How To Evoke Emotion and Passion With Your Writing
Posted: Wednesday, August 29, 2007
by LeahG Artist
Cartoon & Illustration Services
How to evoke emotion from your reader
So how do you evoke this emotional response with your writing?
You infuse your story's characters with emotion. Consider how Shakespeare brought his characters alive, with their unique personality traits and fragile ego's and displays of jealousy, pride, rage, lust, grief etc. He painted an exquisite picture for the reader/viewer and demonstrated that he himself had great insight into people's psyche.
Whatever plans you have for your character in your story, be aware that their actions are guided by emotion. You can draw from your experience of yourself and other people you know and have known to create 'emotional characters'.
Ask yourself these things about your character:
Are they naive or worldly?
Are they mature/immature?
Are they sensitive/robust (and everything in between)?
Are they leaders/followers?
Are they experienced in matters of love, business, parenting, travel etc? Life experience may effect ones emotional development.
Are they depressed?
Are they happy?
Are they sociable/reclusive?
Are they bookish/sporty?
And so on and so forth.
You must of course also consider gender, age, cultural/religious background, country of residence and anything that will help build a comprehensive picture of your character and make them 3 dimensional.
Aside from relating to my own experience, which is a case of if you feel it, write about it, you can try what I have seen actors do when being tutored. If they are required to 'act passionately' they are advised to relate to their own experiences and to conjure up memories of particular events that provoked passionate feelings for them. They were then told to use those memories and that emotion which was freshly recreated, for their acting performance. The better writers tend to be those who are able to evoke an emotional response from their readers, whether it be intense pleasure, empathy with your fictional characters, or rage at their sheer disagreement with what you've written about, it is being able to evoke an emotional response which will make your work popular.
You infuse your story's characters with emotion. Consider how Shakespeare brought his characters alive, with their unique personality traits and fragile ego's and displays of jealousy, pride, rage, lust, grief etc. He painted an exquisite picture for the reader/viewer and demonstrated that he himself had great insight into people's psyche.
Whatever plans you have for your character in your story, be aware that their actions are guided by emotion. You can draw from your experience of yourself and other people you know and have known to create 'emotional characters'.
Ask yourself these things about your character:
Are they naive or worldly?
Are they mature/immature?
Are they sensitive/robust (and everything in between)?
Are they leaders/followers?
Are they experienced in matters of love, business, parenting, travel etc? Life experience may effect ones emotional development.
Are they depressed?
Are they happy?
Are they sociable/reclusive?
Are they bookish/sporty?
And so on and so forth.
You must of course also consider gender, age, cultural/religious background, country of residence and anything that will help build a comprehensive picture of your character and make them 3 dimensional.
How to write with Passion
For example, an actress required to cry might recall a time when her pet died and when the memory is recalled, so too is the emotion experienced at that time and the tears may begin to flow now as they did then. I would suggest trying this same technique with your writing. BUT of course apply the memory to the situation you desire to write about.
Alternatively you could try writing with passion by thinking about it. Perhaps watch a particularly passionate drama on TV or read some passionate literature. Get yourself in the mood!
For more writing tips check www.writersadvice.blogspot.com
This post was brought to you by Leah - Relationship Columnist , Problogger and eBook author home page here: www.creative-blogger.com
LeahG Artist and Designer
Leah left the retail and health management world a few years ago to become a freelance writer and artist. She now enjoys creating funky vibrant cartoons and illsutrations for websites, promotional materials and as gifts. Leah would love to illustrate her own children's books in the future. Presently she is creating cartoon and cartoon mascots for business clients.
Visit LeahG's Cartoon and Illustration Services website here for updates and latest art work.
Leah left the retail and health management world a few years ago to become a freelance writer and artist. She now enjoys creating funky vibrant cartoons and illsutrations for websites, promotional materials and as gifts. Leah would love to illustrate her own children's books in the future. Presently she is creating cartoon and cartoon mascots for business clients.
Visit LeahG's Cartoon and Illustration Services website here for updates and latest art work.
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)Helpful hints to follow CB, Most of my writing isn't fictional, it is about real people. however I can seem to bring our their character in most of my writing. although I see how I could improve in this particular field. Sometimes like when I first began to write although I could understand my writing quite well I wasn't getting through to my readers. I've learned to read my articles as my readers do and see just what they see in my writing. Does this make any sense to you?It does indeed make sense. It is immensley hard to know exactly whast it is the reader is not aware of about your character that you are, ie. all those details that we hold in our memories/imagination. It's like trying to write the rules for a board game (which I have done in the past) and you have to think about not only what you included but what you have not, that the reader may themselves assume. So you have to write to exclude those ideas they may be formulating as well as correctly deducing from your writing. What a palava! I've had a bash at fiction and found my guinea readers had many questions about my characters that I had not made explicit. I suppose a good way to approach it may be to create a story board the way screen writers do and try to 'create' the person in sections then tackle how those characteristics will manifest in the context of the plot. Credit to all those who manage it, you included David!
CB, You said you enjoyed reading the article I wrote about my father. I just submitted one about my mother, I'd like your opinion on it. It's right above your's on the home page...thank you
I can't see yours or mine on home page, but I'll check your file. Thanks
Creative, I've just gotten around to reading a little, good advice. The more you can discover about a character or subject you write about the richer the descriptions will be. That applies extra to fictional writing. I actually wrote out a life story complete with physical and emotional description, life experiences and the works so I could write a story from a female point of view. Being MALE my entire life, I found myself somewhat at a loss. Anyway, I eventually deleted 98 percent to get to the part that got me an A in a writing class. I don't think I will ever forgive that instructor. ;~) You hit the nail on the head though. Know your subject! Great advice for all writing. JDB,
Thanks JDB, I was thinking about this agin recently while watching Star Trek and considering their character development and how unique they are and how the writers have considered their 'language' their childhoods, family background etc. Star Trek..yay! Did you succeed in passing yourself off as a woman? ;)
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