There’s nothing worse than getting to the business end of a book or movie, where the action is happening, and you can’t give two hoots what the outcome is.
Too often I see this in movies nowadays.
Specifically, I watched the new horror movie Night Swim and it was exactly this.
The last 30 minutes of the movie are just spooky scenes underwater and I couldn’t care any less what was happening.
Luckily, it’s not incredibly difficult to fix these scenes and make them emotional.
To make them resonate.
The Importance of Emotional Resonance in Writing
Emotional resonance is where you are emotionally invested in what you are consuming, you FEEL the emotions of the characters and the scene.
This type of resonance is SO incredibly important to foster the memorability of your narrative.
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Mary Angelou
The way you make your reader feel is EVERYTHING!
When your reader is emotionally invested in your story a part of their soul is tethered to the characters and the fate of those characters WILL physically affect the reader.
What they’ll remember from your writing is that it really made them FEEL something.
That’s all that you can ask from your writing.
Techniques for Creating Emotional Resonance
There are 3 techniques I want to share with you;
- Show, Don’t Tell
- Character Empathy
- Dialogue Dynamics
1) Show, Don’t Tell
It’s far too easy to fall into the trap of telling your readers what to feel, and not showing them how to feel.
Show, Don’t Tell is the very first piece of advice you get as a writer, although a seemingly innocuous concept to avoid the difference in the reader’s experience is night and day.
Telling is pointing at parts of your story whereas showing is leading your reader through the experience of your narrative.
When painting your emotional scene you need to be showing how your characters react physically to the scene.
A stoic knight dropping to their knees and weeping at the beheading of their friend is an incredibly emotional scene.
However, if done incorrectly we as the reader feel nothing.
I’ll show you the difference between telling and showing.
“The knight drops to his knees in sadness, hitting the ground over and over frenzied. Renguard cries for the lifeless body of his brother”
Booooooorrrring, there is nothing emotional about that.
“Renguard clenches his fist as he hears the cold wet slap of his brother’s head hitting the gravel. The knight falls to his knees, tears running down his face, slams his fists into the ground over and over until dark streaks of blood begin to trickle down his arm from under his gauntlets”
Although far from perfect you can already see a CLEAR difference between the telling and showing reading experience.
Show, Don’t Tell although it’s a minor difference in how you write, the reading experience couldn’t be further separate.
2) Character Empathy
If your reader doesn’t care about your characters then there is no way they’re going to feel any emotion for them.
They just don’t care.
Indifference.
It’s a cold reality to imagine but film is filled with characters that aren’t relatable and therefore create indifference.
To allow the reader to empathize with your characters they need to be relatable.
Note how I’ve said relatable not likeable.
There are plenty of examples of compelling characters that are contemptible. So your characters must be relatable but not necessarily likable.
I have written about this in another post but summarized to make your character relatable you need to;
- Introduce Vulnerabilities and Weakness: Showing the faults of your character allows the reader to relate with their own inadequacies.
- Depth and Dimensions: Avoid flat, one-dimensional characters by delving into their backgrounds, motivations, and unique traits
- Authentic Transformation: Ensure the character’s growth is not only significant but also believable. Let their journey be a natural evolution rooted in the challenges they face
Develop your characters, if you lose your reader’s empathy you lose their emotion.
3) Dialogue Dynamics
Authentic and emotionally charged dialogue is a tricky thing to get right but if you understand it you will find yourself head and shoulders above the rest.
The fundamental aspect of good dialogue is conflict.
If there is no conflict then your character SHOULDN’T be talking.
No one wants to read about two people agreeing, it’s not interesting.
If you have your characters sufficiently relatable your reader should be able to see both sides of the conflict when they are talking.
Creating emotional resonance.
A good tip I’ve found for dialogue is that you write two people talking as if they can say anything but what they ACTUALLY want to say.
This will create believable and resonant dialogue.
In Conclusion . . .
By mastering these tools, writers can transcend mere narration, creating experiences that linger in the hearts and minds of their readers.
Writing is not merely about conveying information; it’s about forging connections.
As you embark on your writing journey, let the heartbeat of genuine emotions guide your pen.
Infuse your characters with the depth of real feelings, let dialogue resonate with authenticity, and paint your scenes with the hues of emotional nuance.
In doing so, you not only craft stories but offer readers an invitation to embark on an emotional rollercoaster.
So, dear writer, as you venture forth into the realms of your imagination, carry with you the power of emotions—use them to shape your narratives, to breathe life into characters, and to create a symphony that resonates with the souls of your audience.
Happy writing, and may your stories reverberate with the echoes of genuine, heartfelt emotions 🙂
I post writing tips every day. Here’s my most recent one;
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