Seeing a Story’s Heart

Hello and welcome to my end-of-month newsletter blog post! You can read last month’s newsletter here.

Following the very loose pattern I decided to set, these posts are a chance for me to write about one of the things I love: Stories. These are also a chance for you to read about something you love as well. (Because if you are reading this, I’m guessing that you enjoy stories too.) If that’s true, pull up a chair, get cozy, and let’s talk about stories that evoke an emotional response from readers and listeners alike.

Growing up, I read more books than I watched TV shows and movies. Both forms of storytelling can evoke powerful emotional responses from readers, listeners, and watchers. And both can do so very well—if the storyteller knows what they’re doing and their stories are well-crafted and well-told.

Such stories make us laugh, cry, get angry, distressed, disgusted, or elated—they create sympathy and empathy in us for the characters. Even if we’ve read the stories or seen the TV shows or movies before, we often still experience those emotions all over again.

In many ways, I’m more impressed when those emotional responses—those feelings—are brought out by written stories. There’s no moving soundtrack, no visual expressions from actors playing characters to tug at our heartstrings, no voices to convey emotion through dialogue or monologue—there are only the words upon the page.

True, stories don’t always bring out the same emotional responses for everyone. Some stories that make me laugh will leave others unamused. Some stories that make me ugly cry will not move others in the least. Some stories do not interest me at all, but will engage other individuals for hours on end.

All stories should evoke some sort of emotional response. After all, emotion needs to be at the heart of a story. They are often written, crafted, and told with passion, care, and love. That will be brought out and made evident as the story unfolds.

However, if those emotions aren’t put into the story at its creation, they certainly won’t be reflected on the page or screen. Inevitably, the story will be dull and unmoving. At best, it will seem forced and inauthentic. At worst, it will speak to no one.

Good stories speak to us in different ways, and we react to them in our own unique ways. Whatever you’re currently reading, listening to, or watching, I hope that they were written, crafted, and told with passion, care, and love.

The best stories start there.

With July’s end, August is right around the corner. Here are a few things to look for on the website:

My satirical blog series “Poking Fun at Fantasy Tropes” continues with another post—this one focuses on legendary weapons (usually the kind that the hero needs to find to defeat the villain), so stay tuned for that!

Short stories are still being posted twice a week—we’re nearing the finish line for all 52 tales from my book, Collected Short Stories: Volume One being available for your reading pleasure on the website.

If you haven’t subscribed yet, please consider doing so! You’ll automatically be entered in free giveaways and receive sneak peeks at upcoming book releases (such as Tales of Minz: A Lamplighter’s Tale, coming out this October), email notifications when new short stories and blog posts go live, and exclusive content as more gets added to this website!

That’s all for this end-of-month newsletter. As always, thanks for reading the things I write, I appreciate you!

Until next time,

Al