Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface
    Unavailable
    The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface
    Unavailable
    The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface
    Ebook279 pages4 hours

    The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface

    By Donald Maass

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWriter's Digest Books
    Release dateDec 30, 2016
    ISBN9781440348433

    Related to The Emotional Craft of Fiction

    Related ebooks

    Reference For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      All The Feels

      Aug 3, 2023

      All The Feels
      5 min read

    • Article

      Writing The Letter You’re Not Going To Send

      Dec 27, 2018

      Have you ever written a letter you knew you wouldn’t send? That’s the kind of letter your first query is going to be. You’re going to write it, but you’re not going to send it out to agents or editors. Why not? Because you’re going to use this letter

      9 min read

    • Article

      All The Feels: EVOKING EMOTION

      Apr 4, 2024

      Have you ever abandoned a book because you just didn’t care what happened to the characters? If so, you’re not alone, I’ve done it more than once. We writers can spend ages devising complex characters and intriguing plots but if we don’t engage emoti

      6 min read

    • Article

      Katharine Dion

      Jun 13, 2018

      whose debut novel, The Dependents, was published in June by Little, Brown. INTRODUCED BY Adam Haslett author of three books, including the novel Imagine Me Gone, published by Little, Brown in 2016. Katharine Dion’s excellent debut novel, The Dependen

      4 min read

    • Article

      Dealing with DIFFICULTY

      Mar 4, 2021

      Dealing with DIFFICULTY
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Heart Of The Story

      Feb 3, 2022

      The Heart Of The Story
      5 min read

    • Article

      Numbers Add Up

      Jun 2, 2022

      Numbers Add Up
      3 min read

    • Article

      Tiffany D. Jackson

      Aug 8, 2022

      Tiffany D. Jackson
      12 min read

    • Article

      Truth And Consequences

      Sep 18, 2019

      Truth And Consequences
      8 min read

    • Article

      Using Shorter Pieces to Improve Your Longer Projects

      Apr 10, 2023

      Imagine walking across a tightrope over a deep canyon. To me, creative writing feels like tightrope walking. (Metaphorically. I would not attempt walking across actual rope.) For any writing project, we start on one platform with an idea, a premise,

      4 min read

    • Article

      Empathy: Down In The Hole

      Jul 6, 2023

      Empathy: Down In The Hole
      6 min read

    • Article

      Keeping The Faith

      Mar 4, 2021

      Keeping The Faith
      5 min read

    • Article

      Pitch Like A Pro

      Jun 14, 2023

      Pitch Like A Pro
      6 min read

    • Article

      Common Slush Pile Mistakes

      Mar 26, 2022

      Common Slush Pile Mistakes
      9 min read

    • Article

      Stay for the Festive Rage: The Millions Interviews Lee Conell

      Aug 21, 2019

      One thing I love about the writing process is the way it consistently teaches me to let go of whatever I’m overly attached to, whatever I feel smug about. The post Stay for the Festive Rage: The Millions Interviews Lee Conell appeared first on The Mi

      8 min read

    • Article

      REAL LIFE, Great Stories

      Mar 7, 2024

      REAL LIFE, Great Stories
      3 min read

    • Article

      Elegant Variations

      Apr 2, 2020

      Elegant Variations
      4 min read

    • Article

      What Makes You Unique?

      Feb 2, 2023

      What Makes You Unique?
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Limits of Empathy: Criticism and Editing Across Borders

      Mar 15, 2020

      As an editor who works primarily with art critics, perhaps this comparison is simply too tempting: a piece of writing will likely never have a closer reader than its most committed editor, just like an artwork will seldom have as close a reader as it

      7 min read

    Reviews for The Emotional Craft of Fiction

    4.5/5

    24 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      A really good writing craft book. It contains many practical techniques on how to stir emotion in a reader in a myriad of situations, most of which is going to be more useful on a rewrite for a pantster like me. I am sure I will refer to this time and again over the next few years.