Emotional Craft Of Fiction: The

Use an object, situation, or chain of events to serve as the formula for a particular emotion (e.g., a cracked windshield representing a broken relationship). 2. Physicality and the Interior Monologue Humans experience emotion in the body first.

Show the character’s "soft underbelly." A hardened detective is more sympathetic when we see them tenderly caring for a dying houseplant.

In fiction, emotion isn't something a character has ; it’s something the reader feels . The Emotional Craft of Fiction

Use involuntary reactions (the prickle of sweat, the sudden chill, the buzzing in the ears) to signal high stakes before the character even processes them.

Focus on sensory details that change based on mood. To a person in love, the city sounds like a symphony; to a person with a migraine, it sounds like a construction site. 5. Pacing and Sentence Structure The rhythm of your prose dictates the reader's pulse. Use an object, situation, or chain of events

If you say a character is "sad," you’ve given the reader a label. If you describe the character’s inability to wash the single coffee mug left in the sink, you’ve given them the feeling.

We don't cry because a character is sad; we cry because we know exactly what that character lost and how much they cared about it. Show the character’s "soft underbelly

Emotion only lands if the reader understands what is at risk.