POST CARDS FROM THE MUSE

Feelings

By Nandy Ekle

Feelings. Emotions. Moods. Heart. These are some of the heaviest words in the English language. They are also very important to a story. The reason they’re so critical is because our stories are about people. And people have feelings and emotions oozing from every pore.

Our feelings are what make the difference between a newscast and a gut wrenching story that stays with a person for days, begging to be read again. The stronger the emotion, the deeper the tie to your reader.

Now, as a woman, I realized something a long time ago. Emotions are scary. The more emotion I feel, the less control I feel. What this means as a writer is that I tend to shy away from emotional writing. Cramming so much feeling into my words touches my own emotions and I feel the longing, the desperation, and the pain of my characters. But the thing to remember is it will also touch my readers’ feelings and make them love the character.

Some of the emotions we need to use copious amounts of are anger, sadness, betrayal, fear, happiness, love, depression, confusion, hunger, and longing, just to name a few.

One of the main things I find myself saying to people when they ask me to edit their stories is “more emotion.” Make me feel her desperation for love. Make me feel his helplessness. Make me want to cry my eyes out. And make me want to curl up in a ball in the corner and cover my eyes as I tremble with terror.

I think the way to do this is to truly connect with my own character. And this will be the subject of my next blog.

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