Feeling and Thinking

Writing requires two levels of engagement - feeling and thinking. Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, your subject matter is something that needs to be relevant to you, that resonates with you on a deeper level. That means you need to get in touch with how you feel about it before you begin writing. You have to delve into your own emotional soup and sort it out before you can make any sense of it in your story or essay. After you have a handle on how you feel about your subject, you can begin to explore what you think about it, what your intellectual take on it is. This progression of feeling to thinking is important in order to write something that is meaningful for readers. If you haven't connected emotionally with your subject, readers will be able to sense that because your writing will come across as shallow and a bit sterile. Your intellectual treatment of the subject won't matter to readers if that's all you offer them. However, if you offer both intellect and emotion, readers will relate to your writing in a meaningful way because your writing will have depth and warmth. There will be layers to your story or essay that touch readers profoundly and speak to the complexities of your subject matter. Without that layering, your writing will fall flat. To write effectively about any subject, feel first and then think. Your readers will be glad you did.