Question about Lifewriting and Evoking Emotion

[kaiden]

I have a question for Steven about evoking emotion in the reader. I have the Lifewriting Course and love it. A lot of it is geared towards finding what your passionate, what you truly care about and infusing your writing with that.

My problem is transferring that emotion into the reader. This is where I think you excel, Mr. Barnes. For my money there isn't anyone writing today that's better at this particular skill, or even close for that matter.

I still get chills when I even think about Aubrey asking Promise why she can't love him without the drug. And I tear up. The same thing happens when I think of the short story the 'Music Between the Notes' in the Lives of Dax. And I'm not a big Star Trek fan (though Sisko is my favorite Trek character). The same goes with Ten. You accomplish this in every single story you write.

So my question is: How the heck do you do this? I know you probably internalized this a long time ago but I also know you don't rely simply on talent. How the heck did you develop this amazing ability? Essentially, I'm asking how to model this. <g> What would you tell a rookie like myself to do?

I don't care what it takes, I want to learn to do this. You could call this my Magnicient Obsession.

Any insight into the process would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time,

Steve Lewis

[Steven Barnes]

Hey, Steve. The trick is to make the characters believable by concentrating on the first three or four chakras: their physical reality, their sexual needs, their quest for power, and their emotional wounds. If you work on this stuff, you have the root of an actual human being, and readers will respond.

[kaiden]

Thank you, Steven. That was just the tweak I needed. You sent my mind into a whole new direction. I went into The Lifewriting Course looking at things on one level, this has moved me up to a whole 'nother one. I get the feeling that's how it will work for the rest of my career. <g>

Once again, thank you (bows respectfully)