I had the honor of presenting a class for Jane Friedman that you might think of as the expanded, class-sized version of one of my most popular posts for her, The Alchemy of Emotion.

In this class, I covered the ways that emotion is generated in long-form fiction at three very important, very distinct levels: At the level of the story structure, the level of the storytelling, and the level of the prose, as exemplified by this little infographic of mine:

As you can see, there’s a lot to this–and I’m really fascinated by how all of these elements work together to create that most mysterious of emergent properties in fiction: an emotional connection to the protagonist.

But here’s the truth: you can do ALL of the important things I’ve noted at the bottom two levels of this pyramid right and still fall down at the finish line–meaning, you can still fail to get emotion across to your reader in scene, where it really matters.

That’s why I got down to the real nitty gritty in my most recent post for Jane, which discusses the exact craft tactics I share with my own book coaching clients for getting emotion on the page, when it matters most: in the moment.

You can read the whole post here.

Here’s to better stories for a better world!

Never miss a post! Subscribe to my newsletter.