How to Delight Readers (Writing Emotion: Delight)

The Writing Emotion series observes one emotion at a time in a story that does it well. This is so that we can understand better how to do our most important job as storytellers (no matter the genre): make readers feel.

The objective of these posts is less about learning to convey a specific emotion (joy, sorrow, anxiousness, etc.) and more about studying what is going on underneath a scene that makes the emotionality of it more compelling for the characters and the reader alike—

It’s about learning to write emotion.

Emotion: Delight
Story: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Delight: great pleasure, satisfaction, or happiness; reminiscent of giddiness, wonder, or childlike joy

Scene from the story:

Lesson 1: Use supporting context

Delight, in my opinion, is an emotion that needs context.

Although it’s always a good idea to have your character’s emotions come from an authentic place (meaning they have genuine emotional reactions to events that may or may not be the same as the characters around them and is based on their life experience), let’s be honest: everyone faced with a life or death situation experiences terror.

Delight, on the other hand, is a little harder to come by. What delights one person may or may not delight the other.

So how did the writers achieve such universal delight in this scene?

They build it up with supporting context and emotions.

For example, both the audience and Elliot have insane curiosity: What is this alien like? What does it look like? How will it behave?

Then, once he’s finally revealed, we experience wonder. This alien has his own curiosity. He is mimicking Elliot, accepting candy, wrapping the offered blanket around his shoulders. What else can he do? How different is he, really, than me?

These supporting emotions (which were similarly discussed in the post on Discovery) build up the scene, leading to our sense of delight.

The supporting context includes nostalgia (candy, hiding from your parents, bundling up with a blanket outside, etc.) and references to childhood wonder, which help create a delightful cocoon for us to nestle into as we experience the scene.

Lesson 2: Summon your inner child

We learn to resist, dull, avoid, or, in some rare cases, master our emotions as we grow older. Because of this, we don’t always remember how to experience or tap into emotions in their purest form.

If taking a reader on an emotional journey is about helping them feel different emotions, one way to deepen this is to help them feel various emotions that remind them of various times in their lives.

Especially their time as a child.

Delight, which we’re discussing in this scene, can be a very childlike emotion. But for any emotion, it may be helpful to think about how your inner child experienced it at pivotal times in your life.

Terror, anxiety, joy, etc. Did that emotion take over? Did it feel larger than life? Perhaps it took over in an exciting way or in an overwhelming way. How did that affect you?

The thing about stories is that they are safe spaces for us to feel and reimagine emotions.

Summoning your inner child is a cliche idea when we think of sitting with a therapist. But what if a story was a way for you to summon your inner child and reexamine an emotion? What if it could be cathartic? Or joyful? Or nostalgic?

Think of an emotion like terror.

Maybe you associate terror negatively with your childhood because of a traumatic event. What if you could use your story as a way to reimagine this? As a way to re-experience a certain aspect, angle, or unexamined layer of this emotion in a safer space?

Conversely, what if you associate terror with something thrilling, like a magical experience on a thrill ride? What if you could re-capture this aspect of the emotion?

Your childhood is ripe with different layers and dimensions of emotions you may not have considered in years. It’s a treasure trove of human experience that will make your reader feel.

For example, I loved re-watching E.T. recently with my children because I was able to experience their emotions, but also because I remembered my own experience first viewing this film as an 8-year-0ld. When I first watched E.T., I felt terror and devastation and grief and joy. And, of course, delight. Because of this emotional journey, it’s a film that’s stayed with me, and it’s a film I’m still happy to re-watch.

What emotion are you currently trying to capture in your story? How did you experience this emotion as a child? What is a significant or memorable experience that comes to mind?

Lesson 3: An unexpected bond

What’s the last thing you’d expect an extra-terrestrial to love? Reese’s pieces. At least, it’s likely low on the list of things you, as an adult, would think to offer. But it makes perfect sense that an 11-year-old boy would use them as bait.

Even better, this unexpected prop acts as a bond. In more ways than one. This memorable prop bonds the characters together, as well as the scene.

It’s a thread that takes us from the beginning of the scene, through to a new setting and layer of exploration.

What’s a perfect object/setting/prop that makes total sense for one character to use (and is unique to who they are/what stage of life they are in) that would be an unexpected way for two characters in one of your story’s scenes to bond?