Continued from page 1
Another way to find
emotion is to relate
article, topic, to music. Does it remind you of a fox trot, waltz, rock and roll, jazz, R&B, what? It could even remind you of a particular song. Can you access
song, or remember
lyrics? Musically lyrics are great places to find emotional words and language.
Step 2: Connecting
Close your eyes, sit quietly with
article. Sense yourself reading
article in your mind. No, not
identical words but
idea,
vision,
thoughts. If that’s a challenge, read
article out loud, very softly, as if reading it to an angel. Even notice where you take breaths. These are places where new paragraphs begin, commas or periods needs to occur. If you run out of breath, maybe
sentence needs dividing, eliminated, or even combined.
You can even tape record your reading. Listen with your eyes closed. This is also a great way to hear
flat places in
article. Identify
emotion from what you hear. Record all
emotional words you hear or feel in
margins. Every word is right, so don't miss any. Place all judgment in a shoe box for now.
Step 3: Adding In The Emotion
Review your words. Brainstorm with a thesaurus, synonym finder, or dictionary. Online you can use: http://thesaurus.reference.com/, or http://www.acronymfinder.com/, http://m-w.com/netdict.htm. Continue your list in
margins. Now its time, before
editing process to add in
emotion. If
first draft is very dry, this is a good time to realize that it’s not uncommon for writers to rewrite
article completely because
emotion conveyed was too far off at
beginning. If this is
case, consider
first draft a brain dump, a warm up session. And now you're ready to roll. Your hot,
feelings are sizzling.
Step 4: Editing
Usually, editing is to help clarity and tighten. Caution though, it is easy to remove
emotionally charged elements that you painstakingly added. Sometimes, when using an outside editor, someone that doesn't hold
same emotions as yourself, they remove
emotions. And sometimes too, there are too many emotions. There is a delicate balance. However, many editors walk this tightrope carefully and with honor.
Most writing needs energy, needs emotion, that convey
story,
information, so as not to put
reader to sleep. Or even worse, stop them from reading. And your passion is what needs transitioning from you to them. Watch
magic when you read someone else’s material that conveys emotions. See how they use
words. When I'm in
flow, I feel
emotion pushing
pen as fast it can across
paper. I know, through experience, when this is occurring and I'm writing so fast, I have a tendency to leave words out. I use to stop at
end of every paragraph and reread and add them. Don't, let
flow occur. Trust that whatever is needed will again be there for you to filling in any missing blanks. Let
magic come through. Your readers desire it.
Special Note: An accompanying list of emotionally-charged words is available in
Abundance Center’s Forms Section.
(c) Copyright 2004, Catherine Franz

Catherine Franz, a Certified Professional Marketing & Writing Coach, specializes in product development, Internet writing and marketing, nonfiction, training. Newsletters and articles available at: http://www.abundancecenter.com blog: http://abundance.blogs.com