-Robert Frost
I think it's so true. If I'm writing a scene that's supposed to be emotional but I'm not feeling anything, I know it's a flop. If I can't connect to it, and I have all the insight into the characters and events involved, how will anyone else be able to connect?
On the flipside, sometimes I'll be writing and suddenly I'll notice that my shoulders are all hunched up and I'm holding my breath, or my eyes are on the verge of tears and I'm surprised because I was so emotionally involved in what I was writing and what was happening to my characters that I didn't even notice I was upset too. These have been the scenes that my CPs responded to with the same kind of emotions I felt while writing them and it made the pain of having to put them on paper so worth it!
Sometimes I put off writing an emotional scene because I know it's going to be difficult to get through. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this!
I know JK Rowling said she cried after she wrote the chapter where Sirius Black died, and again while writing key scenes in Deathly Hallows. And those were definitely emotional for me as a reader.
I always wonder how authors get through the scenes that hit me so hard I have to put the book down. Like in THE HUNGER GAMES when Rue died.
What about you, do you ever get emotional while writing? What are some of your favorite emotional scenes you've read? (No spoilers!)
I killed off a chracter in one of my stories - and I STILL cry when I reread that scene, even after more revisions than I will admit!
ReplyDeleteIt killed me when Rue died...and when someone else died in Mockingjay (I won't give it away). I'm much more emotional writing my current wip than my first one, and I'm not sure what that's about. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI sobbed like a baby sometimes while reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I won't say which parts specifically because I don't want to give too much away, but I definitely wasn't expecting to be so weepy.
ReplyDeleteKristi and Pam, I know both parts of those books and they had me weepy too. Especially MOCKINGJAY. Quite a bit of that book was tough.
ReplyDeleteShiver made me cry at the part with Sam and the bathtub.
And you've just made me realize I really need to work on some certain spots in my book. Yanno, besides the whole plot.
Great post, Valerie. An excellent reminder of how passion actually works in writing -- it can be easy to forget that when we get caught up in crafting. And passion is what makes all the difference!
ReplyDeleteThis was an awesome post! I bookmarked it :) I have gotten emotional a few times while I'm writing but the most was at the very last part when my book has it's "all was well" moment. <3 HP and HG!!
ReplyDeleteI love that quote! It's difficult for me not to get emotional during a tear-jerking scene that I write. Which is odd, considering the scene is straight from your imagination... it's the same as making up a quick depressing story in your head. But fiction is powerful, even to the author.
ReplyDeleteThis reminded me of what Karen Kingsbury wrote in "Novel Idea" about how she had been writing one day, then her husband came in and saw her with tears streaming down her face. He thought something was seriously wrong with a friend they knew, but she told him it was because one of her characters died. Lol! Fiction is so real sometimes that it's freaky.
Great post. =)
Tessa