Use feelings to enliven your text and make for more interesting reading

You may have really strong feelings to vent and getting them down on paper will be good therapy for you. You may also want to add colour, life and texture through your descriptions or inserted remembered conversations. Weave your emotions into the text; let the reader feel the heat of a WWII battle or the thrill of your first ride on a roller coaster. Do this by setting your scene in some detail with what the weather was like and what you chatted about. Every person has drama, suspense, conflict and joy in their lives. Express this and your biography will be more interesting to read.

If it was a lazy summer day, show that through your colourful descriptions in longer sentences. If it was a frightening situation, keep sentences short. Show how you rushed around by quoting short bits of conversations that have stayed with you.

I remember a hot July day on a sandy beach in Wales when I dozed off because I felt the children were safe looking for crabs. Then one of the boys cried out, “Nanny, come here. Matthew has fallen into the water.” I can hear the urgency in Richard’s voice even now. I got up, knocking over the deck chair and rushed to the pools of water near the rocks. Matthew had slipped on a rock and fallen onto his back. He was soaked but not hurt. Just in shock. Fortunately the water was shallow enough for me to lift him up easily. He was just scared. I held him close. Then I dried him off and wrapped him in my big blue sweater.  But both boys still remember that incident, although they laugh about it now.

This is just one memory I had but it may help you to see how I remember it. You may remember other incidents in your own life that come back to you as you smell something or hear an old song. Every time I go to a bakery, I remember going to buy bread with seven pence when I was about seven. It was just down the road from my aunt’s house and I loved going there. The warm delicious aroma of newly baked bread was irresistible! I paid the baker and took the bread wrapped in a white bag, holding its warmth close to me. Before I was ten steps away, I bent over the loaf and dug my thumb and fingers into one end to taste the wonderful hot bread. There was quite a hole in it by the time I reached our house. I can hear my aunt say, “Not again!” And then she’d laugh. I was lucky.

What happens when you smell a special dish cooking or after you hear music that brings tears to your eyes? Do you remember a place or a person by the scent another may wear?

Do you ever get the feeling of “déjà vu”?  Using these memories and feelings will enliven your text and interest your readers. Why not try it?