SPA Girls Podcast – EP349 – How To Build Reader Connection With Your Characters

Building a deep connection between your characters and your readers is what
creates raving fans, books that stick like glue to the sales charts and fuels word-of-mouth recommendations. So how do we do this? Today we’re talking about tools and resources we use to build reader connection with our characters.

“When readers recognize the character’s emotional state as one they’ve experienced in the past, it creates a sense of shared experience. Readers will connect with the character, even on a subconscious level, because of this thing they have in common. This is a common way for empathy to begin.” ~ Bella Puglisi,

• Know your characters and what makes them tick
• show not tell
• make them sympathetic & relatable
• character interviews – Wendy does them quarter of the way through the book she’s writing
• Use character’s senses
• Make character have to choose between making a bad choice or a worse choice
• re-read your favorite books for inspiration

Recommended resource:
The Connection between Character Emotion and Reader Empathy
(https://www.livewritethrive.com/2019/02/04/the-connection-between-character-emotion-and-reader-empathy/#:~:text=When%20readers%20recognize%20the%20character’s,way%20for%20empathy%20to%20begin.)

Writing For Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias : https://www.karliglesias.com/

How To Make Readers Feel Emotion: https://theeditorsblog.net/2011/01/30/creating-emotion-in-the-reader/

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