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May 3, 2021

Emotional IQ and Writing: Why It Is Important

Writing

affect, characters, emotional iq, fiction, writing

6 comments

“Emotional IQ” is one of those phrases people in marketing and recruiting love to throw around. Many of them might not even know what they’re talking about. For writers – but also readers – emotional IQ in writing is more than important; it’s crucial.

By “emotional IQ” we generally mean the ability to recognize emotions (our own as well as others’) by noticing patterns and expressions. These can belong to various categories:

For our context, that is, emotional IQ in writing, you might think the last one is the most important. To some extent you’d be right, but don’t neglect the other two. Visuality and sounds can be major aspects in narrative. If, for example, your goal is to write realistic characters, you’d want their emotional expressions to be subtle, rich, and believable. Visual and aural cues, then, are important.

emotional iq in writing
High emotional IQ in writing – ability to to recognize and understand emotions – is an integral part of fiction.

The Importance of Emotional IQ in Writing Fiction

As I’ve stated many times on the blog, writing fiction is about emotions, not facts. I once had a discussion with a friend who has recently begun writing fiction in a more systematic way, and he expressed his surprise to hear that. He said he’d always thought writing a novel is about a story, from point A to point B.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Not only is a novel a non-linear affair – point A to point B, one second, then one second – but it’s first and foremost about affect. Indeed, it’s precisely because it is about affect, emotions, reflection, that it’s a non-linear affair.

A novel is about making someone feel something. The story is only the medium; the necessary evil, in a way.

And so, it goes without saying that displaying high emotional IQ in your writing is a crucial part of delivering an engaging narrative.

What Is Emotional IQ in a Novel?

Let’s get practical for a moment. In graspable terms, to approach your writing from a high emotional IQ perspective means the following. I’ll divide them into two grand categories, which we can call “Understanding” and “Applying”. Self-evidently perhaps, the former means how you read emotions – on yourself and especially others – while the latter refers to deploying certain emotive strategies in your writing.

Understanding Emotions

The list is not exhaustive, obviously enough, but it can give you a direction.

Applying Emotions

Once again, this list is not exhaustive. It’s only meant as an example of how you can take advantage of your emotional IQ when writing fiction. First we’ll see the brief list, and then I’ll show you some examples.

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Examples of High Emotional IQ in Writing

Let’s now see a few examples – I’ll use excerpts from my own novels. After we spend a moment to ponder on my lack of modesty, I’ll also add I’m doing it because I’m familiar with the text.

Most of my coworkers were too drunk to understand, but Kate did. I noticed her eyes opening wide for a moment, before a mischievous smile was formed on her face.

Most of my coworkers were too drunk to understand, but Kate apparently did. I noticed her eyebrows rising for a short moment, the way a small boat rides a large wave, then falling as a mischievous smile formed on her face like an ocean ripple.

The bottom one is an excerpt from Musings After a Suicide. The top one I revised for the purposes of this example. Notice how, by focusing on the subtle, almost subconscious movement of the eyes, we also increase subtlety in the way the emotion is conveyed. Oh, and also notice how the imagery is reinforced by symbolism.

Here’s another example – this time not a comparative one. Read the excerpt below – from The Perfect Gray – and notice how subtle yet effective the progression is. The key here is the concept of conflict and contradiction.

The sun has fallen under the world now – how long have we been here? – and the youthful face appears a little less masculine, a bit more lunar. Even his smile has acquired some atypical contours, drab and sluggish. It’s still bedazzling, it makes me feel wretched and blissful at the same time, but the intensity has been replaced by the dejected, saturnine realization that things never quite work out as you would’ve wanted them to. There seems to be some fundamental flaw in the fabric of this game: The man evidently lacks the arrogance and stupid optimism required to try any harder, which both makes him interesting to me and assures that the mating ritual is doomed to fail. In any case, I won’t lower myself to show any interest – not knowing whether I’m attracted (not to mention attractive) makes it even harder.

Higher Emotional IQ in Writing Means Higher Affective Power

I’ll say it once more, as I have many times: Affect is everything in fiction-as-art. If you write as an artist but aren’t interested in instigating an affective reaction, something’s wrong.

Consequently, a fiction author needs a high emotional IQ. To some extent, that’s something “you just have”, in the sense you have been raised in a way – and in an environment – that promoted the free expression of emotions, and also, crucially, discussing about emotions. There is only one context where it’s alright to say “Boys Don’t Cry”. In all other cases, boys (and girls, and everyone) can and should cry if they feel like it.

However, emotional IQ is also something you can improve on. How? By paying attention to the world. By experiencing the magic happening all around you, every moment of every day.

As I’ve said before, a good writer must first be a good experiencer. And the link between experiencing and writing is emotional IQ.

6 Comments

  1. Couldn’t agree more – great post.

    I think that’s where much fiction fails: instead of creating the details that will lead to an emotional response, the author telegraphs the expected reaction point blank. My answer is that it hasn’t been proven, so why should I?

    I have so many steps on my checklists that involve emotions – in the characters and eliciting them from the reader – that I consider and reconsider the emotional impact of details until I think I have the right response from the reader. I know it’s only a reader like myself who will get the full effect, but it is crucial to get it right and I depend on my beta reader to tell me if I hit the target; more than once she has called me an evil woman – while agreeing there was no other way.

    And oh, by the way, acquiring that emotional experience hurts. That’s why I write: to have a place to put that pain. While accepting and acknowledging it.

    1. Chris🚩 Chris

      The evil-but-no-other-way part is where quality literature resides. I’m a great fan of narrative inevitability, and if it’s paired with “evilness” (=realism), then it means the narrative is solid.

      And I couldn’t agree more with the last paragraph. Much of quality literature is, after all, cathartic in nature.

      Thanks for your comment! 🙂

      1. I did this. I set this up to be the ONLY way it would work. I goes through improbable but possible places – because there was no other way.

        It’s just that sometimes I get to where one of those inevitable pieces have to be WRITTEN, and have to talk myself back to the edge of the cliff.

        Inevitability demands very good writing.

      2. It’s not WHETHER to do it, but how to make sure you do it WELL. Which is why it has to be tested on trusted humans.

  2. Glenn Glenn

    Another great article, and I read them all. Thanks Chris.

    1. Chris🚩 Chris

      Thanks for your comment Glenn! 🙂


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