Take Five: Donald Maass and The Emotional Craft of Fiction
By Writer Unboxed | December 31, 2016 |
Today we have the honor of introducing you to Writer Unboxed esteemed contributor Donald Maass’s latest work on writing how-to, The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface. This book is available to all writers who want to take their story game to the next level December 30, 2016.
Donald Maass founded the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York in 1980. His agency sells more than 150 novels every year to major publishers in the U.S. and overseas. 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 (2016). He is a past president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, Inc.
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Donald Maass has cordially agreed to join us today for an interview regarding his latest book on the craft of writing fiction. Thank you for your time and constant teaching, Don!
Q1: Can you introduce us to The Emotional Craft of Fiction and tell us how it’s unique in today’s market?
Authors imagine that their novels are having a strong emotional effect on readers. That’s not always true. A thirty-second TV commercial can move us more than three hundred pages of a manuscript. The Emotional Craft of Fiction examines what actually causes readers to have an emotional response.
Psychological research into that question has surprising answers. For instance, fiction writers assume that readers will feel what their characters do. They don’t. Readers instead react: weighing, judging, comparing and creating, moment by moment, their own emotional journey.
That in turn has important implications for the crafting of the emotional effect of a story. “Showing” versus “telling” is mostly irrelevant, though I do show how each works effectively, or not. More critical are methods such as building an emotional world, catching readers by surprise with third level emotions, emotional scene goals, shifts from tension to energy, cascading change, and the hidden current that pulls us through a story even more strongly than plot.
In fact, plot itself can be seen not as circumstances changing but as emotional opportunities. The author’s own emotional journey in the process of writing also plays in. In The Emotional Craft of Fiction I show how to employ all of that through techniques that I call “emotional mastery”.
Q2: Why this book now? How have industry changes affected the way you approach the craft of writing?
I undertook this new book of fiction craft for the simple reason that in reading manuscripts, I often find myself not feeling very much. I wanted to understand why some highly dramatic stories can leave me indifferent while other, even quieter, novels can stir outrage or make me reach for a tissue.
There’s no question that changes in publishing and retailing have changed not only how books are distributed but how they can be written. High price points for hardcovers and trade paperbacks have made consumers more demanding. They want from fiction not just a fast-moving storyline but an immersive experience.
That in turn demands that fiction writers craft stories that are eventful, meaningful, beautifully written and highly moving. Plot can constitute a novel, but plot by itself is unlikely to build such an experience.
In workshops, the new methods of emotional craft have proven, I find, to be the dimension that lifts highly accomplished manuscripts from publishable to compelling. Story heart can grow weak in the long slog of revision, but using emotional craft makes it beat strongly once again.
Q3: How does The Emotional Craft of Fiction complement your previous books on craft?
Writing the Breakout Novel illuminates what makes a novel feel big. The Fire in Fiction breaks down what causes us to proclaim that a given novel is “great”.
Writing 21st Century Fiction springs off a long-term merging of literary and commercial intents, showing how novels can be both powerful stories and beautifully written.
The Emotional Craft of Fiction is, for me, the missing key to crafting timeless fiction. The classics and favorite novels that we love become that way not because of the stories they tell, but because of the experience we had. Every novel, potentially, is such an experience and this new book offers the tools.
Q4: Can you share an excerpt with us?
(Among other things, I discuss the handling of emotional minutia and how to make small emotional moments feel big. Here’s part of that discussion…)
“In life, what we feel moment by moment matters greatly to us but little to others. To us, our days are full of high drama, ups, downs, and stomach-plunging swings. Naturally you don’t expect others to take your feelings as seriously as you do, yet on the page you’re asking readers to do just that: to be rapt and fascinated by your characters’ every tiny mood swing.
“That won’t be the case until you make the emotional minutia of your characters’ lives worth your readers’ time. A monotonous pattern of action-reaction will not do that. It’s what I call churning, or the recycling of feelings that readers have already felt. It’s easy stuff to skim. To get readers fully engaged in emotional minutia requires, again, catching readers by surprise.
“When characters struggle with their feelings, readers must referee. They seek to resolve characters’ inner conflicts. They render judgments. The same is true when characters feel the unexpected. Readers hold an instant inner debate, one of which they are largely unaware but which nevertheless causes them to assess. Would I feel like that too? That assessment is the effect you are going for.”
Q5: What else can we look forward to seeing from you?
I’ll be leading several live workshops on the emotional craft of fiction this year. There’s more information here. Beyond that, you can find me here on Writer Unboxed on the first Wednesday of every month with new posts on the craft of fiction.
Writer Unboxed began as a collaboration between Kathleen Bolton and Therese Walsh in 2006. Since then, the site has grown to include ~50 regular contributors and a variety of guests on rotation throughout a given year.
In 2016, the Writer Unboxed team published a book with Writer’s Digest / Random House. AUTHOR IN PROGRESS: A No-Holds-Barred Guide to What It Really Takes to Get Published is a comprehensive guide focused on helping writers over/around/through hurdles faced at every stage of the novel-writing process. It’s received some ***** reviews; we hope you’ll check it out.
If you’d like to be among the first to know about the next Writer Unboxed UnConference, which will likely tie-in with WU’s 20th Anniversary celebration, please sign up for our mailing list!
Write on!
