How Important is Emotional Intelligence for Writers

Emotions are sometimes overwhelming, tough to identify and understand. But they are one of the things that keep us going. This is why, if we learn how to identify and regulate our emotions, we can significantly upgrade the quality of our lives. But what about Emotional Intelligence for writers?

Now, the thing is, we as human beings have high expectations for ourselves. Sometimes, these expectations are not what we truly want but more of what we are taught to be. We are taught to be rational and perfect at all times.

And during this journey of trying to perfect every aspect of our lives and excel in everything, we start behaving like robots.

Often, forgetting robots do not have emotions, and we are not robots. This is why we fail and get burnout quickly when we start working to achieve our goals. Because unlike the robotic version we were trying to be, who did not have any exposure to emotions. We are driven by our emotions.

Emotions: How Do They Work?

According to the latest researches and studies that were done by psychologists and physiologists, two variables make up the nature of human emotions. These two are physiological changes and our cognitive appraisal.

Examples of physiological changes can be the release of serotonin or adrenaline. These are hormones that allow us to feel certain emotions. But the thing is, our brain does not release these hormones randomly. We don’t get sudden bursts of joy or sadness.

This is why the cognitive appraisal theory also exists. The cognitive appraisal is basically our interpretation of situations. For example, if we interpret an action or situation as an achievement, we will feel happy. Similarly, if we consider it a failure, it will cause us to feel sad.

Emotions play a profound and significant role in our lives. They are what makes us human. We can undoubtedly say that without feeling different emotions, we would have no motivation to move forward in our lives.

This is why we need to learn how to understand and process our emotions intelligently. In a way where we don’t suppress them but completely feel them, process them, not get overwhelmed by them. And accept them wholeheartedly.

This ability is called Emotional Intelligence, and those who have it can understand themselves and others much better. This is also the secret weapon of many successful writers. Emotional Intelligence for writers is the golden key for making your readers understand and feel what you want them to.

Emotional Intelligence

This term gathered attention when in 1995, Daniel Goleman wrote a book named “Emotional Intelligence.” Now, Emotional Intelligence, as described a few times before, is the ability to identify, understand, manage, and process your own and others’ emotions.

Studies have shown that people with high Emotional Intelligence have stable and more excellent mental health, increased happiness, and strong leadership skills.

Significance of Emotional Intelligence for Writers

Emotional Intelligence is vital for a writer because it helps you identify and understand your own and others’ feelings. This ability further allows you to convey various emotions in your content, making your work meaningful and establishing an emotional connection with your reader.

How to Use Emotional Intelligence to Help Your Writing?

If you want to better your writing using Emotional Intelligence, then, first of all, you need to stop believing in the myth of rationality. Not aware of this myth? Well, then let us give you an example.
Do you ever sit down to write and have this pressure on your head to sound like a professor who is a know-it-all? If yes, then let us break it to you, my friend. You are trapped in the myth of rationality.

But, don’t get me wrong, though. Rational or irrational, your content needs to be made with deep and authentic research. However, it doesn’t need excessive jargon or perhaps vocabulary that a normal person can’t comprehend.

Trust me when I say no one likes to read stuff that is emotionless and stuffed with jargon. So in order to make your writing better, what you can do is connect with your readers. And this is where Emotional Intelligence for writers comes in handy.

When you sit down to write, keep in mind that you are an emotional being, and so are your readers. You don’t have to act emotionless just to put your point across. When you write, feel free to include emotions in your content.

And now you might be wondering how I can incorporate emotions in my content? Well, you can do this in various ways, try mentioning an experience of yours or someone else’s which is related to your topic. Or you can perhaps share a memory that you think your readers will find interesting.

The point is don’t be afraid to expose yourself. If you are a writer, it means you are a content creator.

Therefore, be daring to create and put forward your rawest pieces of writing. If you find an unpopular opinion of yours appropriate, then go ahead state it in your content. Don’t be afraid of judgments or oppositions.

You never know. Someone out there might have the same opinion as you.

Now, let us discuss how this is going to affect your writing and help your writing business. First of all, including emotions in your piece of writings will automatically make your content so much more interesting to read. This is because your readers are emotional beings too. And when you include emotions in any form, whether it be memories, experiences, or opinions, it will leave an impact on your reader.

Perhaps, the memory you shared will remind them of something. Or maybe your experience will help them tackle a similar situation more wisely. Or it might be that they’ll have a similar take on a view of yours.

All this will help you establish an emotional connection with your reader, which further significantly impacts your writing business. Let’s get down to the brass tacks of it.

