Emotionally resonant writing evokes emotions, memories, and images. When done well, it simulates emotional responses by readers. They view characters, plot lines, in personal ways that nonfiction readers try to avoid. This kind of writing abhors stories that merely inform readers, or worse yet, understand complex plots. It is designed to inhabit readers’ emotional states by appealing to feelings rather than knowledge.

It is empathetic, seeks to dig into the reader’s pain points, and delivers emotionally draining or sustaining solutions. It uses sensory-driven language that paints pictures in the reader’s mind, like works of art rather than substance.

The best emotionally resonant work is full of metaphors, similes, analogies, clones, imagination, and connections that connect viscerally and intellectually.

An author’s skill set in this kind of writing must include the ability to create vivid user personas. They know their audience and speak to it through vivid text, context, and current awareness of a focused audience of a particular age, gender, likes, hates, acceptance, and fears.

Empathy is foundational. Authors must know their reader’s emotionally fraught points. They must have walked in similar shoes,  drank from similar ponds, felt what they do, and mirroring tension and relief. Emotion comes in crawls, screeches, arcs, and endings that leave readers empowered and inspired.

The Oxford Dictionary defines it as emotion-based content. “The ability to evoke or suggest images, memories, and emotions. Emotion is what your characters are feeling while reading what you write. Emotional resonance is about evoking in the reader the emotions your characters are experiencing in the work. To incorporate M-W’s musical definitions, resonance is a quality in the words on the page that stays with the reader; an emotion produced in the reader by what the characters feel.”[1]

A short list of excellent emotionally resonant books would include Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow. The Stationery Shop  by Marjan Kamali. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. Writers & Lovers by Lily King. Landslide by Susan Conley. And of course,  After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell.

An emotionally resonant book fails when it fails to make the reader care. It also fails when it’s devoid of any sense of morality or ethics. While not exactly a rule, morality plays a significant role in fiction as it lets writers explore complex human dilemmas, develop relatable characters, and convey themes about right and wrong, even if the story doesn’t present a clear “moral” lesson; essentially, it contributes to the depth and meaning of a narrative, even when characters grapple with morally ambiguous situations.[2]

Morals should be a guiding principle in what we write when we make up stories. Our work can be a guiding principle or a lesson that we convey to our readers. If we are honest, caring, considerate, kind, and fair, we can turn to our reader’s morals and convey what justice, loyalty, vanity, courage, and belonging are available to them.[3]   

[1] https://missourireview.com/writing-beyond-good-creating-emotional-resonance/#:~:text=%3A%20the%20ability%20to%20evoke%20or,are%20experiencing%20in%20the%20work.

[2] https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/the-moral-universe-the-importance-of-morals-in-storytelling

[3] https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-the-moral-of-the-story-definition/#:~:text=The%20moral%20of%20a%20story%20serves%20as%20a%20guiding%20principle,that%20underlie%20the%20storytelling%20art.

Gary L Stuart

I am an author and a part-time lawyer with a focus on ethics and professional discipline. I teach creative writing and ethics to law students at Arizona State University. Read my bio.

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