I pretty much knew I’d made it as a writer when I wrote a scene in a novel where I cried as I wrote it. And when my wife read that scene, she too broke down.
That’s when I knew I was a writer.
You want your writing to affect people. Quicken their emotions, to bring to life their feelings. They should feel tense in a dangerous scene. They should be turning pages faster when in fear of discovery. And during scenes of sorrow, they should be slowing down, dwelling in the moment of the pain, feeling that hollow feeling in your throat as tears run from your eyes.
A lot of this is FEELING. I don’t KNOW when to cut my narrative back. I FEEL when to do it.
“He leaned against the door frame.”
does that evoke emotion? in the context of the scene I wrote, yes.
“She wiped the flecked blood from his lips.”
By itself, nothing. But in the midst of the scene I wrote, that one sentence brought hot tears. I still get choked up reading that, because I know what’s coming, And the reader should know what’s coming, and dread it.
This is what reading a book is about. It’s what the reader is craving. Let me FEEL something.
When you’re writing a scene that should convey emotion, carefully feel it. Be sparing with your words. Does the choice of words intensify the feeling? Or does it pare it down?
You never want to break the feeling. Never break the flow. When you’re about to edit those scenes, make a snapshot of it first in Scrivener. If you end up with a weaker scene after, just restore it. Often those scenes should be left raw, unedited. If it evokes, it ain’t broke.
If it brings emotion to you when you write it, it will bring emotion to the reader when they read it.
This is your goal as a writer.
