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Writing With Emotion, Tension, and Conflict: Techniques for Crafting an Expressive and Compelling Novel
Today's highly competitive fiction market requires writers to imbue their novels with that special something - an element that captures readers' hearts and minds. In Writing With Emotion, Tension & Conflict , writers will learn vital techniques for writing emotion into their characters, plots and dialogue in order to instill that special something into every page.
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 2013
87 people are currently reading
730 people want to read
About the author
Cheryl St. John
71 books550 followersCheryl is the author of more than fifty historical and contemporary romances. Her stories have earned numerous RITA nominations, Romantic Times awards and are published in over a dozen languages.
In describing her stories of second chances and redemption, readers and reviewers use words like, “emotional punch, hometown feel, core values, believable characters and real-life situations.”
With a 4.9 star rating on amazon, her bestselling non-fiction book, Writing With Emotion, Tension & Conflict by Writers Digest Books is available in print and digital.
In describing her stories of second chances and redemption, readers and reviewers use words like, “emotional punch, hometown feel, core values, believable characters and real-life situations.”
With a 4.9 star rating on amazon, her bestselling non-fiction book, Writing With Emotion, Tension & Conflict by Writers Digest Books is available in print and digital.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
October 26, 2014
What I didn't know was that St. John is a "genre" writer, and specifically a romance novelist. I'm not sure I would have bought this book if I had known. Some of her advice is exactly the kind of advice that I think too many mediocre YA authors have taken to heart: readers have no attention spans, so you have to keep them engaged with fast-paced scenes; readers don't like to work at understanding so make everything clear an obvious; readers want to feel what the main character feels so use all kinds of strong descriptors like "heart pounded" "stomach clenched" "breath caught" etc etc etc. (this last thing is a personal pet peeve)
At one point St. John says that no one want to read too much too-clever witty banter because it is not believable that people could be that clever.
And a few times St. John suggests that to effortlessly endear your reader you should make your characters come with sympathetic "givens" like that they are an orphan, or abused, or poor, or missing a parent. Well, that explains a lot of YA, too.
But, look: St. John has written and published over 40 books; I've done neither. So I appreciated reading reminders about how important character motivation and conflict is, as well as her concrete suggestions about how to prepare to write.
At one point St. John says that no one want to read too much too-clever witty banter because it is not believable that people could be that clever.
And a few times St. John suggests that to effortlessly endear your reader you should make your characters come with sympathetic "givens" like that they are an orphan, or abused, or poor, or missing a parent. Well, that explains a lot of YA, too.
But, look: St. John has written and published over 40 books; I've done neither. So I appreciated reading reminders about how important character motivation and conflict is, as well as her concrete suggestions about how to prepare to write.
April 29, 2018
A book filled with solid advice and good exercises...useful for bothering the new writer and the more experienced one - especially as a refresher.
October 13, 2015
This was a very thorough and helpful book. What I loved most was that St. John provided at least one example for every point she was trying to make. Some chapters were stronger than others - some were pretty bland. I like that she included examples of her own work and mentioned she's published over 40 books, because it gave me confidence in her. However when she quoted a gushing customer review of one of her books, it felt too showy to me. I actually cringed.
In short, it's a pretty good writing book and worth a read. Take what you like, and leave the rest.
In short, it's a pretty good writing book and worth a read. Take what you like, and leave the rest.
November 14, 2013
This book should come with LIKE buttons!
I have read many writing craft books over the years and Writing with Emotion, Tension and Conflict is among the best! Even after having published more than thirty novels, I still learned new things from reading it and was reminded of other important points I'd forgotten. I am certain that I will come back to read parts of it often in the future when my stories hit a snag.
There are so many points in the book that I wish had Like button beside them, because they are things that need to be impressed upon every new writer (and some old ones!) but often aren't. For any writer serious about crafting the strongest possible commercial fiction, I would highly recommend investing in this book.
I have read many writing craft books over the years and Writing with Emotion, Tension and Conflict is among the best! Even after having published more than thirty novels, I still learned new things from reading it and was reminded of other important points I'd forgotten. I am certain that I will come back to read parts of it often in the future when my stories hit a snag.
