Book Club: The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass

[Catherine Barrett]

Chapter 1:

The most useful question is not how can I get across what characters are going through? The better question is how can I get readers to go on emotional journeys of their own?

When readers feel strongly, their hearts are open. Your stories can not only reach them for a moment, but they can change them forever.

It’s mostly an introduction but this is what I want to do as an author. Very excited.

Looking back on my cringier unsold works, I’ve been guilty of applying “show don’t tell” to my writing the wrong way and turning what should be an emotional scene into a catalog of feelings in the abdomen. I think these exercises will help me.

[James Mathis]

Catherine, I’ve read through Chapter 1 and about half of Chapter 2 again. I’m also excited to go through this book, and also the Breakout Novel Workbook.

It was interesting that the agent Mark Gottlieb in today’s Apex call said nearly the identical things about up-market fiction that Donald Maass says in his presentations, books, and classes. The best novels combine the best of literary and genre fiction.

[Catherine Barrett]

I’m excited to catch the recording of the Mark Gottlieb call! And excited to look at The Breakout Novel, it’s also in my reading pile. Is the workbook worthwhile in addition to the book?

I think the exercises in Chapter 2 will be part of my writing toolbox permanently, especially during my first revision pass (I write lean and ugly first draft skeletons and emotion/reaction is what I need to add).

This reddit discussion from /r/books by a man reading romance novels caught my eye today and I thought I’d link it here since it’s relevant. It’s interesting to me that The Kiss Quotient is the book that he connected with so deeply, because the main character is autistic so ruminating on her emotional reactions and not shying away from showing authentic but unexpected feelings are both big parts of the story — it demonstrates all of Maass’s principles well including letting the reader feel clever, because there are scenes where the reader is catching subtext that the point-of-view character misses.

[James Mathis]

Reading Chapter 3: One of the things I need to focus on is presenting memories or observations by the character that spark a lesser or different reaction in the character than what the reader will feel. Like DM says, strong, overt actions usually have no effect on the reader because they have seen it all before, and they are at an emotional distance. Finding that little bit of insight that will stick the reader like a needle prick, one that doesn’t seem to affect the character, is high level writing craft.

[Christine Abela]

I’ve started chapter 4, and I am still reading. I appreciate how he started the chapter with standard interview questions and then presented his own that get closer to meaningful life events. As Maass says, “What shapes us and gives our lives meaning are not the things that happen to us, but their significance. Life lessons, revelations, changes, and growing convictions are what we think of when we ponder who we are.” I’ve seen many character interview sheets in the past, and I’ve been hard pressed to find one I like to use. Maybe I see why now. Many use generic questions that don’t dig deep enough into the character because they are not focused on type of things or events that have meaning to the character and that would have shaped them.