How to Use Empathy in Fiction

Empathy in fiction more than conjuring up sympathy or making your characters likeable to your readers. Envoking empathy requires a higher level of articulation of character, greater believability of voice and communication of struggle at a very deep level.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Explore your feelings and thoughts in your journal. Keeping a journal is an excellent way to develop your writing abilities. Tell about things that happened to others you know or things you've read about. Write about what they must have felt when going through the experience.
2. Read as much quality fiction as you can. Start with National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winnters. Read biographies and autobiographies. They introduce you to the triumphs and sufferings of another person throughout their lifetime.
3. Listen to what people are saying around you. Eavesdrop on conversations on buses and in cafes. Strike up conversations with strangers from all walks of life. Find out what's important to them and explore your empathy for them in your journal.
4. Write out the biographical details of your main characters. Nick Malysz has written a detailed character questionnaire you can use. It takes you through a character's socioeconomic, psychologic, philosophic and life history, all useful information to have before you start writing.
5. Research the important details from your character's background. You must know what it feels like to be a 10-year-old boy in South Africa in the 1950s before you can evoke empathy for him. Pay attention to fiction about characters with your protagonist's background to see how other authors made you feel what the character feels.
6. Revise first for empathy. Grammar and punctuation can wait. First you've got to make the character pull the reader into the story by creating identification. Share the story with a writing group and ask them specifically if they felt empathy for your protagonist.

Tips & Warnings

• Search blogs on Google by clicking the "More" tab at the top of the page. They're a great way to tap into the things that concern people.
• Don't neglect your local paper for personal stories about what people are coping with. Write in your journal about what they must be feeling when faced with difficulties.

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