Getting Emotional

Have you discovered, like me, that one of the hardest things a fiction writer has to learn is how to convey emotion? It's so easy to over-write when we deal with the sad stuff, the heart-rending revelation, the tear-jerking confession. We pile on the agony and add a few more crumpled Kleenex for good measure.

The other day I was listening to a radio programme - or half-listening while I did the ironing - in which listeners contributed their own Desert Island Discs music selection and told the story behind their choices.

A young woman recounted the tale of her parents' courtship. The clincher for her mother accepting her father's proposal was a haunting piece of music he'd composed especially for her. We heard a snatch of the music before she told us the sequel. After many years of marriage her parents sank their life savings into converting a barn in France. Together they grafted away doing the work themselves.

I clutched the iron. Oh no, any minute now she'll tell us one of them died of a heart attack before they could move in. But no, it was a happy ending. The piano was given pride of place in the completed barn conversion. As his wife approached the new front door, her husband sat down at the beloved instrument and played the music he'd composed all those years before. Cue another snatch of music.

Well I'll confess now, it brought a lump to my throat. And I wasn't the only one. A couple of minutes later another listener texted to say 'Would they please stop making her cry.'

So then I switched from impressionable listener mode to objective writer mode. How had that particular story achieved that effect? Obviously the snatches of haunting music helped. It's one of the advantages a film has over a novel. But the main reason was that the daughter recounted the facts without trying to tug at heartstrings. She told her story simply, with no sentimental language or maudlin attempt to manipulate her audience.

And it worked. We filled in all the background detail ourselves without being told: the ups and downs of marriage, the decision to embark late in life on an adventure together, the challenges of that adventure and the triumph of a love that had endured. If anyone had spelled that out for me, I'd probably have yawned or said 'yuk'. As it was, I was gulping over the pillowcases!

All writers have the principle of 'show not tell' dinned into them. It applies to every word of fiction we write. But I reckon it applies supremely to writing emotion. We show it as honestly and as simply as we can by what our characters say and do, and we allow the reader to supply the rest.

Do you have any tips for writing emotional scenes? I'd love to know what they are.