Make ’em Laugh; Make ’em Cry. Just Make Them Feel Something.

A few weeks ago, my awesome editor, Karen, posted this on Facebook:

There must be something in the air. Three people have asked me this morning what I’m looking for in terms of books. There’s not a particular trope or plot or setting. Instead, I want something that truly moves me: makes my chest tighten and tears fall (bonus points for sobbing), causes me to laugh out loud (snorting optional), takes a familiar trope and offers a spin I didn’t see coming, makes me think in a way I’ve never thought before, or compels me to write down a quote from the story that is so profound or moving that I want to remember it always. This goes for ALL the genres I’m working with–teen, new adult, and adult romance. Yes, the plot is extremely important, but what I’m most looking for are the “feels.”

Of course, the very first thing I did was panic. You see, one of the things mentioned in my last round of edits was that I’d “almost” made her cry and she wanted me to push a little harder at that scene.

I know what you’re thinking…”Sel, is this going to be an entire post of you whining about how you can’t make people cry?” The answer is a resounding no, so put that baby to bed and come back for story time.

Once upon a time, a young woman named Seleste (though she was known only as Selestial at the time) belonged to a group of writers. Every month, these writers would come together to do battle over chapters of their manuscripts. Swords would clash, blood would flow, and the field was left decimated.

Okay, not really, but I was part of critique group, and eventually that’s what we became (once we stopped being afraid of hurting each others’ feelings). But early on, most of what people got were minor suggestions and a lot of cheerleading. Except…Kissa. I would post a chapters, and when I went back to read through comments, I’d get all the feel-good cheerleading…and then Kissa would tear my words apart. The first time it happened, I cried. Like ugly fucking tears. Then I realized she was actually trying to make me better and I decided getting an overall positive critique from Kissa was my new goal.

What does this have to do with Karen’s Facebook post? Well, you see how Kissa made me cry? Of the way I make other people cry, that’s the nicest. I don’t like to make people cry. Maybe it’s due to my history with depression. Maybe I’m just a sap. I don’t know. But the idea of intentionally making readers cry…I don’t know how to do it.

So, of course, that became a goal. It still is one. I’m working on it (obviously).

But in talking to Karen about her post, I realized the thing I like to do is make people laugh. Preferably the kind of laugh where you snort a beverage through your nose and have to clean your e-reader after. (According to my kids, I’m very funny. And if you can’t take the word of a teen and pre-teen, I’m not sure who you can trust.) That is my strength. (I mean, FFS, when I was editing, I came across a conversation about blow jobs that I’d forgotten. I almost snorted Pepsi Max all over my computer, and I wrote the damn bit.)

The point of this is, yes, making Karen cry is still a goal. I’m still going to work at it. But I’m also not going to go there to the detriment of my strengths. Megan Hart makes readers cry. Janet Evanovich makes them laugh. I may never get compared to the former, but I already had a reader mush one of my books and one of Evanovich’s together when talking to me. (Total confusion during and a whole lot of elation after that conversation. The Evanovich book in question, for those who care about such things, was Love in a Nutshell.)

This is something I’ve always done though–stretching my writing. (It used to be through flash fic writing challenges. Someday, ask me about writing in second person. I’ll tell you all the reasons it’s a bad idea…and that you should probably do it once anyway.) Since being published, it’s one of those things that I often forget. Play to your strengths as you work on your weaknesses. Otherwise, you’ll forget to have fun with your work while you’re trying to get better at it. And that’s no good at all.