Have you ever read a passage and felt the breath of life, then was too speechless to describe it? That’s writing at its best. The method for creating such a moment comes from the use of emotions. Emotions are one of the single most important, touching, impressive and non-intrusive writing tools. It is often not recognized as a concrete tool, but as a feeling, a stirring, a capturing that catches the reader up in the fictive state.
My aim is to take the mystery out of it. Break it down and make it easy for you. I want to shorten the learning curve for conquering this bestseller-kind-of writing. When you set your scene do not describe it separate from the protagonist’s thoughts, feeling, observations, analysis. If we know how the protagonist feels about the description, the situation, we’ll experience it also. Feelings make us remember a character, a story, a plot long after the last page is closed. Good emotional impact resonates because you have felt what the character felt. On the other hand, description apart from your character’s feelings and observations are impersonal and cold, no matter how detailed and colorful they are. In other words, find smooth ways to integrate your character’s feelings into the description. Here are three examples:
THE MAYOR’S WIFE by Martha Tucker