“Never name an emotion,” says K.M.Weiland in Helping Writers Become Authors

In the 𝐻𝑒𝑙𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑊𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝐴𝑢𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑠 podcast episode entitled ‘6 Tips to Write Deeply Emotional Fiction‘, K.M. Weiland says:

“Emotions should never be copy/pasted into a story. The most resonant stories are those that create their own emotions. Most of the time, we will begin a story with an idea about character or plot or theme, and pertinent emotions can arise from there. Occasionally, we may start with an emotion (e.g., “I want to write a story about grief” or “I want to write a story about falling in love”). In those cases, it is imperative we shift into the mental space long enough to carefully choose and craft plots and characters who would naturally generate these emotions.

“In order for readers to feel what your characters are feeling, the emotions must arise naturally. Simply telling readers that a character is “sad” or “madly in love” will never achieve the desired effect. For emotions to be powerful, they can never be on the nose. This is why I have often used the personal mantra “never name an emotion.” This isn’t meant to be taken literally; sometimes you have to call out what a character is feeling. But naming an emotion should be a last resort. Instead, your character’s emotions should be deeply and achingly obvious from the context of their actions and the subtext of their reactions.”

Writers. What I want to know is: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 about 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬?

– Do you agree that naming emotions should be a last resort?

– When is it okay to name an emotion? When is it not?

– How confident are you in your ability to show emotions through context and character reactions? What does this look like in practice?

Head to the 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 to add your thoughts.