Warm vs. Cool
By Donald Maass | January 4, 2012 |
Here’s a question for you: Who’s the superior writer, Jane Austen or Ernest Hemingway? If you answered Jane Austen then you probably write more emotionally, embracing exposition and characters’ interior lives. If you answered Ernest Hemingway then you may believe that emotions on the page are cheap, gooey and artless. For you, showing rather than telling is not just good advice but an iron law.
Restraint, showing, suggestion and subtext all are valid fiction techniques that lie on the cool end of the spectrum. They’re most pronounced in the kind of literary fiction that’s called minimalist, but coolness is a quality that can prevail in any type of story. Cool writing can excite admiration but it acts to distance readers from characters. In its extreme form it reports a story at arm’s length.
Interiority, exposition, reactive passages and emotional exploration are techniques that fall on the warm end of the spectrum. They’re most noticeable in romance novels and women’s fiction but can be found in plenty of literary novels as well. Warm writing invites readers’ emotional involvement but leaves less room for readers’ imaginations. In fact, when you supply everything readers are supposed to feel they may wind up feeling little at all.
Cool writers can benefit from warming up to their characters and opening their interior lives. Warm writers can become stronger storytellers by more often showing through action, using restraint and suggesting feelings rather than slathering them on.
Which type are you, warm or cool? Whatever your answer, here are some ways to strengthen your style:
- Are you a cool stylist? What scene are you working on right now? Who’s your point of view character? Open a fresh document. For fifteen minutes let your POV character spew what they’re feeling. Is any of that useful in the scene?
- Are you a warm writer? What scene are you working on right now? Who’s the POV character? Ask that character, what is it you’re secretly aching to do right now? Go on. Go for it. Given permission, how does that character do?
- Are you a cool stylist? What’s your main character not saying right now? Have another character say it instead.
- Are you a warm writer? What’s your main character feeling in your latest interior passage? Make your main character suddenly reticent. Convey the feeling solely through action.
Whatever your natural temperature as a writer it’s good to be aware, acknowledge the limitations of your natural style and, selectively, work to compensate. When your coolness is balanced by warmth, and your warmth at times is retrained, your fiction will broaden in appeal. All readers will find a way in.
Photo courtesy Flickr’s RKHawaii
Donald Maass (he/him) founded the Donald Maass Literary Agency. in New York in 1980. He is the author of The Career Novelist (1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (2001), Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (2004), The Fire in Fiction (2009), The Breakout Novelist (2011), Writing 21st Century Fiction (2012) and The Emotional Craft of Fiction (2019). He has presented hundreds of workshops around the world and is a past president of the American Association of Literary Agents (formerly AAR).
I am definitely a ‘cool’ writer and my muse/editor/wife gets on me about it. I do action/mystery stuff and focus on getting my plot line and information interchanges right and too little on the ‘soft’ issues of ambiance and emotional revelation. Thanks for reminding me, Donald, that the non-intellectual aspects are crucial for relating to readers.
I’m on the warmer side of things. I don’t give my characters permission to do anything though, they do whatever they want and drag me along to see. I show their interior states by means of dialog, actions, even perceptions. None of that boring descriptive prose stuff for me.
Donald, great post as usual. I’m more of a warm writer trying to be a cool writer. I’m constantly reminding myself to show, not tell, and not to allow my characters to wear their hearts on their sleeves.
Donald, great post as usual! Thank you. I’m a ‘warm’writer and a huge Jane Austen fan. I work hard to show and not tell as much, but it’s a balancing act. There’s so much to think about :)
Oh! Wow. Thank you so much! Me too, I’m a natural “cool” writer, to the point where I tend to show the reader the picture and let them work out the chars’ feelings all by themselves. I always thought this was the right way to do it: I actually thought that “warm” writing was a big no-no these days! So yes, my writing style will definitely profit from your suggestions, thank you very much!
I’ve noticed a long time ago that readers actually PREFER warm writing where the author tells them what they are supposed to feel. It’s a great relief to find out it’s not a bad thing at all…
Thank you very much!!!
Thank you! This is exactly what I needed to be reminded of this morning. I’m a warm writer and often end up telling too much. I’m going to redo some scenes in my current short story with this in mind.
I’d say I’m a warm writer, but your post stresses the problem I have of not really choosing a camp and feeling bad when I get overheated and feeling unsatisfied when I write cool.
I wish I could contribute to the discussion, but your post has triggered my thinking muscles and my insecurities more than my jaw. Thank you sir. You helped me…again.
Great and very useful post. I am most definitely a warm writer, but I think I tend to be TOO warm. I need to mix it up a bit.
I’m with Benoit. Both camps appeal at different times. My work in progress (suspense) needed a warm up in the most recent re-write. But my first novel needed to chill before hitting the world.
Just yesterday I faced a dilemma revolving around this. It concerned my novel’s first page, which one reader felt was far too ‘warm’, delving deep into the main character’s thoughts, instead of showing what was going on around him or describing the setting.
Everyone’s been stating what breed of writer they are, warm or cool, but I’d be interested to see what kind of readers we are, too. When opening the first page of a novel, do we prefer to delve straight into the character’s mind through warm writing, or do we want to be dropped into the action with cool writing?
I’m, er, lukewarm? :)
Put me in the camp that meanders from one temp to the other. I think balance is important, and pacing is key, too — I’d say cool is better for scenes that need speed, and warm helps give breathing room and spaciousness.
