#6 In Their Shoes

Being able to write a good quality story is hard enough on its own, but being able to write a good story while making the reader feel empathy for your characters is even harder. Some ways to write with empathy are to include many adjectives, add a lot of detail, and write in a way that your readers are able to relate to what is happening. This is an example from The Breadwinner: "One of the soldiers raised his rifle and whacked her on the head. She collapsed on the floor. The soldier hit her a few more times. Maryam and Ali screamed with every blow to their mother’s back." You feel empathy for these characters because this writing puts a clear picture in your mind. By using many adjectives, it seems like you’re living in someone else's shoes while reading this book. This is a way to make your reader feel empathy by using adjectives and using detail to make the reader have a clear picture in their mind. This makes them feel empathy for your characters.


One of the other ways that they make you feel empathy is by writing the passage in a way so that you can personally relate to the characters. An example of this is taken from The Breadwinner: "Then, late one afternoon, Parvana came home from work to find two men gently helping her father up the steps to the apartment. He was alive. At least part of the nightmare was over." As well as the other passage, this one uses adjectives and adverbs to help you visualize what is happening. The difference though is that this one is written so that you can relate to what Parvana is feeling. Most people can relate to this because it is like if your father has been away in another country for a while, and then when he comes home you are super excited to see him. Being able to relate to what the characters are going through helps a lot because the same or a similar thing has happened to you before. With this, you are able to feel empathy for the characters more than if had no idea what they are doing is like. Writing with empathy is a great way to make people to enjoy your stories even more.