Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Getting Emotional

One of my favorite writing quotes is:

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader."
-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!)

4 comments:

Andrea Mack said...

Hi Valerie. I sometimes get emotional about what's happening in my writing. I get so absorbed in my character's world that it's hard to leave it (even though I enjoy the real world too).

Lisa Galek said...

I cried during the end of Gayle Forman's "If I Stay" and also for no special reason during "Little Women" (because the sisters love each other so damn much!).

Harry Potter and the DH... bawled my eyes out.

AnneB said...

off-topic comment: Just dropping in to say Hi, and thanks for the feedback on the Blueboards about Scrivener. Between you and Anne M. Leone, I'm convinced, and I just downloaded it.

Adding you to my RSS feeds now...

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Great post, Valerie. I know what you mean. I've wondered this many times myself. In Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson, I wasn't just crying - I was sobbing! Hard. I haven't written any sad scenes yet, but I do wonder what it will be like.

Related Posts with Thumbnails