I think I’m like this too–wandering through my drafts like Goldilocks, sometimes too cool, sometimes too warm, trying to find the just right.
The post made me really think about my writing, as a writer. My first draft tends toward the cold side, 2nd draft is cool and I work my way up to ‘warm’ by the fourth draft. Thank you for a thought provoking article. My comments go through this process too…
But what if you love both Austen and Hemmingway? There’s a lot to be said for saying a lot and also for leaving things unsaid.
I suppose my biggest writing challenge is long descriptive passages (cool?, although it’s kinda uncool that I struggle with them). I hate to read them and I hate to write them.
Thanks for giving me something to think about as I struggle desperately to get through thirty pages of editing before I turn into a time-to-get-the-kids-from-school pumpkin.
Good question. I’m actually a mix, because I love Jane Austen’s stories, but I like Hemingway’s actual style better. A mix of the two would be perfect, I think :)
Sarah Allen
(my creative writing blog)
I credit Diana Gabaldon with drumming into my head the need for restraint on my part when writing highly emotional scenes. That would make me a writer on the warm side. While I recognize and agree with the need to not overwrite such scenes, I still need multiple drafts to find the balance point between warm and cool that delivers the greatest emotional impact. Too warm, and it feels at once cloying and diluted. Too cool, and the reader could be left wondering if even the characters care about what just happened.
I’m on the warmer side but have been working for the past few years to convey more emotion through actions, etc., instead of through long expository passages, as could be done by following the advice of your fourth bullet point. Like Lori Benton above me said, it can be difficult to find the right balance; more than once I’ve wondered after writing a scene if a reader would be able to tell the character cared at all because I’ve gone too far toward cool. Still, I really like your suggestion, and if nothing else, it would be a good writing exercise and a way to start breaking habits of emotional word vomit.
At the very least, it’s helpful to forbid the use of the word “feel” when describing thoughts or reactions, because then you have to search for other ways to convey that emotion. But this lesson should be learned when one begins considering the difference between showing and telling, since it takes away all the nuance to straight up inform the audience of what’s going on in a character’s head.
Hmm I’m definitely a warm writer, but I can’t stand Jane Austen. She’s the wrong era for me to enjoy reading from…
Warm or cold writer? This really gets me thinking!
I would have to say there is a bit of both temperatures in my writing. The late Carol Shields seemed to be somewhere in the middle & that appealed to me as a reader.
Thank you for suggesting yet another way to analyze what I’m doing. And why!
I’m another one who varies depending on the scene and story. My journalism background makes cool writing more natural for action scenes, but I also have a fair amount of warmth. I hate to say I’m a tepid writer, but based on the warm/cool distinction…
Jennie-
I’m glad you brought up action scenes. Like you, may tend to write them with cool style, depending on the action itself to create drama and carry emotion.
Except that’s not what happens. Action, however violent or original, by itself is dry. Emotion comes only from inside the point of view character. Yet merely putting in emotion isn’t enough.
Check it out. Read action scenes. Look at those that are reported objectively, action only, no exposition. They’re empty. Look at those packed with exposition, lots of emotion. They can also fail to move.
What’s missing? It’s tension, which in action comes not form action itself, or from emotions (especially obvious ones like fear, horror rush of adrenaline, etc.) but from *conflicting* emotions.
Don
Good point — I was thinking more of the style than the content in my comment: Action vs. exposition. I tend to write deep third POV, so there’s a lot of character voice (and emotion) regardless of the type, which I suppose pushes the overall style more toward the warm end of the spectrum.
Hmmm. good food for thought.
I’m currently reading Madeleine L’Engle’s journals about her writing and she says when a scene’s “too emotional” for her as she writes it, it goes in the round file.
However, when I write a scene that affects me profoundly, I usually feel really good about it.
Donald, you said something I wrote down and keep front and center on my desk: “These novels change us because their authors are willing to draw upon their deepest selves without flinching. They hold nothing back.”
And I’m standing by it!
Thanks for all your musings.
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Definitely warm. Intimate third person works best for me when it comes to exposition, but I depend a lot on dialogue to draw my characters out of their shells. Love this post, love your books. My critique group is getting sick of hearing “Donald Maass says…” Thanks for continuous words of wisdom.
Never thought about it in this way. Thank you!
I definitely favor the warm side, and I enjoyed Jane Austen’s tales. So often people who critique my work tell me to cut out some of the emotional stuff and get more action in. My current WOP will need some cooling down.
As a reader, though, I prefer action tales. Thanks for a great post.
Balance is what I prefer as a writer and as a reader.
You said, “when you supply everything readers are supposed to feel they may wind up feeling little at all” and that’s key, as is its opposite, supplying nothing. The same is true in an actor’s performance. A completely restrained performance doesn’t give me enough to go on, but all-out, over-the-top, flailing, screaming and crying puts me off.
Balance. And now that I’ve said it, I suppose it’s relative!
I am most certainly a cool, Ernest writer. It is a constant struggle for me to get more on the page that is not reflected through action or dialogue. I’ll work on the emotional spewing exercise today and see if I can use some of it in my MCs thoughts or in the words of others.
This is very helpful. Thanks, Don!
Interesting post. I’m currently writing something from an omniscient POV, and I’m finding it difficult, if not impossible, to determine “warm” versus “cool” in that instance; seems to tend toward the middle by necessity. Curious whether anyone else has had experienced, although I realize most people don’t write from that vantage point. Thanks.