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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30234
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30234
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Writing isn't emotional; stories are emotional. Paint isn't emotional; pictures are emotional. Notes aren't emotional; music is emotional.

While some words are certainly more emotionally changed than others, even the trigger power of certain words depends on their context in a story. Emotion in a story comes, essentially, from the gain or loss of things loved or hoped for, and from the trials encountered and courage displayed in the pursuit or defence of that which is loved or hoped for.

To make your writing emotional, you must tell a story and the substance of that story must be the gain or loss of things hoped for or things loved. There are obviously good and bad ways to tell this story, but they are secondary. The best telling my heighten the emotion; the worst telling may blunt it, but the core emotion will still come through from the story itself.

What good telling can do for a story is mostly to heighten the intensity of the hope, and the attachment of the reader to the person whose hope is portrayed. The more keenly we perceive the character (like them or not) the more engaged we are with their hope and the more keenly we feel their triumph or loss.

Original score: 2