Don, my copy is ordered. Won’t arrive until sometime in January, but I’m certain it will be worth the wait. Ready to dive into a deeper emotional level with my revisions and my next WIP. Lots to think about. Thank you again for pushing us all one step closer to writing meaningful stories.
Don – I am so excited by this. My reading journey led to my writing journey. I’ve been pursuing this immersive experience throughout both. I often read books that are beautifully written and/or have satisfying plots, but ultimately they leave me wanting. I know the experience you describe is what I’m seeking as a reader and striving for as a writer.
I appreciate your relentless pursuit of our craft, Don. Happy New Year!
Just thank you, thank you!! for doing what you do! Here’s wishing you and yours all the Best in the New Year.
Cheers and Kudos and even a Pat-On-The-Back!
It’ll be a fine addition to anyone’s Stack.
Middle January it says I’ll have to wait.
Until I can take my scribblings from good to great.
Congrats Don
Can’t wait to read this!! But Amazon says I have to wait until middle of January. I write romance which is all about the emotion so this will be a welcome addition to my craft library.
I’m really looking forward to this one, Don! Happy New Year.
Congratulations Don! You’ve been teaching us about emotions here for some time now here on WU, so I’m looking forward to having this book and applying it to my work.
I just read Lauren Wolk’s WOLF HOLLOW and it’s been a while since I read something that affected me so viscerally. I was so upset in the middle of the book (the villain, a 14-yr-old girl is so cold and calculating) that I had to go to the end of the book to see how it plays out because the suspense was going to kill me. And that’s what I’m aiming for.
May God bless you and your family abundantly in the New Year.
Congrats, Don!
Thank you so much for sharing your insight. I’m looking forward to ruining my copy with highlights and underlines. Maybe you can sign it at the PPWC!
Making an emotional connection with the reader is the key to immersion, but it can be hard to know if I’m pulling that off when I’m inside the story and writing. I can’t wait to read your tips!
Don, that’s just the book I want to read! I feel I need it to give me the missing piece of the puzzle. And I’m so happy by the way that you set aside that harrowing “show-don’t tell” debate – I’ve always felt it was besides the point: Great classical literature is most often tell rather than show, yet it works and how!
I do hope there’ll be a digital version soon, because I live in Rome and can’t wait!
So excited for this!!!!!! I want it but I want it now – I just checked – is there really no ebook?
I’m sure it will be out in a couple of weeks. There’s a delay with Writer’s Digest between the publication of the physical book and e-book.
Awesome!!! How will I stop reading long enough to start writing. Reward for finishing the 1st three chapters? That could work.
Looking forward to it, Don. I so admire your drive to dig into the art of fiction and explore aspects that the rest of us don’t even think of. In my work, I advocate writing a story so that it creates page-turning tension in the reader, and your tools and techniques for creating the emotions that create that tension should be invaluable. Oh, and a Happy New Year to you and all the WU folk!
Don, I am so excited about this book–congrats to you, and thanks for writing about such an important subject that’s so often overlooked. Happy New Year to you and yours!
Congrats, Don! I’m intrigued by this book, and looking forward to studying the contents.
Dear Donald,
Your books have been my main new writing teacher for the last several years.
I especially like the way you pull in examples in published work to illustrate what you’re pointing out.
This seems as good a place as any to say thank you. And Happy New Year.
Alicia
Availability Update I checked the writersdigestshop.com listing and it says that a PDF ebook is “In Stock,” and they are discounting the price.
Per Amazon, it’s a #1 New Release and out of stock after only ONE DAY! (Expected back in stock 1/9.) Congrats, Don! So happy for you. :) Can’t wait for my copy!
Congratulations, Don. After some of the in-depth workshops you have done with WFWA, I know this book will offer even more. Ordering my copy and wishing you an emotional New Year–
heart-warming and uplifting emotions, of course. Beth Havey
Very exciting to have this book out! Thanks for what will be a great read.
Thanks everyone! Looking forward to your feedback. Meanwhile, Happy New Year!
Congratulations, Don! This looks like a gem of a book. Wishing you all of the best with it. Happy New Year!
Excellent points to consider. So many books are pushing a novel formula; if you follow this formula, fill in the blanks and you will create exactly what the agent/editor wants. But, so often this is what’s missing, no fire, no emotional energy, characters that are 2 dimensional. It’s always the emotional craft I remember long after I’ve forgotten the title or author.
I’ve been thinking about so many of these things, as I read, watch movies, and write, so this sounds like just what I need — as your work so often is. Thanks, Don, and all the best to you and your family in the new year.
Loving the book! I’m about 30% in, and I think it’s your best. It’s going to make a big difference in my WIP. I just wish I could go back and beef up the emotions in my first ten books. ;)
The book is not currently available from Amazon, so I bought the ebook from Writers Digest: https://www.writersdigestshop.com/the-emotional-craft-of-fiction-ebook
Thanks so much for writing it!
Thanks for another great book on writing. I am going to share a bit on my blog today and promo the book. Your posts have helped me so much as I craft my current WIP, and I know the book will be a great resource, too.
Best of luck on your new book, Don.
When I think about the books I’ve read, the ones that stand out are the ones that affected me on an emotional level. As a teenager, Anne of Green Gables and Little Women resonated so deeply. I was in tears with both. As I write this, I’m thinking that I’d like to re-visit these novels to see what triggers the author planted and why I cared so much.