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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40704
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40704
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

My answer is twofold:

## Ensure that the set-up to the crying is well-established:

You want your reader to be able to understand why your character is crying, if you want the scene to be effective. There is an emotional setup to be done, otherwise there will be just a character crying for no clear reason. While it makes sense in some settings (e.g., a character bursting into tears for a hidden conflict that the readers or the POV characters aren't aware of) if you want to maximize the emotional impact of the scene you have to give it some context.

So, ask yourself:

- Have I foreshadowed this scene? 
- Have I explained this character's anxieties in some previous scenes? If no, why is that?
- What does the reader know of this character? Is the this outburst coherent with her personality?

If you want your reader to empathize with a character, it must be happen before the crying scene. As it goes with character deaths, the readers won't care if a character dies in chapter 1; they will care if a well-established character dies in chapter 20, since they will have "bonded" with him.

Once you've done this, you can:

## Explore other ways of showing emotions

Crying is a quite rich emotional experience and carries a lot of physical and verbal cues; tears, sobbing, having red eyes, trembling, averting one's gaze, shrugging, sitting down in a curling position, covering one's face in shame ... there is a LOT you can do depending on the characters involved, the setting, and the main cause of the whole scene.

You may want to look into some _emotion thesaurus_ if you want to have a nice resource to take reference from. Another way of doing that is looking at crying scenes in media, especially the most "effective" ones, and examining what the actors are doing. Yet another way is trying to remember what your sensations where the last time you cried and trying to write from your personal experience.

Again, tears are just one of multiple signals; crying rivers is surely a way to manifest sadness, but if you look around you'll fine multiple others.

* * *

**To sum it up,** I once had a stern, warrior like character dropping to his knees and shedding one single tear as he faced a unescapable, emotional defeat at page 80. But I had other 79 pages to build up for that single tear, establishing what was important for that guy and what the conflict was, so the scene worked without streams on streams on streams of salty tears. Of course, I'm not saying you need 79 pages too, but think about it.

Original score: 8