Have you ever heard someone saying, ‘Oh! Yeah, so and so is my favorite author.’ Or maybe something like ‘That’s my favorite blog, I don’t enjoy anything else.’ Well, what do you think? Why do people have favorite authors and favorite blogs?
Now, if you aren’t aware of the power of emotions, you must be thinking, ‘Well, duh! It is because that author or blog owner is a good writer.’

Well, my friend though, you were partially correct. Your writing skills are not the only factor that’ll help you become someone’s favorite writer. Providing a sense of connectivity and making your reader feel ‘home’ is the factor that you need in order to become someone’s favorite writer.

Once you start sharing an emotional connection with your readers, you won’t have to worry if anyone will read your piece of writings. Because even before your content releases, your audience will be out there waiting for it.

Emotional Intelligence for Writers – How to Develop it?

Be Self-Aware

Now, when you as a writer are self-aware. You can recognize and understand emotions. And emotions play a huge role in giving life to a piece of writing, as discussed above. For instance, if you are a fictional writer, emotions are the heart of your characters.
But, even if you are not a fictitious writer, your piece of writing requires you to build a bond with your reader. And you need Emotional Intelligence for that. Moreover, being a writer, you will always be in need of new ways to convey a variety of ideas and emotions in your content.
And this can only happen if you are self-aware.

Have the Ability to Self-Regulate

We are sure that if you are a writer, you have experienced creative blocks. This is where getting ideas about what to write or how to write is a hard row to hoe. No matter how hard you try, writing does not seem to be your thing at the moment. And, it is at situations like these where you start doubting yourself as a writer.

But when you can self-regulate, you won’t be afraid of obstacles like these. With self-regulating, you can block out the negative thoughts you might be getting due to overthinking. You can make yourself understand that your situation is temporary, not something permanent.

And it certainly does not define your skills as a writer. Because of this self-regulation strategy, you will be able to create a positive result out of the situation you might be stuck in. The situation could be anything, not necessarily a creative block.

Have A Stable Source Of Motivation

There are two types of motivations for a writer, extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is external rewards like being famous, being rich, or being admired. In contrast, intrinsic motivation comes from personal rewards like becoming better with your skills as a writer.
For example, it used to take you three hours to write a two thousand word article. But now, it only takes you two hours to do that. The satisfaction you feel after making this achievement is intrinsic motivation. This will help you excel as a writer.

Because you are not desperate to earn, instead, you seek pleasure in the process of creating. This is a much more stable source of motivation if compared to extrinsic motivation. Because it is not from an external source, it comes within you.

Be Empathetic

If you are a writer and possess high Emotional Intelligence, one thing is for sure. You know how to recognize and understand where emotions are coming from. And this quality is so valuable because it also allows you to understand others’ feelings in a much better way.
Emotional Intelligence for writers is vital in general. But this specific reason is the most important because it teaches you as a writer how to empathize.

And empathy is an essential aspect of writing. Fictional writers need to know how to empathize with their characters to understand them. Whereas non-fiction writers need to connect with their readers, this is done when you can make the reader feel understood emotionally.

Have Good Social Skills

Social skills are essential if you, as a writer, want to gain Emotional Intelligence. This is because having good social skills gives you more exposure to different emotions and different situations. So, when you sit down to write, you’ll have a good understanding and collection of emotions to choose from to convey to your readers

How to Improve Emotional Intelligence for Writers

● Identify different emotions and learn how to differentiate between them.
This way, when you write, you will know exactly about the emotion that you want to convey and how it is going to make your reader feel.
● Monitor your social interactions when you interact with others, during your conversation if something the other person says strikes you. Then keep it in mind and try capturing it on a page. This helps your content to be creative because you are not only conveying your own emotions, but someone else’s too. This will help you gain a larger scale of readers who find your content relatable.
● Establish an intrinsic source of motivation that drives you to give your best constantly. This is going to help you develop a mindset, which will allow you to always grow.
This is crucial because writers or honestly anyone who has worked in a certain field for a good chunk of time. Subconsciously, starts having this arrogant attitude where they think that their skills have been polished to a level where it can’t be further improved.
But, when a writer or anyone has an intrinsic source of motivation, they are always ready to learn, improve, and grow.

Conclusion

To sum the discussion above, we would like to say. Emotional Intelligence is a very important soft skill. And Emotional Intelligence for writers can help them level up their content writing. Moreover, every writer must develop it.

Pat yourself on the back for sticking till the end. Thank you for reading this article. We hope it was a treat to read!