Empathy is a trait where you not only sympathize with another person’s situation, but you share feelings with that person. You walk a mile in their moccasins. How can writing utilize empathy for more effective fiction?

Writing Tip for Today: Let’s look at the ways in which empathy can improve fiction:

Empathy, Three Ways

Psychology identifies three types of empathy: cognitive, emotional and compassionate. The first, cognitive, basically means “empathy by thought.” This type of empathy enables a person to see another’s perspective—where they’re “coming from.” If your readers can relate to or understand your protagonist’s goals and motivations, these readers are more likely to keep reading.

Emotional empathy means that you give your character an emotion and your readers “catch” it and feel the same emotion. In a tense scene, eliciting an emotional response that matches the POV character will further cement the bond readers create with that character. In life, emotional empathy can be distressing—a person might become overwhelmed by their emotional empathy. But in fiction, the more emotion you raise in readers, the harder it will be for them to stop reading.

Finally, there is compassionate empathy. In life those with compassionate empathy not only feel another’s emotions, they act to help. In fiction, your character might be so strong and moving that readers will be changed forever. This type of empathy is usually found in classic literature or where the author has a deep and global understanding of the human condition.

Why Empathy?

Empathy is vital to good fiction because it centers on how people feel. Feeling is crucial to keep readers not only interested but invested in a character’s story. I’ve written before about the role emotions must play in any story.

If you concentrate too much on the outer aspects of your character, the result is usually a flat reading experience. Even worse, a seemingly unfeeling character will be perceived as cold or uncaring. Even your antagonist should have feelings—even if those feelings justify wrong actions or thinking.

And what about a character who’s been so hurt that he/she vows never to feel again? This is a well-worn set-up for a character who starts out rejecting feelings and winds up embracing a new way to feel. I think even this character must show their wounds and hurts to the reader, even if in the opening that character is steely or ambivalent toward other characters in the story. Readers must be willing to see this character’s humanity to sign on for the rest of the story.

Writers’ Empathy

Giving your characters strong feelings is a great way to hook readers. But what about the writer behind these characters? I think that fiction is a wonderful outlet for our deepest hurts and disappointments. We can translate these feelings into our characters. Yet the writer’s empathy is also important.

If you hold uncaring views about people or certain populations, this attitude will likely shine through into your story. Your lack of good will or your neglect to understand other groups or types of people may spill over into what you write. Of course, this is a great thing if you hold bad feelings against someone who is trying to blow up the world. But if you don’t empathize with your Main Character, readers probably won’t either.

The older I get, the more I want to write from a compassionate empathy. I may not be a Toni Morrison or a William Faulkner, but I can stay aware of the Empathy Factor as I write. Even if I only achieve Emotional Empathy for my characters and readers, those feelings will take readers a long way toward relating to my stories. As you write, I hope you’ll consider the empathy present in your fiction and in your life.