I know the kinds of pressures Sarah is under, and the fact that she can keep putting this short story workshop out is amazing. I'm not going to expect her to keep count, too! But the following I had to capture and highlight, because... well, it's what fiction is for me.
Fiction is not a way to convey information but a way to convey experience. And much of that experience consists in sharing the emotions of the character.
Before you think I want you to write weepy, bathos-driven stories, be not afraid. Since you are a fiction writer (my love) you’re in no danger of writing fantasies of dinosaurs ripping out people in an orgy of revenge fantasy and mistake that for a story. Or at least if you are, we’ll learn you better. Ahem.
But if you think about it, even in the most action-driven story, the fear before a fight is an emotion. Triumph or defeat is an emotion. The horror of violent death is an emotion.
And the emotion, that riding-along-with is why people are reading the story. They’re reading for the experience.
You can read the rest at Mad Genius Club...
Sarah Hoyt and I met at LibertyCon 25 for the first time in person.