Aiming for the Heart

Today, help me welcome author Ellis Vidler to Terry's Place. She has a giveaway, so read through to see how to enter to win.

Do you ever shed tears as you write? Not from frustration when something doesn’t work or you realize you have to scrap fifty pages of blood and sweat, but because something you’ve written strikes a chord emotionally? Author Ellis Vidler laughs, cries, and double checks the locks when she writes. She identifies with her characters.

Remember the movie Romancing the Stone? In one of the first scenes, Kathleen Turner sits at her desk in her pajamas, clicking out the last chapter of her novel and weeping into an endless supply of tissues. She’s writing from the heart and feels every word. Turner’s tears may have been slightly exaggerated, but most of us have cried over books and movies or even a tragic or touching picture on the news. Ellis certainly has.

That’s what writers do--aim for the heart. Elmore Leonard said that. If a scene touches someone, it will stick with the reader. Strong emotions create strong memories. That’s why we read, isn’t it? To experience something outside ourselves. The purpose of fiction is to evoke emotion.

Emerald City Part 1

Thanks to Gerrie for yesterday's post. Writing seems to be something inside us, and we're going to do it no matter what.

After wrapping up notes from the Writers' Police Academy, it's time to plunge into recapping workshops from the Emerald City Conference. The first workshop I attended was about writing emotionally gripping scenes, given by Margie Lawson.

First, it's important to understand that we, as human beings, have involuntary responses to certain situations and stimuli. These are visceral responses, things we really can't control. In high-emotion situations, our hearts beat faster, mouths get dry, hands sweat, etc. These responses are tied to the body, not our conscious thought-processes.

When writing, especially in scenes with emotional impact, we should draw on these responses and make the reader feel them as well. We've all heard, "show, don't tell" and we probably know better than to say, "She was scared." Instead, we might say, "Her stomach clenched with fear." But is that enough?