How to Make a Reader Cry

Anyone who knows me knows I cry more over books than movies.

But why is that?

What is the key that authors use to cause that?

How do they make the readers feel the emotions so hard that they hurt for a character that only exists in their mind?

Well, if you want to know how to make a reader cry, you’ve come to the right place because that is the subject I will be covering today.

Now, the number 1 key to making a reader feel emotion while reading your book, is to get them emotionally attached to the character or characters going through the pain, happiness, or just any emotional event.

How do we do that?

We give them depth.

Giving a character depth is one of the most important parts of writing a story. This is how you get the readers to resonate with them.

What can you do to give a character depth?

You can make them relatable.

Give them normal human emotions.

Some people make books with characters that are overly perfect, too good, or who don’t have enough personality.

No one is perfect.

That’s a fact.

So why should book characters be perfect?

Give them weaknesses. Give them emotions. Have them get angry once in a while, maybe make a few mistakes.

They do need to be a somewhat good person deep down inside.

They’re just not perfect.

They have problems like we all do.

You know how you read some books’ sad parts and feel an actual pain in your chest? You feel the sadness of the characters?

The key to causing this is description.

Describe what the characters are feeling.

Describe the sadness, the emotion, the pain.

The little things, like a painful lump in their throat or the way their knees wobbled, can change the entire mood of the scene.

What’s more sad:

She watched as the man breathed his last breath. The heart monitor suddenly emitted a shrill, steady beep.

He was gone.

It was over.

Or:

She watched as the man breathed his last breath, quivering as she saw it. She collapsed to her chair and hunched over in agony, choking back the gut-wrenching sobs spilling from her mouth as the heart monitor suddenly emitted a shrill, steady beep.

He was gone.

It was over.

Which one evokes more emotion?

Do you see how description of the character’s feelings and actions changes the mood of the scene?

They help the reader really understand what they’re going through.

What else helps evoke emotions in scenes?

How about adjectives?

If you notice in the second version of the scene above, I used a lot of adjectives with the actions.

Not just plain sobs but gut-wrenching sobs.

She didn’t just fall to her chair and hunch over but she did so in agony.

These words gave the simple actions more depth. They give it more description and it helps it resonate more with the readers.

Think about if I’d taken out those adjectives.

Would the paragraph have packed as much of an emotional punch then?

You can use adjectives all the time, not just with emotional parts.

But, they are extremely important in those emotional parts.

Just like describing the characters’ feelings and actions, adjectives help set the mood.

I want you to try something.

Grab a piece of paper and a pencil. If you don't have one near you open Notes or Microsoft Word, or some sort of writing app/program on your device.

Now, I want you to write down these words:

She slammed the door shut behind her, leaning against it and sliding down until she was sitting.

Her life was officially over.

The light in it was gone.

What more did she have to live for?

After writing it down, I'd like you to think up a scenario for this woman or girl to be facing.

Be creative.

She could've lost a family memeber. Maybe a pet. Or it could be something less dramatic.

Anything.

Then, I want you to use what I've talked about and make this more emotional.

1. Make the character relatable.

So you could write a backstory on the character to do this....or you could just make their reaction to the news something anyone would do. Think how you would react if whatever's happening to them happened to you. Would you be angry? Depressed? Take this all into consideration.

2. Describe what the character's feeling.

Put into words what the character's feeling. Are their knees weak? Do they have a lump in their throat they just can't seem to swallow? Are there angry tears streaming down their face? Is there a sense of loss overwhelming them? What about a pain in their chest?

Take all these things into consideration.

Make it so you can literally feel the emotion coming off of them.

3. Make sure to use adjectives.

Add adjectives to ordinary actions. For example, in the sample piece that you will start with, instead of just leaning against the door, you could write "leaning against it weakly, all energy drained from her body forcing her to slowly slide down until she was sitting, slumped against it."

Change my original base sentences as much as you want to.

You can even go rogue and just write your own.

This is just a way to practice what you've learned.

Also, feel free to send these to me once you're done if you want to. I love to see you guys' work!

Now there is one other thing that evokes emotion that I did not cover today.

Emphasis.

If you’d like to learn more about how and when to use emphasis, make sure to catch my blog next Monday where I will be diving headfirst into it!

I hope you all learned a bit about making readers cry today!

If you have any questions or a subject you want me to give my take on, just contact me!

Happy writing!

-Jocelyn