There are so many points in the book that I wish had Like button beside them, because they are things that need to be impressed upon every new writer (and some old ones!) but often aren't. For any writer serious about crafting the strongest possible commercial fiction, I would highly recommend investing in this book.
September 8, 2014
Last week I went to Barnes and Nobles armed with a gift card. There's so much freedom that goes attached to entering a bookstore with a gift card. :) I was planning on buying The Emotion Thesaurus, but they didn't have it. So I got this book instead.
It was a good, easy read. And helpful too. I was a little surprised that the author spent a good chunk of the book talking about setting. (That doesn't fit Emotion, Tension, and Conflict in my mind, but it did in the mind of Cheryl St. John apparently.) I'd definitely recommend this book to fellow writers looking to punch up the *feeling* in their stories.
It was a good, easy read. And helpful too. I was a little surprised that the author spent a good chunk of the book talking about setting. (That doesn't fit Emotion, Tension, and Conflict in my mind, but it did in the mind of Cheryl St. John apparently.) I'd definitely recommend this book to fellow writers looking to punch up the *feeling* in their stories.
October 3, 2017
I did get a few tips from this book, but I feel that the author just wrote the book not as a creative writing instructional but to promote her other books. Maybe I would feel different if I were a fan of the western romance genre.
I feel a little cheated, I don't feel that I got $18.00 worth of anything except book reviews and excerpts from the author's other novels.
I also cringed when I started reading the last book review excerpt from a fan. I did not finish reading that section.
I feel a little cheated, I don't feel that I got $18.00 worth of anything except book reviews and excerpts from the author's other novels.
I also cringed when I started reading the last book review excerpt from a fan. I did not finish reading that section.
Read
July 1, 2014My critique partner Mike is amazed at the number of how-to-write books produced by people who've written very little. This is not one of them. Cheryl St. John is an award-winning author of over forty books. Writing with Emotion, Tension, and Conflict is a comprehensive guide for fiction writers of every experience level. The extensive examples were especially appreciated.
June 9, 2014
Great book. Easy to read and follow along with exercises. Ms St. John gave perfect examples making it easy for me to understand. Thoroughly enjoyed the book and will use it as a reference guide over and over again.
December 7, 2013
Exellent writing craft book and destined to become a classic as St John clearly demonstrates the techniques and methods required to crank emotional tension up a notch.
April 2, 2014
A strong book with great pointers. It definitely sparked some ideas as I read through it and I now want to watch some old movies again. I highly recommend it for anyone wishing to write.
March 13, 2015
This is a book about how to write stories that will evoke emotion in the reader and be memorable for that reason. Author Cheryl St. John, who has apparently published many books, presents sections on emotion, tension, conflict, dialog, and creating memorable characters. At least, that is what the author is trying to do in principle. In practice, she gives very little actionable advice, and many of her pointers are highly subjective. In the end, I felt like she was telling me how to write a book she would like to read, rather than how to create a compelling story in general.
St. John does one thing very well in this book: She gives good, general advice on what a story needs to be a "page turner" for the reader. For example, she tells you that you need conflict in your story to sustain it, and that "in order for conflict to matter, we have to care." She tells us not to information-dump in the first chapter, but to unravel the backstory gracefully, a little at a time. She describes the "scene and sequel" technique, which has been around for years (each intense scene should be followed by a sequel in which there is some winding down, some reflection on what has happened). She says that well-written dialogue is more powerful than narrative. I agree with these things.
However, beyond naming these principles and providing excerpts (mostly from her own books, which makes this seem more like a commercial than writing advice) in which these principles were ostensibly followed, Ms. St. John only rarely provides us with instruction on how to achieve these things. For example, how does one go from a blank page, with nothing, to crafting a story with good conflict? She really doesn't say.
