THERE WILL BE TIMES
THAT YOU WANT TO CRY
FOR YOUR CHARACTERS.
CRY.
THERE WILL BE TIMES THAT
YOU ARE ANGRY AT THEM.
HIT SOMETHING.
THERE WILL BE TIMES THAT
YOU WANT TO LAUGH AT, WITH,
OR FOR THEM.
LAUGH.
LET THE EMOTIONS OF YOUR STORY
REALLY, TRULY AFFECT YOU, BECAUSE
THOSE TEARS,
THAT ANGER,
THAT LAUGHTER
WILL ABSOLUTELY SHOW ON THE PAGE.
IF IT DIDN'T MOVE YOU,
IT'S NEVER GOING TO MOVE
ANYONE ELSE.
THE FIRST PERSON
WHO SHOULD BE EMOTIONALLY
OVERWHELMED BY YOUR BOOK
IS YOU.
(Lise Quintana)
My husband and I have been together long enough now that when he sees me sitting at my desk, laptop open, tears streaming down my face, he no longer panics and thinks something horrible has happened.
He knows I'm just writing.
38 comments:
Real emotions do make for better writing. Good thing your husband knows what's going on now! :)
When my daughter sees me crying at the computer, she knows I had 'one of those' points in my book. She always asks if I just killed someone.
Wise man!
And so true. If it doesn't move us, it won't move the reader.
He learned quickly. :)
I bet that kind of thing happens a lot with the family and friends of writers. :)
If we don't feel it, the reader won't feel it.
Good point. If I'm bored by or not feeling the characters I can only imagine how bored readers would be.
I hate the thought of bored readers!
Wonderful quote! If you can't feel anything for your characters, then your readers probably won't be able to, either.
I think it's a wonderful quote, too. :)
That is a wonderful quote, and so very true. I did write a scene that made me cry for my characters. And then I felt bad for having put them in that position. Not bad enough to, you know, change their story, but still...I felt bad.
I feel bad when I do that to characters, too. But that's kind of our job.... :)
Fabulous words - I definitely cry or laugh, or get hungry or sleepy right along with my characters. :)
It's kind of like how you shouldn't go to the grocery store when you're hungry - we shouldn't let our characters be chowing down at a buffet when we're hungry either. :)
I have cried for my chatacters. And laughed with them. And hoped and dreamed with them. They give me their emotions, and I give them mine.
Excellent quote! So true. When I read my work and get goosebumps (the happy kind), I know I've done my job :)
I have to laugh at the image of your poor husband discovering you at the laptop that way. Powerful words. I love when I have a powerful reaction to my writing.
True, although I was once bored to death while I slogged through one section of a novel. I was terrified that my boredom meant that the book would bore others.
As it turned out, I was bored because I knew what I needed to write--the mystery was gone for me. It is still some of the very best writing I've ever produced.
Whenever my husband sees me staring off in space he asks me what planet I'm on. I suppose that would sound weird to everyone else but a writer. :)
That must have been a wonderful writing session. At the moment I'm crying because I haven't written anything:) Have a great week.
I love that, Chrys - we give them our emotions, they give us theirs.
That really is one of the best moments!
Yes, now he knows better - he just hands me the tissues and leaves me to it. :)
Great point! I find that happens more for me with scary/tense scenes rather than emotional ones, like heartbreak, sorrow etc. I think the scary scene is dull, but readers freak out. They didn't know what was going to happen next, but I'd been through those sections over and over and over.... :)
You're on Planet Writing. :)
Don't rush it! The stories, the characters, etc will arrive when they're ready. :)
Nice, and very true. ;-)
Anna from Elements of Writing
I love that your husband knows that. :) That's cool. I had a sense of overwhelming sorrow while writing a scene at a writer's conference this weekend and held back tears, which made a few other attendees look at me oddly . . . but how could I help it? I actually wrote a scene that made me want to cry. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, I know I got the words right.
:)
It definitely sounds like you got the words right. Well done! :)
I've never cried with my characters, but I know when I finish a book, I am bereft, lonely, and missing them.
Oh yes, I know that feeling well!
This is fantastic!!! And so true. LOVE it!!!! . . . I'm also feeling a bit emotional right now o_O
Glad you liked it, S. K.! :)
I love this. It really is true! I had a time when I knew I had to kill off a character. It took me two weeks to sit down and do it because I knew how much it was going to hurt me. I finally did it...and cried.
That's awesome. I totally hear you though. My editor made me do some pretty mean things to my characters in my last book and it pretty much ripped my heart out. So if I'm writing the next one without a heart, now you know why. ;)
That is the worst feeling. And it's kind of the best, too, in a weird, writerly way. :)
Nah, your writerly heart is back...just in time to get ripped out again. :)
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