TECH: 101 Tips (20)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 1 June 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"When you give a reader a book, you give them an emotional experience. And you pick that emotional experience in the details you provide. Through the reading, you smell the coffee and chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven, and you want to stay in the woman's kitchen." Janet Evanovich

Sometimes I think we forget that reading is emotional. Writing, putting together character and plot and all the other bits and pieces, can be overwhelming. And in the process, we may forget that the reader expects you to tug on their emotions. Coffee, chocolate chip cookies, sitting in the kitchen -- or racing down the street at midnight trying to avoid the faceless horror -- the point is not so much the rational mental process as the emotional roller coaster ride. Make them laugh, make them cry, make them feel.

Write!