Writing Heartbreak (and other emotions of the heart) by Laurie Faria Stolarz
The topic for this month is heartbreak. How do we as writers produce, with authenticity, emotions of the heart, be that sadness, angst, regret, grief, or otherwise? (Some argue that all of these emotions are actually derived from fear.) As a writer, I feel that one of my most important jobs is to produce stories that make readers feel something. To do that, I often start with a question, something to which I don’t have the answer - because I don’t feel, as a writer, it’s my job to provide answers. Through writing, I explore questions. I pull them apart, show both sides, and make things muddy and gray. I write about things - questions - that resonate very deeply with me, on a very personal level, in some way. I disguise these things of course. One would likely never guess, for example, that my novel Welcome to the Dark House , was not so much about a menacing amusement park in which people have to reliv...
