When Write the World blogger Lisa Hiton was 20, she landed her dream internship in London for a movie production company. Absolutely nothing, she recounts, could pull her away from her whirlwind days of “reading through scripts, taking diligent production notes, and working on proposals for blueprints.” Nothing, that is, until she picked up Atonement by Ian McEwan and called in sick to spend the day reading under a tree in Hyde Park.
Lisa had found what every writer dreams of creating—something that’s call-in-sick good.
So how do you write a piece—be it a novel, poem, or feature article—that makes your reader get lost in your words? We’ve rounded up some of the best advice from our past blog posts, and the experts agree: Emotion is key.
Here are three steps to ensure your writing is so emotionally thrilling that it will make your readers shirk their duties.
Step 1: Grab Your Readers from the Get-Go.
As Rolling Stone founding editor and Write the World blogger Michael Lydon notes, the first step is to write an opening line that works as “a fish hook: whatever will get the glistening trout flip-flopping in your canoe, that’s the one to use.” He examines a variety of opening lines from Write the World community members and concludes that while a great first sentence can take many approaches (“A sharp insight into life and the human heart … A wicked sense of humor”) ultimately, it must “awaken [the reader’s] curiosity.”
Step 2: Decide how you’re going to convey emotions.
To understand why Atonement captivated her, Lisa Hiton turns to Donald Maass’s The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface. There, he identifies three methods writers can use to produce an emotional response in readers. Though Maass’s approaches specifically address fiction writing, they can be applied to many other genres, as well:
- Option 1: Maass’s Inner Mode, in which writers “[r]eport what characters are feeling so effectively that readers feel something too. This is inner mode, the telling of emotions.” This is telling, not showing: “My heart exploded with joy.”; “Shame flooded her.”; “How could I be so stupid?”
- Option 2: Maass’s Outer Mode, in which you “[p]rovoke in readers what characters may be feeling by implying their inner state through external action. This is outer mode, the showing of emotions.” In other words, this is a classic show don’t tell, scenario—a character clenches their fist, laughs, or conveys confusion, amazement, sadness, etc through dialogue.
- Option 3: Maass’s Other Mode, in which authors “[c]ause readers to feel something that a story’s characters do not themselves feel. This is other mode, an emotional dialogue between author and reader.” For instance, if a reader suspects a character is about to walk into a trap that the character isn’t aware of, the reader will feel tension and anxiety on the character’s behalf. Other Mode serves a similar purpose to dramatic music in a film in the way that it evokes a response from the reader.
Step Three: Make sure you feel something.
YA novelist and Write the World Novel Writing Competition guest judge Annabelle Monaghan emphasizes how the key to connecting with readers is to make sure your writing “comes from the heart,” thereby transferring your emotions to your readers. As she says, “if I’m crying when I’m writing something, then it’s sad; if I’m laughing, it’s funny. And if I’m bored, it’s boring.” In other words, use your own emotions as a guide post—if you feel bored when writing a certain scene or passage, drop it; instead, lean into the passages that move you.
Our experts agree: the way to ensure your readers can’t tear themselves away from your words is not only through a compelling plot or beautifully crafted sentences, but through making them feel something. By following our three steps, you’ll be ready to make your readers laugh, cry, or, like Lisa, take a day off work to find out what happens next!