So we've written about the details in stories, we've included
information about any details that might have changed to make it interesting, and now we've got to try to make it more interesting for the reader. There are
many ways of doing this, but for today just want to consider emotions that you
may well include to engage the reader.
Certain emotions are easier to write about than others, for
example, anger, which people can apply their imagination to, still quite readily.
With those two emotions, one could imagine a fast pace, plenty of action, lots of
descriptive opportunities, and draw on personal experience. Those emotions that
are not quite as easy to deal with, or what may be described as softer emotions, or darker emotions. For example, sadness, the pain of loss, and failure are
intensely personal, and as everyone knows, people react differently in these
situations; they have a longer time scale and quite often involve a process
that the human body needs to go through to assimilate such emotions.
I want to simplify things and just consider happiness and fun, annoyance, sadness, and frustration.
In the first case of happiness, it being Easter weekend, one
can imagine any situation where people are visiting friends and relatives and
delivering presents, Easter eggs obviously, undescribed phone games, welcoming
attitudes, delightful surprises, imagining lots of smiles and perhaps quite a lot
of noise and laughter. Where the story goes from there is obviously up to you, the
writer, and you're free to make that decision
On the other hand, the sadness of a frustrating story may be something totally different, and if you can imagine how people would react to
the Iran war or the mention of Donald Trump, the loss of a loved one, all of
those scenarios trigger a different range of emotions. You may well have anger, you may well have sadness, you may have frustration, a deep sense of loss, a very
much darker place to be.
Whatever the story type you choose, this is when you can draw
on your own experience. That is not to say that if you have never experienced
personal loss, you should avoid the subject. However, you may well have to
do some basically search to fully understand all aspects of that particular
scenario. It depends upon the audience you are aiming for as to which of these
emotional roller coasters you decide to work with.
Whatever you decide to do, be sure of the ground you are
choosing and consider all aspects of human reactions, from physical to
psychological, before you embark on this journey.
God Bless
