This morning, I woke up to this comment. There is something magical that your words are somewhere, that a person has never seen you, does not know you, and yet, that you manage to make them feel something. It’s the magia of writing, an art as simple to access as it is infinitely complex to master.
I made sharing my quest. One can read an infinity of treatises about correct spelling, the right verb, the right structure, the right method… but very little about how to make your readers feel something.
Surely because it is the most complex part of writing. It is easy to write good words. Writing words that will stay with someone is another story. But in the era of AI, this is your last hedge. AI will write perfect texts. Clean. Structured. Flawless. But empty. Because it feels nothing. And what you don’t feel… you can’t transmit. This is where you position yourself.
Today, I give you a simple guide on how to make your audience feel emotions. My artist soul would like to simply tell you: write with your heart and close this article. But you can place many weapons in the hands of an artist soul so that it refines its art.
Most people think writing is about ideas. They think it is enough to be intelligent, to have something to say, and to formulate it well. But in reality, writing is not about ideas. It is about chemistry.
In all our social interactions, complex brain chemistries are triggered without us wanting it. We have built-in programs that react to sensory experiences in the same way.
Almost everyone is happy when there is beautiful sunshine. Many people grind their teeth when it rains. Everyone is amazed by a rainbow, a cute little dog, a funny little cat. Everyone feels disgust when they read the news. About war, about crimes, about all those bad things we naturally hate.
Now imagine that your writing becomes a ray of sunshine, warming, something to admire. A rainbow in which one can get lost contemplating the colors. That little animal so cute that we find comforting. But your writing can also become cruel, violent, detestable. Make each of your words call for disgust or revolt.
That is all the power that lies in your heart if it properly guides your hands.
When someone reads you, they do not only “understand” what you write. Their brain reacts. It releases dopamine when something catches attention, oxytocin when they feel understood, cortisol when they feel tension. In other words, you are not manipulating words. Each line triggers a reaction. And each line can have a precise purpose.
Majority of texts stay on the surface. They describe, explain, argue. They speak to the intellect, but they do not touch any heart. And a text that does not touch the heart is a text that is forgotten. The brain does not retain what is simply logical. It retains what is experienced, even in a simulated way. Like you remember precise elements from your childhood. Like a smell can remind you of a situation. Because emotion marked your body and anchored the moment forever.
We want our words to be alive. We want our words to live inside our readers. So we must use emotional triggers and combine them with synesthesia.
Emotional triggers are the entry point. They make it possible to immediately activate an already lived experience in your reader.
Like last week, I will give very simple examples. It is your heart and your poetry that will magnify them.
“You have probably already felt this…” or “There is that moment when…”, you are not giving information. You force the brain to search for a memory. And as soon as it finds one, the reading changes. Your reader is no longer reading your text. They are reliving something.
The strongest emotional triggers are those that connect the reader to their childhood, to their future or to their dreams. At a second level, those that connect them to the emotions that torment them. Love and hate are the kings. Envy, shame, fear, doubts… all the simple emotions that pass through us daily.
So we must manage, in a few lines, to connect our reader to the targeted emotion. It is not enough to use the trigger alone. The trigger is the key. The emotion opens the door.
“My first love was my first lesson. Feeling for the first time that another being is more important than yourself. Jumping with joy when you learn that she loves you. Smiling foolishly while admiring her pictures. Waking up with the firm conviction that the world could not be more perfect. Letting the other invade your soul. Thinking about that Valentine’s Day for months. Carefully preparing that day. Your faithful video game console is only a minor sacrifice to be able to offer your beloved such a beautiful jewel. Thinking about her joy when you place it around her neck. Doing it. Exchanging a kiss that stops the world. Going back home proud. Receiving a text a few hours later. I left her a jewel. She left me a scar.”
(This really happened to me lol. Be indulgent with the passionate young man I was.)
My first love was my first lesson.
The connection happens here. Everyone has a first love. And generally, it always ends badly. There’s also the element of curiosity sparked by the first line.
Jumping with joy when you learn that she loves you. Smiling foolishly while admiring her pictures.
Two senses connecting two emotions are used in these two sentences. Movement and sight.
Synesthesia is your formidable tool.
Silence becomes heavy. Thoughts become loud. An emotion takes space inside your body. Mixing the senses. Giving texture to a sound. Giving weight to a silence. Making an emotion almost tangible. The brain is not used to that. It stops, it processes, and above all, it feels.
Look at the difference between these two sentences.
“I was anxious.”
And:
“An invisible weight was assaulting my chest. My thoughts were colliding, too fast to breathe. The worst scenarios were playing one after another in infernal loops. A few seconds were enough to make me live an infinite terror.”
In the first, you understand. In the second, you feel. And that is exactly what you are looking for.
Now, if you want a clear path to apply, you can follow this simple three-step structure.
Trigger an emotion.
Make it physical with synesthesia.
Anchor it in reality.
If we combine the three, it gives something like:
“You felt this. That moment when everything suddenly slows down. The silence becomes loud as if it were pressing against your temples. You stay there, motionless, staring at a point without really seeing it. Breathing but not living anymore.”
You no longer explain an emotion. You recreate it.
The brain does not clearly differentiate between a real experience and a well-imagined one. If the simulation is precise enough, it reacts almost the same way. That is why some texts stay with you for days. Not because they were intelligent, but because they made you feel something.
If I had to sprinkle these lines with one last piece of advice. Stay simple. But elegant. Many people think that to write something powerful, you need complicated words. It is the opposite. The simpler your words are, the more the brain can quickly transform them into images and sensations. “Cold”, “heavy”, “tight”, “noise”, “empty”. These are basic words, but extremely effective when well combined.
Stop asking yourself if your idea is interesting.
Ask yourself: “What does it feel like in the body?” What is the temperature of this emotion? Its weight? Its texture? And how can I translate that with simple words?”
You no longer try to impress. To explain. To position yourself as an authority. You try to make something be lived. You no longer write only to be understood. You write to be felt. You guide attention, you create tension, you offer relief. Line after line, you build an experience.
You don’t share ideas anymore.
You trigger internal states.
And people never forget what they felt.
Because we live in an artificial era.
Where everything is fucking fake.
Very rare are the sincere hearts still wandering through our digital lands.
Once you find them, you cherish them.
On this, my friends, wishing you an awesome Wednesday.
If you are still here, you can like the article. A small gesture for you, but a big step for my writing to reach a wider audience. And if you want to go deeper
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