Author(s): Donald Maass

Literary Studies

This intriguing new book from literary agent Donald Maass examines the use of emotions in fiction, examining not only how to write with emotion, and imbue characters with realistic emotions, but also from the point of view of reader engagement–the core principles of how developing an emotional connection with readers ensures their commitment to the work in question. 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 AUTHOR: Donald Maass is the president of the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York, an agency that for thirty-five years has launched and guided hundreds of fiction writing careers. He is a respected teacher of advanced fiction craft and the author of six prior books on fiction writing: The Career Novelist, Writing the Breakout Novel, Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, The Fire in Fiction, The Breakout Novelist and Writing 21st Century Fiction. He blogs monthly on the craft of fiction on Writer Unboxed, which for ten years has been on Writers Digest list of 100 Best Websites for Writers. He speaks regularly throughout the country on the topics of writing craft and writing emotion in fiction.