The Five Elements to Master to Tackle Emotional Writing

I cry at movies.

There. I said it.

The ones I tend to bawl to may not seem conventional to you.

The Green Mile.

Shawshank Redemption.

The Mist (Ugh. That ending).

What about you? 

Do you cry at movies? Or do the tears flow while reading a book?

Those are both examples of emotional writing.

When properly executed, writing emotionally gives you the power to: 

• Tug on your readers’ heartstrings

• Make the tears flow

• Turn them into a blubbery mess

Do you want to have this kind of control over people’s tear-ducts and the mix of chemicals our bodies translate into gut-wrenching feelings?

If so, you must master five important skills.

Doing so is easy, but first, a disclaimer.  

You must promise to use your newfound powers for good.

Agreed? Good.

With that out of the way, let’s get started. 

What is Emotional Writing?

Have you ever told a story that made someone else cry?

Ever recited a joke that made a group of people crack up?

Do you remember the last thing you said that made someone else cringe?

Chances are, you already know the basics of emotional writing.

This is the skillful art of using words and phrases to elicit a specific biological response. 

By crafting sentences and paragraphs that resonate, you hope to extract tears, laughter, or bone-chilling shivers until their blood runs cold.

By mastering five simple elements, you can make people mourn the deaths of people they’ve never even met. 

Cry with happiness at a reunion of two people that don’t really exist in real life. 

And cringe with embarrassment from a situation that happens to someone else entirely.

If you want these kinds of reactions from your loyal readers, here are the five elements to master. 

Five Elements to Master for Emotional Writing

Empathy

Everyone’s heard the saying, “Step into another person’s shoes.”

This adage means to see and experience life through the eyes of someone other than yourself.

To feel what it’s like to be a slave in America in the early 1800s.

To yearn for a love that is denied to you because of family differences. 

To break down in tears when our favorite character loses her only child.

To become good at empathy is really to become excellent at visualization.

Picture yourself as the person you’re trying to be sympathetic for. Picture what their life would be like. 

What emotions might you feel in any given situation given your background and experiences? 

When you have your answers, you have the first building blocks to writing emotionally. 

Observation 

Once you’re able to visualize yourself as someone else, look at their world through their eyes.

The best emotional writers can pinpoint details from someone else’s life that puts you right in the story.

For example, one of the saddest books I’ve ever read is Flowers for Algernon. 

A mentally challenged man undergoes a surgery that turns him into a supergenius, which isn’t the bed of roses it portends to be. 

In one particular scene, Charlie - the main character - works at a bakery. He has flour on his clothes, he takes naps on the stacks of flour to read his favorite comic books, and his co-workers try unsuccessfully to teach him how to make rolls before he has the surgery.

All of these details paint the perfect picture and help us get engrossed in the story.

Being observant is one of the most important aspects of being a good writer. 

It also happens to be an important building block to emotional writing. 

Intuition

To be an effective emotional writer, you have to be able to predict what might occur.

More specifically, you must be able to foretell situations that will elicit the highest emotional response.

For sad writing, you’ll want to envision the worst case scenario.

For funny writing, picture that scene that will make the audience roll out of their chair chuckling. 

Taking our example of Flowers for Algernon, all that flour made us believe Charlie - a grown, yet simple man - really worked in a bakery.

It makes us cry, then, when his coworkers make fun of him and laugh at him, leaving Charlie to believe they’re his friends that are laughing with him, not at him.

Daniel Keyes, the author, had to envision those scenarios that would make us feel sorry for Charlie, while making us hate his bullies with a passion. 

Curiosity

Emotional writing requires you to think like a kid again.

Be as curious about your subject matter and characters as you can possibly be. 

Stretch your mind to put them in scenarios and situations that bring about the very responses you’re trying to deliver from readers. 

For humorous content, don’t be afraid to be off-the-wall. 

For scary content, don’t be scared to get weird, gory, or downright disturbing. 

When it comes to curiosity and emotional writing, there are no dumb ideas. 

Intent

Emotions are not extracted from readers by accident.

You can’t accidentally make someone cry. You either do or you don’t.

The lesson is to be purposeful with your emotional manipulation. 

Hone in on the feelings you want to elicit and really let your reader have it. 

Really do your worst.

Like a medieval torturer choosing the right tools of the trade, choose the one that digs the deepest. 

Choose the scenario that makes your audience cringe until we can see all of their teeth.

Pick the joke that makes your readers snort with laughter. 

And describe the monster until your readers are forced to sleep with the lights on for the next few months.

Do all that, and your writing will improve.

And your audience will emote just like you expect. 

Your Ideal Reader Wants to Feel Deeply

One more thing. 

Earlier, we spoke of manipulating your subject. And treating your ideal reader like a veritable marionette.

As long as you are using your newfound skills of emotional writing for good, you have nothing to worry about.

You’re not manipulating people to do anything bad. You’re merely getting them to feel.

And guess what? They want that!

Readers are so enmeshed in the mundanity of their lives that they want to laugh, cry, cringe, and shiver.

Emotional writing makes readers feel better. 

Let’s call it catharsis through art, and it’s one of the most amazing aspects of being human.

The fact that we can feel true emotions through story, imagined or real, is a testament to how sensitive we are as beings, and how similar we truly are. 

Now take your new writing skills and really let your reader have it. 

I want to hear from you.

Drop a comment and tell me what emotion you’re going to target next.

I also want to know what story made you feel something unforgettable. Thanks for reading.