Hi SEers! Denise here to talk about emotions and writing.

Last month was National Poetry Month, and I celebrated it by reading poems. Most of the poetry books I read evoked emotions from me. Those that did not, I stopped reading. I didn’t feel wonder, anger, amusement, fear, curiousity, sadness, or hope. It left me with nothing because I wasn’t emotionally invested.

With poetry, there are a limited number of words to capture the reader’s attention. A poet has the hard task of doing this immediately. When I’m reading, I must feel something, even uncomfortable, and it has to be within the first couple of lines.

This got me thinking about fictional writing. Do these same emotions pull me into the story? They do. Like any good relationship with people, I have to care about the poem or story. Otherwise, I move…