Feeling It: Creating Emotional Depth in Your Novel

“I just didn’t connect with the character.” “The character didn’t resonate with me.”

How many times do writers hear these phrases when submitting to editors and agents? These dreaded, vague responses can often leave writers scratching their heads. Was it the writing? The plotting? How can they write stories that readers can’t resist?

Emotionally deep stories grab readers’ attention and encourage them to care about the characters and their world. It’s one way to improve your writing and craft stories that readers (and agents and editors) connect to. Join Whale Rock faculty Laura Shovan and Karen Krossing for a deep-dive into getting your characters’ emotions on the page.

Participants are expected to bring a chapter from a novel at any stage of development. Each session will tackle different ways to achieve emotional depth, whether you are connecting emotionally to your writer self, your characters, or your story ideas. Sessions will include exercises and side-writing assignments and will explore drafting and revising to achieve emotional depth. Participants will have homework to complete between sessions.

Each participant will walk away with a chapter of greater emotional depth as well as the tools needed to tackle all their manuscripts. Participants will submit ten, double-spaced pages and receive feedback from one of the instructors.

This class is for you if:

You are writing a middle grade or young adult novel
You love plot and/or dialogue, but struggle with getting to your character’s heart
You’ve received the dreaded “I just didn’t connect…” feedback on your manuscript
You would like to explore new ways of emotional connection in your writing practice
You are gearing up for submission and want to be sure your book hits the emotional highs and lows
You are a novelist looking to enhance your skills