Activity

@Jenwriter17 Yes! Connecting with a character at the start of a story is so important. And I’m glad you brought up show don’t tell. Showing emotion is a hard one for me. 😛 It takes so much trust to show emotion and believe your reader is smart enough to get it rather than telling them outright.

@toklaham-veruzia The Warden and the Wolf King is a great example of leaving questions at the end. It certainly left an impact. Why do you think ending a book with unanswered questions leaves the biggest impact on readers?

@Sam-Kowal I love both examples. I hate when characters don’t express enough sorrow for a character who’s died. It’s one of my pet peeves. 😛  I’ve heard that readers want their emotion reflected in the characters.

Say a best friend in a story dies. If the reader is crushed, the MC should be, too. If he’s not, readers will think the writer doesn’t appreciate how much they loved the best friend.  Having other characters morn a death is a consolation for readers. Even though one of their favorites died, other characters are sad, too. Readers aren’t alone in their feelings.

One of the issues I had with Thor: Ragnarok (Which isn’t a book, but oh well :P) was that lovable characters were killed and no one mourned for them.

@martina I’m glad you brought sentence length up. The rhythm of our prose can totally evoke and enhance emotion.

“I think writers have to use every aspect of their “toolkit” to portray it, from punctuation to word choice to sentence length.”

Also yup. 😛

@morreafirebird I’ve never read Worlds Beneath. Sounds like something to add to my reading list. 😉

Ah, I haven’t read Divergent, but that reminds me of a point. Did the events in Divergent that caused all the emotions have a purpose? Sometimes writers can use a pointless character death or random tragedy to evoke a reaction in readers. But when the events are purposeless and the emotion has nothing to do with theme, character development, etc. then it can wear a reader out. It’s something I occasionally struggle with. It’s great to get a reaction from readers, but the emotion must have some sort of point.

And I love how you related it to the teach and delight principle. TM is pretty cool (tho I haven’t finished it. Shame upon the Guildmaster :P)