How to wear your heart on the page...
+ details on a FREE bonus workshop
Photo by Lucas George Wendt on Unsplash
“Wear your heart on the page and people will read to find out how you solved being alive.” ~Amy Hempel
Hi friends,
First, an announcement: My second workshop to benefit Kerouac House is Sunday, February 16th, from 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time, U.S. The cost is $20. We will delve more deeply into the fragmented/mosaic flash fiction form. I have fun things planned!
Go HERE to register and pay.
As a reminder: Paid subscribers who signed up for the first Kerouac workshop on the 8th AND/OR this one can send me a screenshot of your receipt or forward it to me and you’ll receive a FREE 90 minute bonus workshop, date & time TBA. If you’re not a paid subscriber, consider upgrading! You’ll get this bonus workshop, weekly craft articles and prompts, along with flash immersion events, valued at more than the cost of a yearly subscription. I’d love for you to join us!
HOW TO WEAR YOUR HEART ON THE PAGE
Writers, especially literary fiction writers, tend to be a bit phobic about showing too much emotion in their work. We worry about coming across as sentimental or maudlin or corny. But emotion is key to storytelling. It’s certainly a key part of the golden trifecta of flash stories, as I’ve often said: Emotion, Movement, and Resonance.
Here are four ways writers sometimes get emotion writing wrong:
the emotion in the story isn’t “earned”
the emotion is all expository or “told”
the emotion is too simple, not complex, complicated, or layered
the emotion is overwrought, it overpowers, suffocates the story
Leave emotion out entirely, however, and you have a flat story with little resonance for the reader.