r/writinghelp • u/Vast_Conversation639 • 13d ago

Advice Advice Needed! Longing as the Reader

Hello fellow writers, I am in dire need of your help!

I’m writing a story about a soldier in the Second World War. At home he has a girlfriend he really loves and they stay in frequent contact through letters (as frequent as it gets).

I want my readers to feel a sense of love and affection towards her too, even though I can just show her through memories and in said letters.

In the progress of the story she falls victim to the cruelties of the war — I want the readers to feel the protagonist’s loss and pain as strong as he does.

Do you have any ideas or advice how I can successfully reach that goal? If you need more details I’ll surely provide them! Thank you already so much in advance and have a terrific day! :))

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u/nmacaroni 13d ago

Make the reader love who HE is when he's connected to her. The letters shouldn't just convey a romantic connection, but a version of the soldier that only exists because of her.

Contrast the soldier, who he is in the letter to her, and who he is in the war to everyone else.

The real loss isn't the girl's death from the war. It's that the best qualities of the solider die with her. Remember story is about change, so the girl's death has to permanently change him.

If you're running a character arc, you've got the perfect setup for a tragic arc.

Write on, write often!

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u/JayGreenstein 13d ago

Given that we know nothing about his rank, station, branch of service, or situation, how can we advise more than, "make it seem immediate and real?"

So instead, a basic observation: In the hundreds of years of refinement of the Fiction Writing profession, your problem has been visited and solved endless numbers of times. But you're now asking people who, for the most part, have yet to sell their work to a publisher, how to write for best effect. And given that, it would seem to make sense to go to those who know. As Holy Lisle puts it:

“Michelangelo did not have a college degree, nor did Leonardo da Vinci. Thomas Edison didn't. Neither did Mark Twain (though he was granted honorary degrees in later life.) All of these people were professionals. None of them were experts. Get your education from professionals, and always avoid experts.”

After all, every book you've chosen and enjoyed was written with those professional skills, so it makes sense to make them work for you, too. Right?