The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass

The Emotional Craft of Fiction

by Donald Maass

Engage Your Readers with Emotion

While writers might disagree over showing versus telling or plotting versus pantsing, none would argue this: If you want to write strong fiction, you must make your readers feel. The reader's experience must be an emotional journey of its own, one as involving as your characters' struggles, discoveries, and triumphs are for you.

That's where The Emotional Craft of Fiction comes in. Veteran literary agent and expert fiction instructor Donald Maass shows you how to use story to provoke a visceral and emotional experience in readers. Topics covered include:

   • emotional modes of writing
   • beyond showing versus telling
   • your story's emotional world
   • moral stakes
   • connecting the inner and outer journeys
   • plot as emotional opportunities
   • invoking higher emotions, symbols, and emotional language
   • cascading change
   • story as emotional mirror
   • positive spirit and magnanimous writing
   • the hidden current that makes stories move
Readers can simply read a novel...or they can experience it. The Emotional Craft of Fiction shows you how to make that happen.

Reviewed by writehollydavis on

5 of 5 stars

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A MUST-READ for any writer/author!! This book taught me more than I ever thought I could learn about how to captivate readers on an emotional level. Implementing the hero's journey, moral stakes, positivity, the emotional hook, and more is critical to getting your readers to never stop thinking about your book. Donald Maas uses a myriad of examples from published books to show us how these authors bring out the emotional connection with readers onto the page. This book will be a staple in my writer toolbox and will help any writer make their novel the one readers can't stop reading, yet never want to end.

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  • Started reading
  • 23 August, 2017: Finished reading
  • 23 August, 2017: Reviewed