The book is also riddled with pointless platitudes that do nothing to help the writer. For example, she says "The reader must feel the story." What does this even mean? It's incredibly simplistic and doesn't provide any assistance to someone trying to write good fiction. Worse, her own simplistic platitudes in one chapter sometimes contradict those in other chapters. For example, early on she says, "A story is feelings." Then later, without batting an eye, she states, "A story is a series of stimuli and reactions." But then later on, she says "a story is feelings" again. Which is it? And how does knowing that "a story is feelings" do anything to help a writer achieve success?
Finally, I found this book to be highly opinionated. St. John clearly enjoys reading books or watching movies with a certain style of writing, and her book is clearly designed to help you write stories she likes, rather than stories that are, more generally, good. She even admits to this bias on page 87: "My critique partners kid me about loving angst, and I do." And although she then says you don't "need" angst, if you look at her examples of what she likes and what books and movies she advises us to emulate, they are almost all riddled with angst. It does not help that her personal favorite is Pay it Forward, a movie that I utterly despise. There is no sense in which I think Pay it Forward was a good movie. And in fact, even St. John doesn't really think it's a good movie, because she admits that she hates the ending and that she has "edited" it in her own mind so that the kid doesn't die at the end. If it's such a good movie why did she have to make up her own ending for it? How she can not see that this makes the movie fatally flawed is really beyond me. This and some of the other examples she uses of movies she thinks are "great" but that I think are awful, call into question the entire line of her advice. Again, if these are the kinds of stories her advice will help me write, no thank you.
In the end, I found this book to be only marginally helpful. She definitely gives some good general advice about how to set up plot and dialogue, but for a 250+ page book, there is very little that I found, as a writer, I could act upon. I don't feel as though I can write with any more emotion, tension, or conflict now than before I picked up the book, and since that was its purpose, I don't think it succeeded very well.
St. John does one thing very well in this book: She gives good, general advice on what a story needs to be a "page turner" for the reader. For example, she tells you that you need conflict in your story to sustain it, and that "in order for conflict to matter, we have to care." She tells us not to information-dump in the first chapter, but to unravel the backstory gracefully, a little at a time. She describes the "scene and sequel" technique, which has been around for years (each intense scene should be followed by a sequel in which there is some winding down, some reflection on what has happened). She says that well-written dialogue is more powerful than narrative. I agree with these things.
However, beyond naming these principles and providing excerpts (mostly from her own books, which makes this seem more like a commercial than writing advice) in which these principles were ostensibly followed, Ms. St. John only rarely provides us with instruction on how to achieve these things. For example, how does one go from a blank page, with nothing, to crafting a story with good conflict? She really doesn't say.
The book is also riddled with pointless platitudes that do nothing to help the writer. For example, she says "The reader must feel the story." What does this even mean? It's incredibly simplistic and doesn't provide any assistance to someone trying to write good fiction. Worse, her own simplistic platitudes in one chapter sometimes contradict those in other chapters. For example, early on she says, "A story is feelings." Then later, without batting an eye, she states, "A story is a series of stimuli and reactions." But then later on, she says "a story is feelings" again. Which is it? And how does knowing that "a story is feelings" do anything to help a writer achieve success?
Finally, I found this book to be highly opinionated. St. John clearly enjoys reading books or watching movies with a certain style of writing, and her book is clearly designed to help you write stories she likes, rather than stories that are, more generally, good. She even admits to this bias on page 87: "My critique partners kid me about loving angst, and I do." And although she then says you don't "need" angst, if you look at her examples of what she likes and what books and movies she advises us to emulate, they are almost all riddled with angst. It does not help that her personal favorite is Pay it Forward, a movie that I utterly despise. There is no sense in which I think Pay it Forward was a good movie. And in fact, even St. John doesn't really think it's a good movie, because she admits that she hates the ending and that she has "edited" it in her own mind so that the kid doesn't die at the end. If it's such a good movie why did she have to make up her own ending for it? How she can not see that this makes the movie fatally flawed is really beyond me. This and some of the other examples she uses of movies she thinks are "great" but that I think are awful, call into question the entire line of her advice. Again, if these are the kinds of stories her advice will help me write, no thank you.
