Crafting The Writer’s (Your) Emotional Journey

Part 7 on lessons learned from The Emotional Craft of Fiction

The seventh and last part of the lessons learned from reading The Emotional Craft of Fiction. You can read the other essays here: The Importance of the Emotional Journey in Fiction, Inner and Outer Mode for Fiction Writing, The Emotional Life of Your Protagonist Affects How Readers Experience Your Story, Using Meaning and Arc to Elevate The Emotional World of Your Characters, Developing an Emotional Plot Alongside an External Plot Will Make Your Stories Unforgettable, and Crafting The Reader’s Emotional Journey.

The result of crafting an emotional journey for your readers works in tandem in creating your own emotional journey with your writing.

“The most important work you do in writing your novel is the work you do on yourself.” (p 178)

When you give the best of you, that reflects in your art. Your stories end up feeling small because you don’t use your own life to draw inspiration from.

Here is what you can do

Positivity on the page

All stories have intentions, regardless if you intend it or not.

You send signals to the reader to meet their expectations and orient them to the tale you are spinning. How characters experience the story determines how the readers experience a novel.

So if your protagonist is all doom and gloom, you will exhaust your reader.

That’s not to say you can’t write about doom and gloom. Just think of how you feel when you are exposed to overly negative people. How does that affect you?

Exercises on mastering positivity on the page (p. 183-184):

• Pick a low point for your protagonist. What is happening? How is it a setback? Why does it devastate? What makes this misery different from any other? Describe it. Detail it. Find in it what is unique.
• Add perspective: Why is it good to feel this bad? What can be seen or grasped clearly now that was previously hidden? Whose experience can now be understood? What truth is affirmed?
• What better day can your protagonist see in the distance? In what way does your protagonist express this: “A better day is coming, but that is not this day.”
• Add action: What can your protagonist do in response to what has happened? What would be comforting, creative, generous, or large? Do it.
• What kind of mood are you in today? Are you down, discouraged, afraid, anxious, tired, envious, stuck, or lacking confidence? Turn your mood around. Breathe. Meditate. Drink green tea. Go for a run. Use affirmations. Shake it off and become excited, empowered, brave, singular, happy, grateful, curious, and creative.
• Write not just at a safe fifty-five miles per hour but blast off. Break the box. In the scene you’re working on, surprise the hell out of yourself.
• In the scene you’re working on, what kind of mood is your protagonist in? Does he feel helpless, set upon, oppressed, avoidant, incapable, or trapped? Turn it around. Show through action or speech that he is capable, challenged, has a plan, has options, can stand strong and affect the outcome.
• In this scene, pause and allow your protagonist to appreciate something cool, neat, beautiful, human, or different.
• In this scene, allow your protagonist to feel that what’s happening is good.
• If in this scene things go against your protagonist, find a way for your protagonist to suck it up, shrug if off, look ahead, and feel ready.
• If in this scene things go well for your protagonist, find a way for your protagonist to not take it for granted, resolve to do better, reach out to another, and give back.

The Emotional Mirror

In some ways, your characters are you — they are birthed from your mind and imagination.

The old saying goes, “write about what you know.” Whom do you know better than yourself? Fiction challenges you to face yourself by facing your characters. Because characters that feel real means you know them from the inside out.

They become more real when you get real with yourself.

Exercises on mastering the emotional mirror (p. 185-186):

• After you have written at least some portion of your novel, imagine that you are alone with your protagonist in a quiet, windowless room. You sit facing each other in comfortable chairs. There’s plenty of time. The mood is relaxed. You are not defensive. You are thrilled to have this chance to talk with your protagonist, and your protagonist is grateful to talk with you.
• Ask your protagonist to tell you something about yourself that’s true. What does she say?
• Ask your protagonist: If you could do anything you wanted to in this story, what would it be? What are you dying to do that I’m not letting you? What’s your most wicked impulse? What’s your best idea? What would make you happy?
• Ask your protagonist: What are you most afraid that I am going to put through? How are you afraid you will suffer? What are you afraid you will lose? Are you afraid I will humiliate you? How? What’s your worst nightmare? What’s the worst way to fail? Whom are you most afraid to let down?
• Ask your protagonist: What am I not seeing about someone else in this story? Who has a secret? Whose motives and objectives aren’t what I think? Who is secretly working against you? Who, by contrast, is better than they appear? What does any other character want to do that they’re not getting a chance to do now?
• Ask your protagonist: What do you want to say out loud that you haven’t said? Whom do you want to tell off? To whom do you want to confess, I love you? Whom do you want to hurt? Whom do you want to seduce, or be seduced by? Whom do you want to help and cannot help now? Whom do you want to forgive?
• Ask your protagonist: What’s this story really about — to you? What am I not seeing? What message have I missed?

Magnanimous Writing

Ask yourself this question: what sort of spirit are you bringing to your fiction?

Your readers will be able to tell how you feel about your characters, the story world, and everything in general. What you are writing is you.

The process of writing a novel is long and tiring. When you shine, so does your writing.

Magnanimous is just as much as a quality as it is a practice. Embrace it every day, on every page.

Exercises on mastering magnanimous writing (p. 193-194):

• Stop at any point in the story. What’s funny here? What’s ironic? What’s peculiar, crazy, wrong, and out of bounds? Why is that somehow just perfect right now?
• Stop at a point of pain. What’s beautiful despite the darkness? For what can your POV character be grateful? If this had to happen, what’s the saving grace?
• Think about your story world. What’s wonderful about it? What’s the greatest good? What should be shared? What would we love about it even more if we knew?
• Think about your protagonist. Find one way to set this character free. What’s a gift you can give your protagonist? In what unexpected way be he be fulfilled? What dream experience could come true?
• Think about a time of pressure. What is excellent about this challenge? What’s cool, awesome, and exciting about being in this situation? How can your protagonist be creative? How can your protagonist exceed her own expectations, and even your own?
• Pick a secondary character. What potential does your protagonist see in this person that others miss? What façade can your protagonist see through? What flaw is forgivable? What strength can be admired?
• Who in the story can rise above a situation? Who can forgive when forgiveness isn’t earned? Who is high who can show humility? Who is low who can muster dignity? Who can open their home? Who can impose tough love? Who can sacrifice? Who can inspire? Who can admit wrong? Who can show love when damnation is deserved?
• Pick any page in your manuscript. What’s happening? Who in this scene can act more noble, strong, just, fine, generous, loyal, or principled?
• Pick another pace. What is unseen, surprising, symbolic? What demonstrates a principle or proves a point? Who gets that?
• Pick another page. What do you enjoy about anyone on this page or anything that’s happening? Find a way for your feeling to shine through. How would you sum it up? Who on the page can think, say, or show what’s in your own mind?

Final words

Remember, a good emotional journey is not just for the reader but for you, the writer.

I highly suggest reading The Emotional Craft of Fiction to get any of the tidbits that I may have missed. It’s a great book and I learned a lot reading and learning how to write fiction from it.