaster ride. Different character actions, different settings and different events within a story to guide the reader through various different emotions at any given moment. This keeps the reader glued to the story. A character’s reaction to an event, their body language, their speech, their emotions, all can be used to allow the reader to become invested in that character. If a character is feeling emotional pain, you want your reader to feel that emotional pain, therefore you, as the author, must feel it too. The description of a scene can play just as an important role in cementing a reader’s emotions into the story. The more vivid the wording of the scene the more the reader can visualize the scene and the more they become invested in the scene. Their emotions take over. Events in a storyline can be used to trigger emotions in the reader. Readers associate with events in a storyline because they may have had a similar event or know someone who has had a similar event. They are already emotionally tied to the event in their memory. Another way is to take away something from the reader that they may have already become invested in, such as a character or object within the story. Loss is a powerful emotion. There are many ways to keep the reader emotionally tied to the story. It is the craft of the author to portray these emotions through the written word. As an author read what you write and decide if you're getting the emotional point across to the reader. If so, you’re creating a wondrous experience for the reader. |
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Excerpts From My Desk
I hope you enjoy these snippets of my novels:
From: Green Haven Chapter 2 “Green Haven needs to keep moving forward and stay competitive. I believe that was part of your pitch to me for Pharma-junk. Wasn’t it?” Kyle’s bitter tone was not missed by Cathy or Dr. Oliver. “I believe what Kyle is trying to say is that you were hired to do a job and sometimes overreaching can be disastrous. It might be better to continue within the scope of your position and not stray.” Dr. Oliver’s words came with a smile but cut to the bone. “What I’m saying is that you have enough to do, so just worry about doing it right.” Kyle’s eyes were on fire. His rage was unmistakable. Cathy said nothing. She was deflated after the meeting. She’d been put in her place. The Director of Nursing whose powerful stride and straight shoulders yelled authority now felt as though she was hobbled and slumped by the weight of her defeat. The hazel glares the staff could expect to come down the hallway were now focused mainly on the brown speckles that tried to make their escape from the imprisonment of the floor tiles. The plain, but sentimental watch was given to Cathy by her mother upon nursing school graduation banged against the handrail, pulling her back to the present as though it was trying to remind her the day had ended. She went home to her two-bedroom condo, uncorked a bottle of red wine, poured a glass and opened the fridge. She slammed the door closed. Food was not on the menu, at least not at this moment. She sat on the leather couch she bought after her three-month probation period at Green Haven was over. |
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Monthly Recommendation
Here you can find my recommendation for the month. If you have read a book, article, or blog that you think others might want to know about, send it to me and you could find it listed here.
1. Hippie by Paulo Coehlo 2, Cell by Robin Cook |
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Recently Discovered |
Sandra A. Miller
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Here is an excellent new author I recently had the pleasure of meeting. If you're a new author and want to be added to this list please contact me. Author: Sandra A. Miller Book title: Trove Book type: Memoir Website: sandaamiller.com Titter: @WriterSandraM Availability: Sept 19, 2019 through BrownPaperPress.com, SandraAMiller.com and many independent bookstores I asked Sandra to give us a tiny peak at Trove: TROVE: A Woman's Search for Truth and Buried Treasure TROVE is a memoir about a woman who becomes fixated on finding a chest of gold coins buried in New York City. In her mid-forties at the time, she is also mired in the process of helping her ailing mother to die, her teenage children to fly, and her marriage to survive a beating it had taken because of her restless heart. Soon enough she realizes she’s not just hunting for a treasure chest. She needs to discover a different kind of riches. After five decades of fleeing family secrets, she is determined to find the pieces of her heart that she once buried out of protection. Sandra was kind enough to share a little about herself with us: In my childhood I began collecting found things—coins, buttons, scraps with words, broken jewelry—which I stored in a box that I called my trove. I believed those small treasures were actually auspicious signs—a confirmation that I was following my path and guided by something that would take me beyond the factory town where I grew up. I dreamed that my life could be a great adventure. Even as an adult who lived around the world, I continued to collect discarded things as if they were clues that would help unlock the questions asked by a lifetime of longing, of searching, of trying to find the treasure buried somewhere in my own life. My memoir, which weaves interconnected storylines of childhood, marriage, motherhood, and an actual Brooklyn treasure hunt for a chest of gold coins is really the story of a personal quest and the twisted journey of the heart. My hope is that it speaks with universal resonance to the very human act of searching for our truest selves. Trove will be available soon. Put this treasure on your must read list. |