Visceral Writing + Nostalgia = Effective Writing Every Time

Pow! Right in the kisser! 

A knife in the gut! 

Intestines spilling out of an open wound! 

Bloody bullet holes!

Those are the kinds of things that often come to mind when we think or talk about visceral writing. Gross stuff. Stuff that is painful to feel. Feelings that make a reader feel bad. 

We like to think, I believe, that visceral writing is a perfect tool for crime fiction and horror stories, but maybe not so much for regular fiction that doesn’t include fistfights, stab wounds, gunshots, or the rambling undead. But is that really true?

According to Vocabulary.com:

“When something’s visceral, you feel it in your guts. A visceral feeling is intuitive — there might not be a rational explanation, but you feel that you know what’s best, like your visceral reaction against egg salad.” Visceral comes from the word viscera, or the gut, the organs. Visceral writing is that which produces a sensation physically in a reader’s body, not just in a reader’s mind.

But let’s be honest. Are bad feelings the only kinds of feelings we experience in our gut, in our body, in our viscera? Not for me. And I certainly hope not for you either. What a horrible way to live. 

Read the full article: 

https://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/2024/11/visceral-writing-nostalgia-effective.html