Getting Emotional About Plot by Jane Kelley

What do I mean by getting emotional? Cursing when I can't figure out any turning points? Cheering when I finally do?

No, I mean finding an emotional plot for your novel.

Action is important. Something has to happen in any story. But a character's reaction to the action is just as important. If you include an emotional plot, you will raise the stakes and increase the reader's connection to your character.

How do writers do this?

The emotional plot has many similarities to the action plot. There should be obstacles. There should be escalation or complicating events. There should be a climax. As Sir Edmund Hillary said, "It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

That was certainly true for Megan, the main character in my novel, Nature Girl.

A student at St. Mary's School in Richland Center, Wisconsin made this chart about my novel. As you can see, Megan at the beginning is very different from who she is at the end.

According to this student, the emotional climax is when Megan's "yucky voice" goes away. The yucky voice, for those of you lucky enough not to have one of your own, is that voice inside your head that loves to remind you that you stink and you won't ever succeed so why bother trying.

Megan's actions as she hikes the Appalachian Trail enable her to reach her goal of being reunited with her friend. But her emotional responses to those actions are just as important. They are what enable her to learn from her experiences and become a better person at the end.

Could there be a happy plot ending without a happy emotional ending? Yes. But it wouldn't make the reader as happy.