Neil Gaiman says, “Fiction gives us empathy: it puts us inside the minds of other people, gives us the gifts of seeing the world through their eyes. Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” It turns out, science supports Gaiman’s theory about reading being an empathetic act. Through the power of fMRI scans and controlled studies, we now understand that there is a noticeable connection between fiction reading and our levels of empathy.

If you’re a true bookworm at heart, this news probably doesn’t surprise you. We all know that emotional yet beautiful attachment we feel for our most favorite characters: we cry when they are hurt and rejoice when they overcome an obstacle. But how did the author create that emotional attachment? How do they make us feel empathetic towards a person who only exists in our imagination?

Scholars, neuroscientists, and psychologists address these very questions in the study of “narrative empathy.” As philosophy scholar Patrick Emmet Horn puts it, narrative empathy examines “readerly empathy, or empathic relations between readers and narrators or characters within the text.” So—if you want your reader to feel a connection to your narrator or characters—narrative empathy studies provide a number of helpful strategies for your writing goals. We’ve listed just a few of the techniques these researchers studied below.

1. Create likable and relatable characters.

When you depict relatable characters, it’s easier for your readers to emotionally connect with them. This doesn’t mean that your characters should be predictable or “average.” Rather, it means that you should give the character desirable qualities or virtues that the reader might have or reasonably aspire to have. Either way, make sure the reader can identify with the character on some level.

Jeff Gerke, author of Hack Your Reader’s Brain: Bring the Power of Brain Chemistry to Bear on your Fiction, says “When you cause your reader to feel that your hero is like her, or is what she’d like to become, she will become emotionally engaged.” This emotional connection is critical to narrative empathy.

Gerke explains that, although current neuroscience supports this writing strategy, people have used this tool since ancient Greece. In Aristotle’s persuasion manual, Rhetoric, he advises us to demonstrate our most likable and relatable moral qualities so that audiences can resonate with us. If the audience likes the speaker, Aristotle reasons, they are more willing to emotionally connect with them. To apply Aristotle’s idea to your book, give us a glimpse of your character’s virtues to help build an emotional connection.

2. Don’t expect one scene to carry all of the emotional responsibility.

While it might be tempting to pour all of your emotional energy into one or two dramatic scenes, research suggests this isn’t a good tactic. Scholar Suzanne Keen writes, “narrative empathy arises in the process of narrative dynamics, or the movement from beginning to end of the discourse.” In other words, be aware of how each element of your story builds empathy. Readers need to have a sustained emotional connection to your character throughout the entire book.

Scholar Martha C. Nussbaum’s literary research also suggests that writing length is a key factor in an author’s ability to successfully create “emotive appeal,” supporting Keen’s argument that authors should try to foster empathy over time to build a successful emotional connection.

3. Immerse the reader in your fictional world using imagery.

You’re probably familiar with the old writing adage, “show don’t tell.” This advice is helpful in your quest to build narrative empathy.

Suzanne Keen reveals that “including high levels of imagery invit[es] mental simulation and immersion,” making it easier for readers to lose a sense of reality and feel empathetic towards fictional characters. This suspension of reality is called “transportation.” Make sure your readers are transported into the character’s world.

Psychologists Richard J. Gerrig and David N. Rapp, who study narrative empathy in laboratory settings, reveal that readers can block emotional responses to fiction by remembering the story is fictional. Because of this potential emotional block, it especially important that the reader remains immersed in your fictional world.

4. Ensure the emotions are manageable.

If your novel is particularly tragic and emotionally demanding, you may want to pay attention to Melanie C. Green and Kaitlin Fitzgerald’s research. In their article, “Fiction as a bridge to action,” they explain that audiences will “attempt to regulate or reduce negative emotions” if they find the story too emotionally overwhelming. This emotion regulation, of course, would in turn reduce the readers’ empathetic feelings towards a character.

While many readers love emotional investment, people generally don’t like a sustained feeling of utter distress. Keep this in mind when you depict negative emotions. While authors can use a number of narrative strategies to temporarily disrupt readers’ immersion in the story and create emotional distance, metanarrative interjections and metalepsis are two strategies scholars recommend using for these special cases.

So, if your characters are processing trauma, experiencing extreme grief, or anything of that nature, emotional distancing might be a good choice to make the empathetic attachment more manageable. Though it might seem counterintuitive to create distance in order to sustain empathy, this strategy ensures that your readers don’t “shut down” from an excess of emotion.

5. Use hopeful restorative narratives.

Restorative narratives show a character recovering from a traumatic experience or tragedy. In other words, they provide the reader with a sense of hope despite the negative emotions that are present.

To better understand how narrative empathy connects to hope, scholars of behavioral and brain sciences showed research subjects two different videos that feature a man named Ruben who survives a devastating tornado.

In one version of the story, Ruben overcomes the hardships presented by the catastrophe and goes on to get his dream job. (This is a restorative narrative.) In the other, Ruben loses his job and struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. (This would be a non-restorative version.)

The research participants who watched the restorative narrative were more likely to report feeling emotionally connected to Ruben and typically expressed a willingness to help Ruben. In other words, when Ruben overcomes adversity, it’s easier for readers to feel empathy for him.

This research tells us that we should show characters overcoming adversity if we want to build empathy.

6. Get inside the character’s mind.

Suzanne Keen argues that one of the strongest methods for building narrative empathy is simply getting inside the character’s head. Show us what the character is thinking, not just what the character is witnessing or doing.

Interior monologue (also called quoted monologue or narrated monologue) is one way to capture your characters’ thoughts. Keen explains this strategy is a “direct presentation of characters’ thoughts.” Psycho-narration (where the narrator, instead of the character, provides generalizations about the character’s mental state) is another way of providing a glimpse into a character’s mind.

Whether you favor an interior monologue or psycho-narrative style, both techniques give the reader access to the rich inner lives of characters to build narrative empathy.

7. Use beta readers to gauge how people will react emotionally to your characters.

Beta readers are test readers who provide feedback on your unpublished manuscript. They will be a great indicator of whether or not average readers will experience narrative empathy while reading your book. They can help you see if your characters are relatable, if the story is immersive, if the emotions are manageable, and more. If you want to learn more about finding beta readers, check out our blog post, “Why You Need Diverse Beta Readers for Your Book.”