#dearwriters

Hi! Well, first of all, let's adress the big point here: DECADES! Working on something for ao long builds a lot of pressure. My advice here would be:

Ask yourself: Is writing it down actually the only way to put this story to rest? "When I try to put words to page, I loathe the results". Big emotions here. Which isn't unusual in a project you are carrying around for so long. But if something gives you more hurt than happyness, you have to ask yourself if it is still worth persuing. Maybe you can find another medium to tell the story? Simply tell it to friends? Or put it to rest for a while and turn to some projects that don't have this big pressure build up. You can always return!

Dicorve yourself from the idea of perfection. It's actually quite alright not to be happy with the things you write down the first go around. The main part of writing starts after the words are written. Editing! You reconsider, restructure, rewrite until you feel secure in the knowledge that your intention has been executed. Not until it's perfect because there is no such thing.

Take a step back. Decades of planning can suck out the creative freedom and joy out of a project. Maybe give yourself the permission to stray from the path and see where a bit of free writing leads you. You can always return to your notes once you got into the groove and change things up as you like.

...write for fun, folks! That's what it's all about. Let yourself be messy with it and silly and stupid (like, my fanfics are intentionally tropey romcoms which I've never written before and always thought wasn't my style, but since it's just for fun who cares!)

If you feel like you lost inspiration for your big original work you want to take very seriously... write something unserious! It will fling you back into it like a trebuchet!

Just wanted to say how much I appreciate your blog!

Engaging the reader to generate emotions

Thank you for your question! I think the most important aspect of creating an emotional connection to a story and its characters is engagement. You engage the reader by

Appealing to their empathy -> We all know the guy in the movie who says "When this is all over I'm gonna go home and marry the love of my life" is gonna die, right? That one is a cliché at this point. But it still works in principle. It's a variation on the "Save the Cat" idea, about making people sympathize with a character by showing them being sympathetic, be it by making them someone who saves a cat from a tree or by showing them as a character with significant connections and feelings. It all comes down to giving a character the background and personality traits that engage a readers empathy.

Making them relate -> Similarly to the point about empathy, it's all about making a character sympathetic. They don't have to be #relateable (if you know what I mean). A character is relateable when they are three-dimensional and their motivations, goals and flaws feel real. We can more easily root for them and be engaged and invested in their struggles.

Giving the character significant value -> Why do many comic relief characters tend to fall victim to a horrific death? Because a) this provides a significant juxtaposition to their personality, b) the death of laughter marks the story "getting serious" and c) they have an important function in the story and their absence is gonna be felt. This applies to any kind of character, not only the comic relief. It's about creating characters that have a significant function in and add value to the story, so their absence, demise or otherwise cruel fate is creating a significant impact in the story itself and the other characters.

Writing this, I realize that most of my examples are about character death, but that's not the only way you can make people feel sad about a character. Making and empathetic, engaging character is key to creating any emotional connection with the reader.