Writing with Emotion

Inspiration on this theme has come in a few different threads recently:

In my writing course, we were asked to write about doing a very ordinary activity, while experiencing a strong emotion eg: walking to work while very angry over something that happened at home. This exercise requires thinking about how a person reacts to strong feelings. An angry person is not likely to be skipping along the pavement whistling a happy tune! The angry walker is more likely to be stomping and scowling.

At the same time, I read two articles following twitter feeds, one on how to imbue your writing with emotion, and another on using your personal experience to add depth to your writing: https://booksbywomen.org/how-to-use-memories-to-enhance-your-writing/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

One of the strategies was to write from the emotional state you're trying to create, so as an actor would imagine themselves as their character, the writer imagines stirs up that emotion before settling down to write the piece, leading to writing that reflects the emotion the writer is experienced. It's a simple principle - anyone who has ever dashed off an angry email knows that they would have phrased the email very differently if they'd been calmer.

Judy Pollard Smith's article 'How to use memories to enhance your writing' shows some wonderful examples of how to use personal experiences to give depth to your writing.

All three threads illustrate very effective, practical strategies to imbue emotion into your writing, and give it depth. Ultimately, they are a different way of expressing the old writing adage - 'Write what you know.'