In fictional writing, an author needs to know how and when to evoke emotion from his or her readers. A common error that authors make is to try to force emotion into scenes where it is not appropriate. Emotion definitely plays a role in fictional writing, but if it is overdone, it resembles a soap opera more than it does a literary work. A stereotypical image comes to mind of a woman blotting her eyes with a tissue as she is curled up on a sofa watching TV. Soap operas are what they are. They try to evoke emotion in every episode, but I think we all know that soap operas are not known for their rich character depth or depth of thought at all for that matter. Although a purely emotional style of writing can draw sales, it is not an effective way to make a lasting impression on a reader.
Emotion is to writing is much like seasoning is to cooking. If too much seasoning is used, food dishes become indigestible. If not enough seasoning is used, food dishes are too bland. By the same token, if a writer overuses emotion, the reader cannot digest anything meaningful from the book. The emotion gets in the way. A reader who likes emotion might think that this sort of book is a good book, but the book will quickly be forgotten when the next book comes along. On the other hand, a writer who uses too little emotion in his writing will not have much of an audience at all. So, for the serious writer, there is a certain balance that needs to be struck between emotion and thought.
To extend the cooking analogy, if just the right balance is struck between the main food ingredients and the seasoning, a memorable dish is created. If the right balance is struck between emotion and thought in a literary work, the work becomes significant and meaningful. It is very important that the emotion of a writer's work mesh with the substance of the work.
A great literary work will do this seamlessly. The work will flow into an emotional scene without warning much as it does in life itself. If, for example, a slight irritation arises in a character's life, it would be inappropriate for the character to display extreme anger in reaction to it. However, if enough slight irritations built up over time, then the display of extreme anger would be natural at the occurrence of another slight irritation. This gradual building of emotion lets the reading empathize closely with the character as the emotion builds. This principle holds true for any emotion.
The best way to convey common emotion is by the gradual building of small incidents that cause emotion, however, dramatic bursts of emotion also can happen in life. These are responses to major and sudden changes that occur in life. However, be careful of including too many major changes in a work. Few changes of this nature happen in an average life. These changes are rare in life, so they ought to be rare in a character's life as well.
Most importantly, the use of emotion should tie in with your work's goals and purpose. Any strong emotion associated with a character ought to bring out a flaw or strength of that character. Emotional devices should also be used to reinforce an emotion felt by your characters. For example, in A Beacon of Hope, I wanted to bring out the frustration felt by a character when dealing with a new technology. I did this by using repetitive language and extending scene longer than I normally would. This created a feeling of impatience in the reader. This impatience reinforced the frustration felt by the character to such as extent that I received more comments from reader about that scene then any other single scene in the book. Most of the comments centered on the readers' identification with the frustration of the character. The use of this simple device made the scene a memorable one for nearly everyone that read the book.
Emotion is very appropriate for the climaxes of your story. If you message at the climax is a negative one, say, a message of warning, the emotion used to convey the message should be a negative emotion such as anger, sadness, fear or lust. If you message is a positive one, then the emotion should be positive such as joy, excitement or even deep love. Even, in these situations, a writer can be tempted to overdo the emotion. Let the emotion of the climax flow freely, but there is no need to try to embellish the moment further with artificial devices at these moments. Let the emotion flow from your soul, without propping it up. If you have done your job building the climax properly, the natural flow of emotion will make the moment memorable.
The use of emotion is necessary in good fictional writing, but like a good chef uses seasoning, use it sparingly and appropriately. The constant use of cheap emotion like fear and lust might sell some books, but it won't leave a lasting message in folks' minds. Why write, if not to leave a lasting message on the minds of your readers? A last thought: it takes real work to write a work that is memorable.
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