In the end, I found this book to be only marginally helpful. She definitely gives some good general advice about how to set up plot and dialogue, but for a 250+ page book, there is very little that I found, as a writer, I could act upon. I don't feel as though I can write with any more emotion, tension, or conflict now than before I picked up the book, and since that was its purpose, I don't think it succeeded very well.
May 20, 2014
This book is a keeper. (I.E. I can't lend it to friends because I use it so often.)
St. John's writing style makes this book fascinating and easy to understand, no matter how complex the idea. It felt like a (long) conversation with the warmest, most direct critique partner ever to hold a red pen.
I'm using my copy to make writing worksheets and checklists from. (There will be many.)
What is really helpful about this book is that it has:
Suggested movies to watch, with explanations of what to look for and how to learn from them
Suggested books to read (ditto above)
Exercises
References to and suggestions for other writing books (one gem I hadn't heard of before: The Describer's Dictionary by Grambs)
*Movies to watch! Best homework ever.*
This book is well worth its price. It's an excellent reference and covers emotion, tension, and conflict from the ground up. Even more than characters' traits and important plot components, she talks about things like settings and characters' names.
I highly, highly recommend this book for writers at all stages. I'm confident everyone will learn from this excellent manual.
St. John's writing style makes this book fascinating and easy to understand, no matter how complex the idea. It felt like a (long) conversation with the warmest, most direct critique partner ever to hold a red pen.
I'm using my copy to make writing worksheets and checklists from. (There will be many.)
What is really helpful about this book is that it has:
Suggested movies to watch, with explanations of what to look for and how to learn from them
Suggested books to read (ditto above)
Exercises
References to and suggestions for other writing books (one gem I hadn't heard of before: The Describer's Dictionary by Grambs)
*Movies to watch! Best homework ever.*
This book is well worth its price. It's an excellent reference and covers emotion, tension, and conflict from the ground up. Even more than characters' traits and important plot components, she talks about things like settings and characters' names.
I highly, highly recommend this book for writers at all stages. I'm confident everyone will learn from this excellent manual.
November 18, 2013
Those who have been lucky enough to take a writing class from Cheryl St. John know she is a born teacher. Her new book on writing, Emotion, Tension and Conflict, is an engaging, encouraging, and jam-packed series of lessons on what makes writing a novel work and how to avoid the pitfalls even experienced writers may fall into once in a while.
Using a variety of examples from books to television to film, St. John includes a variety of exercises guaranteed to help with the thorniest of writing issues. Best of all, the exercises are fun, the tone encouraging, and her personal anecdotes engaging.
Definitely a book to read and keep by the keyboard.
Using a variety of examples from books to television to film, St. John includes a variety of exercises guaranteed to help with the thorniest of writing issues. Best of all, the exercises are fun, the tone encouraging, and her personal anecdotes engaging.
Definitely a book to read and keep by the keyboard.
March 13, 2014
For writers who, like Ms. St. John, are writing craft book junkies, there won't be much in new info. Where this book excels is in presentation. Concepts are presented in an easily digested manner. This doesn't mean that the concepts are simple. In fact, writing emotion is anything but easy, but the author has a teaching style which makes it seem so. I anticipate that this will quickly become one of my "go-to" craft books. Disclaimer: I received this from the Goodreads First Reads program. It did not influence my review.
February 9, 2014
This is sure to be an often checked reference book when writing trying to write that oft thought about novel. There's a lot of really good info here.
If I have a criticism it would be that the examples used are either a) overly long, and b) fromt eh author's own works on many occasions. That didn't really sit too well for me. Would prefer that the examples were all "neutral" so to speak.
If I have a criticism it would be that the examples used are either a) overly long, and b) fromt eh author's own works on many occasions. That didn't really sit too well for me. Would prefer that the examples were all "neutral" so to speak.
April 25, 2014
A must-have for every writer who wants to up their game!
June 9, 2014
I learned much from this one, and reread it often.
July 6, 2014
Loved this craft book! It's a great compilation of all the best writing advice, with easy to understand suggestions.
