next_to_normal | Good writing tip

I want to point you all to this post from John August about using acting techniques to improve your writing. In a way, it's just a further extension of the old adage "write what you know." It's not that you can't write a character experiencing an emotion or mental state you've never experienced, but it sure helps to get into their head if you can somehow evoke that in yourself as you're writing, either through sense memory or by drawing on a related experience.

John specifically mentions crying, and his experience writing the end of "Big Fish" by crying in front of a mirror. One of the commenters brought up the Robert Frost quote, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.” And it makes sense, right? Because if you can't even make yourself cry, then how can you expect to make other people cry? That really struck a chord with me, because I usually make myself cry when I write something that's intended to be a tear-jerker. It's usually unintentional - my eyes just sort of well up as I get into the writing of it. But there are a couple fics I've written where I was totally immersed in that emotional state, and I drew on my own feelings to convey the angst I wanted. And I cried my eyes out during the writing of those stories. Is it effective? Well, you tell me, but those fics still make me cry when I reread them.

I really like his mental image of pressing the "record" button on your brain whenever you have remarkable or intense experiences that might inform your writing. Perhaps a more concrete way of doing that is to keep a journal? Even if you're not doing it every day, when you come across an experience like that, write it down. Put into words how it felt. Then when you need to find that place again for your writing, you have a reminder.

And I definitely recommend acting classes, if you want to be a professional writer. Or just in general. They're fun!