From Grandmother to Grandfather I want to remember you like water remembers a penny, a single droplet held perfectly round for eternity Perspiration forms along your hairline, in the creases of your brow, that brow that I want to smooth with my fingers like a maid smoothing a tablecloth. 6 Ways To Evoke The Emotions You Want From Your Readers Set up your character. Always remember the emotion you want to create when you’re writing about him or her. Plan their path. Build their hopes and expectations so that you can either fulfil or dash them at the end. Use body language to show how the character changes. Foreshadow using symbols and scenery. I would suggest that you do this with an extremely light touch. When the story ends, the reader may not even realise that you’ve done it. [Read Wherever I Lay My Hat – How Setting Affects Your Characters] Plant seeds in the dialogue. Again, do this sparingly. A well-chosen word or phrase can echo across chapters and live on in the reader’s mind. A character may say something that seems innocuous, but has a great impact at a later date. Use evocative names. Choose names for characters and places that reflect the emotion. You could be obvious or subtle when you are doing this. You could also use this ironically. Create a wealthy character named Charity who does not believe in giving anything away. [Read 10 Things To Consider When Naming Characters] Set a deadline. Use suspense, tension, and conflict to keep the reader on the edge of his or her seat. A ticking clock forces the character to act and to change. [Read A Tense Situation – Five Tips To Help You Write A Gripping Read] Use the beginning. The first lines set the tone for your book. They allow readers to create a picture of the coming story in their minds. Your ending should echo the tone and the picture you painted. It may have changed obviously or subtly. Use words, moods, and senses to evoke the emotion you want to create. [Read How To Write A Beginning And An Ending That Readers Will Never Forget] Other techniques of evoking emotions • Write concrete thoughts and images, not abstract ones. We want to see, hear, smell, taste and feel what you write. • Use the active voice, not the passive voice. We want the subject to do the action, which draws us into the emotions. For the differences between the two, here. • Utilize action verbs, not linking verbs. We want to feel the pop of the action, the sizzle to the bacon. • Avoid gerunds (the -ing words). Gerunds can hinder the meter and flow of a poem. One ends up with ideas of ‘running noses’ across a finish line or ‘stocking cans’ magically doing all the work for the grocery clerk. What I learned about poetry • Avoid adverbs (those pesky -ly words). Adverbs can hinder and impede the flow of a poem. They also do not give accurate depictions to the emotions we try to evoke. • Use metaphors over similes. The simile with the use of ‘like’ or ‘as’ can also slow up and impede the evocation of the emotions. Metaphors however can give a better picture of the two objects you compare. • Finally, break the rules, whatever rules you come across, even the ones I shared. I write a lot about ‘abstract’ ideas, Sometimes I will replace those words with images to represent them, but mostly, I go with those abstract words and let the rest of the poem speak to the images. Do you try to evoke emotions in your writing? How do you accomplish it? PRACTICE • Your turn, friends, to evoke the emotions and senses. Write something that makes us see, hear, taste, smell, and feel. • Write for fifteen minutes. When your time is up, post your practice in the comments section. And if you post, please be sure to comment on a few practices by other writers. • Happy writing!
