Eliciting a reader’s feelings is the name of the game. And it’s way more effective – and responsible – than manipulating them.
Warning: Writing Like This Will Make Your Readers Cry
by Brandon Clements
Can I ask you a question? Since I can’t really hear you, I’m going to, anyway: Why do you write?
To inspire? To critique, teach, or motivate? To remember (or forget)? For self-expression? Because you have a fire burning in your bones, and you simply must?
Out of all the perfectly legitimate reasons that you could write, I imagine you don’t do it to merely entertain. No, you want to touch your readers, move them in some way. Even cause them to cry.
Shattering the frozen sea
Frank Kafka once said, “A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.”
Be honest. You dream about your writing having that affect on someone, don’t you? Because words have had that affect on you.
The frozen sea inside of you has been shattered by stories, truths, ideas, and turns of phrase so astounding that you had no words to respond or even tell someone what it meant to you. Isn’t that why you want to write?
So, how do you write words that will move people, and potentially even play a part in breaking the frozen sea inside of them? It’s actually quite simple:
You write what moves you.
Except that part is not always easy. Because in order to write what moves you, you will have to visit your pain. Your fear. Your weaknesses. Your nightmares and demons. The skeletons in your closet and the horrific possibility of self-disclosure, even if veiled in stories and themes….