Spooky Panda 🇺🇦
@floofpaldi@mindly.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

This. This right here. 💯

I had to share it with my fellow writers.

From here on my blog: https://www.tumblr.com/agoodtuckering/792232980306411520?source=share

#AmWriting #WritingCommunity#PennedPossibilities#WordWeavers

Can’t agree with the last one about showing the aftermath of a death enough. It’s about so much more than the loss of the beloved character, it’s about the *grief* of the ones who survive. If I can add a few of my own thoughts: Setting is a character, too. Maybe tears don’t fall but the sunlight streaming in through the window doesn’t carry the same warmth as in days gone by. Maybe the birds’ songs are quieter, thinner through the open window. Every emotion has an equivalent opposite. The idea of loving someone so much it hurts, crying until you laugh. Play with those spillover points. Especially if you can revisit previous scene and change the context. A character being given flowers and they’ve pressed them as a keepsake is tender. Revisit them after a fight or other loss and now they’re a moment in time preserved, fragile and muted, a shadow of their former beauty. Word choice matters. There isn’t much physical difference in the sensations of tingle, prickle and skitter but the connotations are very different. No part of this advice is limited to angst. Positive feelings can be just as overwhelming.
Can’t agree with the last one about showing the aftermath of a death enough. It’s about so much more than the loss of the beloved character, it’s about the *grief* of the ones who survive. If I can add a few of my own thoughts: Setting is a character, too. Maybe tears don’t fall but the sunlight streaming in through the window doesn’t carry the same warmth as in days gone by. Maybe the birds’ songs are quieter, thinner through the open window. Every emotion has an equivalent opposite. The idea of loving someone so much it hurts, crying until you laugh. Play with those spillover points. Especially if you can revisit previous scene and change the context. A character being given flowers and they’ve pressed them as a keepsake is tender. Revisit them after a fight or other loss and now they’re a moment in time preserved, fragile and muted, a shadow of their former beauty. Word choice matters. There isn’t much physical difference in the sensations of tingle, prickle and skitter but the connotations are very different. No part of this advice is limited to angst. Positive feelings can be just as overwhelming.
Can’t agree with the last one about showing the aftermath of a death enough. It’s about so much more than the loss of the beloved character, it’s about the *grief* of the ones who survive. If I can add a few of my own thoughts: Setting is a character, too. Maybe tears don’t fall but the sunlight streaming in through the window doesn’t carry the same warmth as in days gone by. Maybe the birds’ songs are quieter, thinner through the open window. Every emotion has an equivalent opposite. The idea of loving someone so much it hurts, crying until you laugh. Play with those spillover points. Especially if you can revisit previous scene and change the context. A character being given flowers and they’ve pressed them as a keepsake is tender. Revisit them after a fight or other loss and now they’re a moment in time preserved, fragile and muted, a shadow of their former beauty. Word choice matters. There isn’t much physical difference in the sensations of tingle, prickle and skitter but the connotations are very different. No part of this advice is limited to angst. Positive feelings can be just as overwhelming.
How to Emotionally Destroy Readers Gut-punches are about timing. You don't say “I love you” during the sunset. You say it in the middle of a burning building or right after they stab you. A single line of dialogue like “you were supposed to come back” hits harder than an entire page of poetic mourning. Don’t just break their hearts, break their sense of identity. Make them question who they are, what they stand for, and if it was ever worth it (That’s premium pain.) Let someone be forgiven… but not trusted again. That's the kind of heartbreak that lingers like smoke. Sometimes the most devastating line is the one they don’t say. Silence is a character too. Give them a moment of joy. Right before everything falls apart. Hope makes the fall hurt more. Someone saying “I forgive you” through tears? Powerful. Someone saying “I still love you but I can’t stay”? Absolutely soul-shattering. If they die, don’t describe the death. Describe the aftermath. The coat left hanging by the door. The mug still on the table. The dog waiting.
How to Emotionally Destroy Readers Gut-punches are about timing. You don't say “I love you” during the sunset. You say it in the middle of a burning building or right after they stab you. A single line of dialogue like “you were supposed to come back” hits harder than an entire page of poetic mourning. Don’t just break their hearts, break their sense of identity. Make them question who they are, what they stand for, and if it was ever worth it (That’s premium pain.) Let someone be forgiven… but not trusted again. That's the kind of heartbreak that lingers like smoke. Sometimes the most devastating line is the one they don’t say. Silence is a character too. Give them a moment of joy. Right before everything falls apart. Hope makes the fall hurt more. Someone saying “I forgive you” through tears? Powerful. Someone saying “I still love you but I can’t stay”? Absolutely soul-shattering. If they die, don’t describe the death. Describe the aftermath. The coat left hanging by the door. The mug still on the table. The dog waiting.
How to Emotionally Destroy Readers Gut-punches are about timing. You don't say “I love you” during the sunset. You say it in the middle of a burning building or right after they stab you. A single line of dialogue like “you were supposed to come back” hits harder than an entire page of poetic mourning. Don’t just break their hearts, break their sense of identity. Make them question who they are, what they stand for, and if it was ever worth it (That’s premium pain.) Let someone be forgiven… but not trusted again. That's the kind of heartbreak that lingers like smoke. Sometimes the most devastating line is the one they don’t say. Silence is a character too. Give them a moment of joy. Right before everything falls apart. Hope makes the fall hurt more. Someone saying “I forgive you” through tears? Powerful. Someone saying “I still love you but I can’t stay”? Absolutely soul-shattering. If they die, don’t describe the death. Describe the aftermath. The coat left hanging by the door. The mug still on the table. The dog waiting.