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@gabriellepollack Emotion is important because it stitches life and authenticity into the characters of a story- obviously, if characters had no emotions they wouldn’t be particularly interesting. Also, emotions what helps us connect to characters and make them relatable. When we identify or connect with an emotion, it helps us see truth in the story and get more invested in it.

One example of emotion (that I’m guessing people would be familiar with) is when Diggory, in The Magician Newphew, is trying to save his mother from her illness. His worry for her is an emotion that carries through the book and makes it feel human and engaging. One of the sides this is important in is when Jadis is tempting him to take the healing apple home to his mother and save her. Because of how much he cares about his mother, this moment is filled with tension for Diggory thinking ‘Should I steal the apple or not?’ It’s not easy for him to simply let go of the fruit, because he knows it could heal his mother who he’s very worried about.

One example of where I think a lack of emotion weakened the story was in one of the Fablehaven books (spoilers follow) is when the male MC Seth obtains information that makes him think his sister Kendra is dead. If anyone else has read this, they might agree that the emotions were a little underdeveloped here. it mentions that Seth was devastated and all that, but it doesn’t dig deep into the pain we’d expect a character like Seth to have