Creating High Emotion in Fiction

Many works have been called masterpieces of literature. Some for their wonderful imaginative writing, some for their style, but all because their stories have the power to make us as readers experience, with the very core of our being, some emotion whether it be fear, hopelessness, astonishment, or laughter. Something true and similar to all of us throughout this world is our emotions. We feel the same range of emotions no matter what our ethnicity, income, or lifestyle. It is one of the most important things that make people love a work of fiction. It’s what readers hunger for.

Emotion, I’ve found, is also something many writers struggle to accurately portray.

Often an author will tell us how the character feels as in:

Johnny felt saddened, walking to his uncle’s shiny, dark casket. Tears dampened his eyes. The room was hot and quiet sobs drifted through the air as his mother led him toward the casket where he would see his uncle’s body, cold and stiff.

This works of course, but it doesn’t show anything of the character’s feelings. It simply states a fact and unless a reader has had the same or very similar experience, they will relate very little to the character’s sorrow, fear, or joy. Instead, authors should strive to show readers, as in:

Johnny’s palms grew sticky as he moved closer to the shiny, dark casket. The carpeting was soft under his feet, seemingly muffling all sobs and whispers in the room. His breaths grew shallow and the air suddenly became hot. He didn’t want to look at the body, pale and stiff. It wasn’t the way he wanted to remember his uncle. It wasn’t the last vision he wanted to lock away for revisiting. What he wanted was his uncle to toss a ball to him, to drive him to the swimming hole, and to take him for ice cream. But Uncle Gerald wouldn’t be coming in his shiny, silver pickup ever again. Johnny swallowed, forcing down the hot tears filling his eyes.

This second example puts readers in Johnny’s thoughts and helps them to feel what he feels, helps him become real.

Another of the most common things I find is overstatement. In this I mean when an emotion is told after it’s been shown as if the writer doesn’t believe the reader will get it the first time. This works just the opposite; it actually dulls the impact. In the second example above, notice that Johnny’s grief was never stated as sadness. Yet his sorrow is unmistakable. Often times a writer will create a passage like the second example above and then go on with a statement such as, "His sadness overwhelmed him." Such an explanatory statement ruins whatever impact the preceding passage had provoked. Another form of overstatement is repeating the exact same emotion over and over every so many paragraphs, as if the writer is afraid the reader will forget how the character is feeling. Once an emotion is established, it should be left alone — although the character should react in ways he would, feeling the way he is — until the emotion deepens, lessens, or otherwise changes somehow. When self-editing a work, a writer must be aware of these easily overlooked effects and weed out the explanatory and repetitive occurrences as much as they possibly can.

By T.C. McMullen
Star Publish Owner
Author and Artist
www.tcmcmullen.com
www.starpublishllc.com

It's not Disney, and she's no lady!

Sometimes the stars shine on us. Such is the case of Star author Kristie Leigh Maguire. The book we are featuring here today is No Lady and Her Tramp. It was written several years ago by Kristie and Mark Haeuser. It is now available as an ebook. (This is not a Star Publish LLC ebook, but Kristie is more than just a Star author. She is the founder of Star Publish and all Star authors owe our success to Kristie's vision and dreams for her own books as well as those of other authors. Kristie does have several print books available from Star. You can find them listed at the Book Catalog at Star's website.

No Lady and Her Tramp is not for children. You can send them to watch the new release of Disney's Lady and the Tramp on the DVD or Blue Ray versions that were just released yesterday, after being locked in the Disney vault for many years. Then you can settle down with Kristie and Mark's version. It's a bit rough around the edges in places (what else would you expect from a tramp?), but it's also laugh-out-loud funny. There are surprises at every turn of the page.

Kristie also has a brand new interview up here about her latest book, Second Chances (click on title to order). In my opinion (comment by JES, Star Publish LLC Marketing Director, author, and editor), this is Kristie's finest work to date. It is very different from her other books, but it will take you to the mountains of Wyoming, where the air is clear, but people's heads aren't always. All they have to do is follow their heart and they can find happiness.

A tasty tidbit

Yes, we have already established that everybody likes something for nothing. Of course if you've seen that commercial where the banker asks the kid in the highchair, you know that to every rule there is an exception. When he throws his food at the banker, it sort of makes you want to go help the kid.

With our economy in the dumpster, it's time for Star Publish LLC to step up to the plate and do their part to help you dig your way out. Even with the low cost of ebooks, it is frustrating to buy something and as soon as you start to read it you discover that it certainly is not your taste in reading.

With that in mind, you can find Star's Ebook Sampler here, just waiting for you to download it to see if it's worth spending your hard-earned money on a certain title. But don't stop with just that one book you had heard about. Try all of the excerpts to see if something else also appeals to your literary tastes. You'll find mysteries, thrillers, historicals, fantasy, and a literary romance. Trying a Sampler is a great way to wander into uncharted territories. A reader once asked Janet Elaine Smith, Star's Marketing Director, why she should "waste her time and money on something as stupid as a time travel." She rightly concluded that time travel is something that is totally impossible, so she was not wanting to take the risk of spending hard-earned money on something she was pretty sure she wouldn't like. Janet made her an offer that she couldn't refuse. She told her that if she bought the book and didn't like it, if she sent a proof-of-purchase to Janet, she would refund her money and she could still keep the book. About two weeks later, the reader emailed Janet, simply asking, "When is your next time travel coming out?" And that's how Janet came up with her first Sampler, to cast that lure out to people who might otherwise read a book in some of the other genres she writes in.

Now Star Publish LLC has taken that same concept and we are making our very own ebook Sampler so you can see what you're missing by not clicking through to purchase the ones you like the most.

Happy reading!