Never underestimate the importance of moving your reader emotionally. This is the key to making your work stand out as memorable. As they say:
People will forget what you said.
People will forget what you did.
People will never forget how you made them feel.
Emotional memories are the strongest, residing (literally) in both the brain and the heart. If you haven’t read any of the research done regarding heart transplant patients who acquired some of their donor’s memories, I recommend you read “The Heart’s Code” by Paul Pearsall.
If you move your reader emotionally, their heart doesn’t know the difference whether it was a personal experience or vicarious on behalf of a character in a novel. Think about your favorite stories and tell me if that isn’t true. For me, the most memorable books are those that made me laugh, cry, or best yet, both. Reader involvement emotionally is essential to creating and retaining fans.
Marcha's Two-Cents Worth 
I’ve always said that non-fiction’s major goal was sharing information while fiction’s goal should be to have the reader feel emotions. Years ago, I even wrote a short article for a writer’s magazine Fiction = Emotion was the title. I then sat and stared at my computer screen and wondered what to write for the actual article, since IMO the title said it all.
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So true. If I don’t feel something, I won’t remember much about it.
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I suspect that lack of emotional attachment is why some non-fiction info seems so difficult for me to recall. That said, year by year, I see journalists try to incorporate more and more emotion into their reports. For instance, instead of giving statistics, reports now tend to choose an individual who has been affected by the situation and make the report about their experience instead of an overview of the issue.
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I think many writers think more about the elements of story telling and less about the emotional effect on readers, and yet one of the reasons we love certain series like the Bruno books, or the Three Pines mysteries, is that we feel with the characters. We care about them and are emotionally involved. A good reminder, Marcha.
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Mary, you do such a FABULOUS job of this! I’m currently reading your “In the Shadow of Lies” and I am so impressed! I’m thinking of doing a session for the next RRBC conference on rendering emotions and, with your permission, was going to use some examples from your book and some other RRBC members who do this correctly. You are a fantastic writer!
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My goodness, Marcha! I will be smiling all day because of your comments. You are welcome to use examples from my book. Thank you.
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