One of the areas many new writers have trouble with is emotional content. Their writing may have a lot of description, even vivid images, but there is no connection for the readers.

Here are some tips to help you include emotion in your writing:

• Remember – use your own memories to help you understand how your characters would feel in certain situations
• Imagine – how would you feel if you were in the same situation as your characters are?
• Talk – talk to your friends and family about their feelings, and ask how they would feel if that situation happened to them
• Research – read about real people in real situations – you know how the media always asks people “How do you feel about that?” when there’s a news event? That’s so they can connect to their viewers and readers.
• Feel – allow yourself to really feel whatever emotion you’re trying to evoke in your characters, so you know what the emotion brings

The important thing about emotion in your writing is that you must not be afraid to include it. Many writers are embarrassed by emotions, and fear that their readers may ridicule them or think less of them for having certain emotions in their writing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Readers cannot connect to characters without emotion, so the more emotions you can stir up in your characters, the better the readers identify with them.