Your Next Book Study:
The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass

“Emotional craft isn’t a repackaging of old writing bromides. It’s a way of understanding what causes emotional impact on readers and deliberately using those methods. It’s a way to energize your writing with tools that are always available: your own feelings.” ~ from The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass


What makes for a great story, strong prose or strong plot? Both. And then some.

I’ve read stories and books where, once at the end, I feel like I missed something. The imagery is there, the writing impeccable, the plot a real page-turner. But the book as a whole? Maybe I couldn’t put it down, but I probably won’t pick it up again either.

Having finished my current read on writing, Donald Maass’ The Emotional Craft of Fiction (Writer’s Digest Books 2016), it’s clear why a story may fall flat: the writer doesn’t go deep enough.

The writer (okay, I’ll say this writer) mistakenly assumes that writing in scene or using colorful details or well-planned white space are all you need to guide the reader along a protagonist’s rise or fall or road to redemption. Those techniques strengthen the story for sure, but as Maass says, “Strong writing doesn’t always produce strong feeling.” And that’s when the reader may lose interest.

So “dig deeper,” we often hear in critique. But what does that really mean? If you’re like me, you need specifics; you need concrete questions; you need relatable explanations.

Donald Maass offers all this and more in his new book on emotional craft, which is structured in a way best described as scaffolding. He begins with what many writers already know: the pros and cons of showing versus telling, the crucial tools of writing (like the art of voice and the importance of details), and aspects of plot–all necessary for a successful story. But then, he asks us to go beyond those essentials and infuse our fiction with an emotional journey that will hook the reader and leave him with a lasting impression.

He asks us to examine how we might surprise the reader. For example, reconsider details and incorporate the ones that carry the most emotional weight. Or, explore a character’s inner condition in more depth and show that through a description of the environment. That one really hit home for me, as I tend to focus on scene and setting to convey the tone of the story but forget about weaving in more pointed words or phrases that subtly reveal the character’s mood, not just what they see. Along with his suggestions, Maass incorporates a list of specific questions that will help writers work through these deeper explorations.

But most importantly, for me anyway, is the way Maass introduces new concepts (or new ways to look at old concepts) by tying them to our own every-day emotional experiences. He says, as humans, we are constantly in a state of change, our feelings are complicated, we reflect then act, act then reflect. These characteristics of humanity can be–and should be–an integral part of our stories. If we’re writing to connect, as so often we are (as so often I am), then why not build from what we and our readers already know, whether the story is fiction or not.

Okay, that last bit about whether we’re tackling fiction or not is something I added, because as with many craft books I’ve read, the learning I take away from these pages on emotional craft has begun to permeate other avenues of my writing. Maass focuses on fiction, specifically novels, and yes, I can see clearly why the novel I’m working on isn’t reading as well as I want (why it feels so sophomoric), but I am also considering his same questions and suggestions in my nonfiction.

I’m writing an essay about my experience swimming in Lake Superior and one on dismantling my mother’s home after she died. There are primary feelings attached to both of these events, but those basic emotions don’t tell the real story. As I look closer at what I’ve written, what manifests as anger may really be a mask for fear; what shows up as grief might later prove to be guilt. Underneath initial reactions to whatever event, there’s likely another more complicated, uncomfortable, revealing feeling.

There’s the crux of your story.

And that’s the key Maass gives us in his book: a better way to writing these more complex, disconcerting emotions that bring a reader closer to the story and kick-start the reader’s desire for self-reflection, so that your work becomes more than just a quick read, a well-written essay, a novel read once and forgotten.

There’s plenty more I could say, but I’ll leave you with a last (and another favorite) quote from the book that does exactly what Maass teaches throughout, one that hits on an emotion many struggling writers already understand, without telling us straight up what we’re reading about…hope:

…we have everything we need to tell stories full of human authenticity and emotional truth. . . . You don’t need more years, manuscripts, acceptance, likes, stars, movie deals, money, or anything else material to be a true novelist. You are that novelist already because you are human.

Buy the book, Check out one of Donald Maass’ upcoming three-day workshops on Emotional Craft. Start a book study with your most trusted writing friends. This paperback on craft is one worth keeping and re-reading.

Found Poetry: An Herbal Remedy Imagined

After watching the state of things. 

Purple coneflower up close

Echinacea Purpurea *
Purple Rudbeckia.
Prefers rocky, disturbed soils–
(souls).
Used at length by Native Americans
for more ailments
than any other plant:
herbal smudge,
smoke,
the leaf or root.
Supporting,
depurative–
purifying for situations,
swellings.
Or distemper**–
an infectious disease,
a deranged condition
of mind
or body,
a feverish disturbance
of political nature
(though far from natural).
The purple coneflower,
an herbal remedy imagined.
Fresh,
dried,
tinctured,
encapsulated.
All the rage
closed down.


* Echinacea Purpurea on Mountain Rose Herbs
** Distemper, the definition.

#CaringForCommunity: Inside & Outside

#CaringForCommunity is a blog series that spotlights the work of writers, artists, or your next-door neighbors who, without being asked and without pay, carry the light in simple but meaningful ways. These are people giving back in order to lift others up. Real life examples of compassion, concern, and inspiration.


Inside

The last time I posted on #CaringForCommunity, I mentioned Tricklebee Cafe in Milwaukee, a pay-what-you-can community restaurant that serves organic, locally-sourced food. My husband and I ate there recently, and let’s just say I felt good all around, belly and soul.

For this edition of the blog series, I want to spotlight Curt’s Cafe in Evanston, IL. Curt’s Cafe is a nonprofit organization that runs along a similar philosophy, opening their doors to young people in need of compassion, acceptance, and a place to connect.

“The mission of Curt’s Cafe is to offer job skill and life skill training to highly, highly at-risk young men and young women and help them with those skills, then help them get a job and keep a job. . . . And we don’t turn anyone away, no matter what they’ve done.” ~ Susan Trieschmann, Executive Director

Watch That’s My Child (above, from Small Forces on Vimeo) about Curt’s Cafe. Checkout their website. Better yet, when in Evanston, stop in for a cup of coffee and a dose of kindness.


Outside

After you sip that coffee cup of inspiration, head home, pop a Zyrtec, and get back outside to spread more love. This time in your garden. Rebecca Straus in “Grow These 50 Pollen-Rich Plants to Help Your Local Honeybees” (Organic Life) explains:

It’s no secret honeybee populations are hurting. Colony collapse disorder, which occurs when the majority of worker bees in a hive disappear, abandoning the queen, baby bees, nurse bees, and food, is decimating hives at an astounding rate. And a shortage of honeybees can have a very real impact on our food supply. Farmers who grow crops from strawberries to squash to almonds rely on hives of traveling honeybees to pollinate their fields. No bees means no food.

I like food. So does Tricklebee, so does Curt’s. And you. Consider it #CaringForCommunity in the round, beginning on one tiny city lot and reaching well beyond.

“…one of the easiest steps you can take is to grow more plants that honeybees like to feast on for nectar and pollen. Here are the flowers, shrubs, trees, herbs, and—yes—weeds that will give honeybees (and native pollinators!) a helping hand.”

A little hay fever for a happy beehive? I say, Yes. And I bet there’s a patch of yard within eyesight that could use a little color.

Think coneflower and crocus and pretty, flowering onions.