Have you ever abandoned a book because you just didn’t care what happened to the characters? If so, you’re not alone, I’ve done it more than once.
We writers can spend ages devising complex characters and intriguing plots but if we don’t engage emotions, our readers soon lose interest.
Emotional depth provides a crucial ingredient that can elevate writing from mediocre to magnificent, so we want, no we need, to use them to keep the pages turning. Does the character fall in love, survive the attack, live another day? We need to FEEL something when we read about it. So, whether you’re writing a novel or a short story, conjure emotions into every sentence, every paragraph.
Here are some tips to help you write magnificently.
1. Show don’t tell
All writers are familiar with this advice and ignore it at their peril. It involves using vivid imagery, actions, thoughts, senses, and dialogue to convey the story’s emotional and sensory experience, rather than simply stating it.
In this scene from Jane is packing her daughter’s
