To Write Better — Write With Empathy

Once my teacher told me that all great writings are the writings of pain.

And as much as I have read, I have found that yes, my teacher was right.

But the question is that how a writer is capable to reach that level to inject pains in his writing in a way that resonates with the people?

Well, the answer is that a writer reaches that pain through the path of empathy. Without it, a writer cannot represent the true feelings of an individual or a section of people.

And only writing that embodies empathy and pain shall pass the test of time. Otherwise, the frigidity will render it to the dark recesses of time where no one will find it.

To achieve that sublime quality of empathy in your writing, let there be a living pain in it.

So, such writing requires you to empathically feel the pains of the people you write about to genuinely represent them.

What is empathy?

Empathy is the feeling of diving deep into another’s feelings and feeling them as though they are your own.

Empathy is the supreme form of sympathy. We all have feelings of sympathy, but only people who are bestowed with a little more insight and sensitivity can evoke the feeling of empathy.

The empathic person is always at the height of identifying himself with others at a level that the feeling becomes the part of his personality and lives in his unconscious, forever, as of his own.

It is the ability to enter into the body and soul of another person imaginatively and to feel his pain as it is yours.

“Empathy is the power of entering into another’s personality and imaginatively experiencing his experiences.” — Chambers English Dictionary, 1989 edition

How to write with empathy?

A writer is an empathic creature. A person who lacks the power of empathy can’t feel others and can’t write about them. A writer who lacks empathic feelings for others can’t write about them genuinely.

Identify yourself with the object

Once I asked an influential writer that how you pack your writing with so much intensity of emotions that it seems too real and one can’t help but get influenced by it immensely.

He simply told me that he enters the body of the person he wants to write about and imagines his feelings or reaction towards certain circumstances. He also told me that it helps him get into the psyche of a section of people who are thus represented by that one person.

By doing so, he generates genuine feelings about the reactions of the persons as he imaginatively goes through the same situation as that of the object at hand.

Similarly, one can notice empathy in William Wordsworth’s famous poem ‘The Daffodils’ in which Wordsworth identifies himself with the cloud at the beginning of the poem and invokes the feeling of wondering lonely over valleys and mountains. But as the poem ends, he becomes one with the daffodils.

The first stanza of the poem

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

The last Stanza of the poem

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

So, you see that initially, Wordsworth identifies himself with clouds and genuinely invokes that feeling of floating lonely in a vast sky. As we read the poem, his empathy empowers us too and we imagine that we are floating up above and suddenly see daffodils and get happy.

While in the last stanza, we see that the poet likes the daffodils so much that he joined them in their jocund company and becomes one with them in their dancing.

Extend your feeling to a section of people

A writer doesn’t write for one person. He writes for a section of people or even sections of people. While representing the inner feelings of sections of people is a difficult thing to do. But don’t worry, you can do that by generalizing it. Extend the feeling to all people who are going through similar situations.

By extending the representation of your feeling and applying it on a general level, I mean to bring the universal element into your writing.

For example, if you are writing about relationships, you can pick up a few core issues such as love dilemmas, happy love, toxic relationships, cheating, flirting, separation, union, platonic love, and family problems.

These are the common things we see in almost all relations. You have to add all these elements in one way or the other to engage your readers by representing every aspect of their problem.

Know the ambitions of your readers

When you write something, you keep in view a targeted audience. Many writers write about various people. They keep few things of their audience in views such as gender, age, culture, class, opportunities, and challenges.

For example, the recurring themes of Charles Dickens’s novels are poverty, child labor, repressive schools, opportunities and challenges brought by the industrial revolution, and how they affect the poor and ambitious Childs like Pip in Great Expectations.

Rohl Dal is yet another great writer who writes about children. His themes are also recurring in his famous works like The Witches, BFG, Danny the Champion of the World, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc.

His most recurring themes are a family is supportive and wonderful, food and drinks, the transformation of witches, animals, humans, supernatural powers, and monsters. His themes cater more to the curious minds of children.

Other many writers write specifically about a group of people and know their feelings such as ambitions, fears, loves, hates, and the hardships or opportunities their characters face in the way.

Give them a way out

Once you have chosen your audience and learned enough about their problems and opportunities, give them a way out of their situation and make them realize that you are one of them.

While writing about the problem, you have to touch the nerve of your audience and make them believe that you find a way out of the grueling situations.

For example, Jane Austen is a great English novelist who has touched the nerve of her audience by digging deep down into women’s problems. She knew the ambitions, the fears, loves, hates, and all other related feelings women feel when she comes of age about her existence.

She explores the problems of every age’s women and gives them the solution, or at least makes them feel that they aren’t alone in all this.

Writing about the digital generation

We talked enough of poetry and fiction. But what about non-fictional writing? Can we apply empathy in non-fictional writing?

The answer is a big yes. The whole marketing company is run by addressing her audiences through empathic writings.

They put emotions in their sales copy, landing pages, blog posts, and other content that invites specific readers and make take action.

The marketers are trying to find the gaps or missing things in the reader’s lives and fill them with their words. They also aim at the age, job, skills, ambitions, challenges of their readers and provide them with a solution that either turns into sales or education.

The modern world technologies have brought myriads of opportunities and challenges for the users. Marketers (content writers, companies, YouTubers, etc.) are all trying to either highlight the problems or solve them in various ways.

The self-help courses, articles, books serve multiple purposes such as upskilling the audience by providing them skills, education, and means to live a life of their choices.

All these writers and marketers use the power of empathy to convey a meaningful and efficient message that resonates with readers. Without empathy, it will be difficult to grab the attention of your readers.

Why write with empathy?

Writing with empathy provides an edge to a writer to influence his readers immensely. When you write with empathy, you present your genuine feelings with which the readers identify themselves.

When they find that they can identify themselves with your writing, they find a space, a means, or a community who they think share their inner feeling, emotions, sensations, desires, and needs.

Grow your audience

When you write with empathy, people will love to read your work. They will probably want you to produce more work of their choice once they found out that you are the guy they need.

So, empathic writing boosts your audience and allows you to expand your influence across borders and nations.

It also connects you with like-minded people with whom you can interact freely. Once you start interacting with them, which is quite necessary, you will learn from them about different cultures and geographies indirectly.

Increase your revenues

Empathic writing not only garner huge followings for you but also helps you to earn smartly. The more your fan base increases, the more it turns into revenue.

Once you have a significant number of following, which happens through empathic writings and build trust with them; you can use your followings for redirecting them to your site or can sell them a product.

There many other ways where you can leverage your huge following-base. It is a world of marketing, and online marketing has revolutionized the art. Now, you don’t need to tire a lot or spend a lot. All you need to have followers, a product or an idea, an internet connection, a device, and little know-how of it to send it to them.

Final thoughts

Without empathy, a writer cannot successfully represent the feelings, ambitions, and pains of a section of people. Be empathic to truly represent what others are feeling.

When you lack the power of empathy in your writing, no one is going to engage with it at a deeper level. A human is an emotional being and responds to emotional calls more easily.

Pack your writing with loads of empathic emotions, but it must not lack originality.

The reader should find themselves in your writing. If your writing is addressing no one or it lacks the humanized feelings, it will suffer from frigidity.

So, to enliven your writing, write with empathy. It will improve your writing and will provide you with a significant number of followers, which is what a writer needs to have a successful writing career.

If you failed to invoke genuine feelings of empathy with a section of people, your writing career can’t take off.