Recently, a friend of mine emailed a question about how to let the reader in on what another character other than the main character is feeling. I promptly answered, and then realized it would also make a great topic for a blog post. I haven’t touched on emotional writing for awhile, so here we go. Let’s dive into how to become an emotional writer.
Ever read or written a sentence like this…..
“You can’t be serious? How could you do that? Roger replied angrily.
OR
“Wow. Would you look at that?” Madison said. I could tell she was surprised.
On the surface there’s nothing really wrong with these sentences. But from a creative writing standpoint, well… they aren’t that spectacular either. Mostly, because these sentences are telling the reader what’s going on instead of showing it. The reader doesn’t want to be told how the characters are feeling, they want to feel it for themselves. One of the best way to accomplish this is to give emotional cues.
What’s an emotional cue?
Cynthia D. Griffin 