Relationships: the hardest part of writing

Anybody can write an action story. It's simply a matter of describing one situation after another:

The rain had come on by the time she reached her car. She climbed in and backed out of the driveway – almost running over the neighbour's cat in the process. Three minutes later she was on the main road and heading west, her wiper blades thumping. Her phone rang. She groaned; it was in her handbag and she couldn't reach it; she'd have to stop. She pulled over onto the hard shoulder. It was Jack.

You can rewrite the above using slightly different words. You can add detail (she can't find her car-keys, the engine won't start first time, etc). You can describe the rain, the traffic on the road, all sorts of detail. You can use short or long sentences. You can tell us how our heroine is feeling, what she's thinking. It's easy to do.

But it's difficult to write about emotions, especially when they're part of a relationship.

Sara Lenzen's short story is a well-crafted study of a mother-daughter relationship. Almost from the start we know that the daughter disapproves of her mother. The mother plays mindless computer games; she defaces a book for no good reason.

We also suspect that the daughter is embarrassed by her mother's deformity: the stump.

We wonder whether the daughter is showing her true feelings when she shouts: "You stupid cripple! You make me sick!" Or is she simply showing her frustration? It's a terribly hurtful thing to say.

But that changes when the daughter discovers the missing painting's whereabouts. Her mother tells her why she hid it.

"I'm sorry. I don't want you to go," she says. "I thought you wouldn't leave without it."

"Oh," I say quietly.

... and presently:

"Okay, I won't go," I say and rest my head on her shoulder.

All this is easier than it looks. The writer has managed to convey emotion without actually describing how the characters feel. It's effective because it touches the heart-strings. We become involved with the characters.

We all need to be loved

Every single one of your characters has human feelings. Even a character who appears to be a thoroughly bad person.

We all have our wants and needs. Our most important need is to be loved, for others to care about us.

Your writing will be powerful when you write about emotions. You do this in a number of ways. For example you can describe how somebody is feeling:

He gazed down at his fallen comrade, tears welling up in his eyes. They'd been through so much together. He knew he could not leave his friend to his fate. If he did, he'd regret it for the rest of his days, and curse himself for all time.

You could also imply great emotion, without actually putting it into so many words:

I took her hand in mine and squeezed it gently. She didn't respond at first, but then she tore her hand from mine, laughed happily, and skipped like a child back the way we'd come.

And finally, dialogue. This is perhaps the best way of conveying emotion, when your characters tell one another how they feel:

"Why are you always picking on me, Dad?" Liam said angrily. "Why are you always interfering?"

"I mean well. I don't want you making the same mistakes that I did."

Liam looked into his father's eyes. He could read sorrow there – and something else that he hadn't seen before.

"You mean you care?" he asked.

"Of course I care, son! If I didn't care then I'd let you go ahead and make a fool of yourself."

If you feel a lump in your throat when you read what you've written then you can be sure you're on the right track. If you're touched by your writing then chances are your reader will be moved as well.