I’ll go on the record. Jean Luc Picard is my favorite Star Trek captain. I did enjoy Kathryn Janeway, once I got used to her gravely voice. Never a fan of James T. Kirk. (I know, what can I say?) Always maintain a fondness for Spock, but don’t tell him. Vulcans hate sentimentality.
Speaking of sentimentality, this week’s focus is on how to engage our reading audience, and sentimentality ain’t gonna cut it. Engagement requires something more genuine, a willingness to expose our hearts through our words. This is true for all genres.
No matter what that seminar entitled, “You Too Can Write a Best Seller,” might have promised, there’s no easy formula for engagement. I’m not suggesting that classes, seminars, and workshops can’t support us in strengthening our writing craft, they can. Writing is a skill and good teachers and regular practice will hone that skill. Good writing technique is a foundation on which to build our creative expressions, but a concrete slab and some well-placed two-by-fours are not going to entice the reader (or publisher) to invest in our spec house. What brings the custom home designed by our imagination to life is a combination of skill (strong plot lines, deep character development, fluid narrative, rich language, vibrant imagery) and an ingredient that isn’t usually taught in any seminar: emotional authenticity. That’s the most vital thing to engagement. If a poem, story, novel, or memoir has no emotional validity, it will have no magnetism to attract the reader and no centripetal force to draw the reader into the heart of the work. Without that authenticity the reader is left standing on a lovely concrete slab wearing a frown and a perplexed expression.
The key to emotional authenticity is neither secret nor elusive. It’s simple and immediate, but daunting. If we as writers are not engaged with our writing, our readers will not be engaged with it either. We must invest our own genuine emotion into our writing. That takes courage and an ontological level of practice, a willingness to be fully present. We need to think of our poem or prose piece as an intimate communication with a friend. We want to show up for that friend with integrity. No games, no deception, no armor, no elaborate fanfare. This is true for all of our writing, even if we are writing a crime drama and the villainous character we are creating is all games, deception, armor and elaborate fanfare. The most untrustworthy characters still need to speak our truth while they are lying through their teeth! I know that sounds odd, but writing is about story telling (whether real of fictional), and effective story-telling is about offering the reader a safe place to suspend disbelief. Without truth in our telling, disbelief will creep in and our readers will likely lose interest.
How do we speak truth? We get in touch with how we feel about the stuff of our writing. We foster a willingness to drop our own masks (except when we’re are out shopping, of course). When we reveal our own vulnerable underbelly to our readers, they will love us for it! In our culture we have missed the obvious, that vulnerability is the ultimate strength. Sounds like something Yoda would say, though he would say it like this, “Vulnerability, young Luke, the ultimate strength it is!” But now I’m mixing (though not mixing up!) Star Wars with Star Trek. Never a wise move!
In writing and in life, being vulnerable is a challenge. It takes patience and persistence. So, here’s this week’s writing prompt, a way for us to practice building emotional authenticity.
Pick one basic emotion (from a list I will provide) and write a poem or short piece of prose describing this one emotion as you’ve experienced it in a specific circumstance of your life. Be as detailed as possible in describing your experience of this emotion. Get deeply in touch with it.
If you get uncomfortable with what shows up, keep writing anyway. Work through it. You don’t have to share the product of this exercise with anyone, but if you do, I’ll bet you will fully engage your audience!
Here are some basic emotions from which to choose. Happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, anger, pride, shame, embarrassment, excitement, joy, trust, love. If you have another one that calls to you, go for it!
Remember, pick just one, and as our friend Jean Luc would say, “Engage!”
More about the author below and at www.jazzpoeteve.com