December 9, 2016
This book is a fantastic writing resource that I will return to as I'm writing.
March 28, 2024
Cheryl St. John wrote not only an entertaining book with LOADS of real-world examples for the techniques she covers, but breaks those techniques down in digestible, easy-to-understand ways. I especially enjoyed her focus on creating and sustaining tension. A novel without anticipation and nervousness in the both the characters and the reader isn't all that entertaining, and St. John gives actionable tips that you can perform in the moment (like I did with my current manuscript) or for later plot bunnies that show up at three in the morning (like I did for two stories on the backburner screaming for that chance at being told). Highly recommend for authors and editors alike!
September 16, 2017
Whilst I would recommend this book to anyone, and it was very useful and inspiring, I found that the author tended to use far too many lengthy examples from her own work for my taste. Don't get me wrong, she's a good writer and her work was often very good, but it got to the point of "oh, another one. Didn't we just have an example?" and they'd go on for at least two pages in some cases.
That being said I did enjoy this book. It gave me lots of food for thought and I was able to read it all in one day.
That being said I did enjoy this book. It gave me lots of food for thought and I was able to read it all in one day.
March 1, 2025
Mostly bland advice, with examples drawn almost entirely from the author's own work.
My biggest issue was the lack of focus on delicate wordplay. In general, there was no love for subtlety in the book. The author seemed to suggest that audiences 1. are stupid and 2. have no attention spans.
Her main advice: make plots obvious, use tired phrases, and create cheap sympathy with orphaned or abused characters.
That said, I still made about 200 sticky notes of comments, and took down a notepad full of notes.
I'm not sure what this says about me.
My biggest issue was the lack of focus on delicate wordplay. In general, there was no love for subtlety in the book. The author seemed to suggest that audiences 1. are stupid and 2. have no attention spans.
Her main advice: make plots obvious, use tired phrases, and create cheap sympathy with orphaned or abused characters.
That said, I still made about 200 sticky notes of comments, and took down a notepad full of notes.
I'm not sure what this says about me.
January 20, 2018
The advice in here isn't too shabby, but if you're expecting it to give you clear cut information on how to create tension such as word choice, cliffhangers, etc., it's not going to do that. While it does give some details on how to use setting to create tension, it seemed more about character development than what I was expecting. Still, I did end up with a couple pages of notes of tips I'll apply to my next project.
August 10, 2024
St. John uses a variety of movies and books as examples to help readers see examples that illustrate the techniques she advocates. In some books, that might lead to problems for the reader if they haven't watched the movies or read the books she references. However, St. John explains as she teaches, so that is not a hindrance here. I came away from reading this book not only better able to appreciate the techniques, but hopefully to apply them to my own writing. This is a reference book I am glad that I have added to my collection.
October 30, 2017
It's a decent book, but it's all things that show up in every writing guidebook, plus huge swaths of writing used as examples. There was one 'example' that went on for four pages. Plus St. John had a strange habit of referring to characters as 'story people', then dropping the term completely and calling them characters from Chapter 19 onward.
June 5, 2018
Out of the dozen or so books that I've read on creative writing, this one was the most densely packed with relevant information. I've never dog-eared and highlighted so much in my entire life. My gut tells me that I'll be returning to this book over and over, as I dive headlong down the creative writing rabbit hole.
June 9, 2022
This book explained many of the writing principles I have learned but didn’t completely click in my mind. It brought to life many of the things I’ve attempted to study in my favorite novels but couldn’t quite articulate. If you want to write deeply layered, heartfelt fiction this is the book for you!
June 17, 2017
A good book for writers which gave me a number of useful ideas and tools for characterization. I'll be going through this book a second time to jot down a few notes.
October 30, 2017
excellent resource for the fiction author, written in an entertaining conversational style.
March 27, 2018
Great book
I haven't bought another writing guide in a while because of the titles I already have. But this book is great. Cheryl St. John is as great teacher as she is an author.
I haven't bought another writing guide in a while because of the titles I already have. But this book is great. Cheryl St. John is as great teacher as she is an author.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews