stop trying to convey emotion with language
writers be like, hey you know this thing which is notoriously inept at capturing depth of feeling, i think i am going to pin everything on that
i don’t think they’re unaware. i think they’re fully cognizant and it shows in their reliance on trope and pathos. they try to get around the issue by powering quickly through it with a vague directness that hopefully leaves the reader to fill in the gaps. but it is illusory and thin, and once the screen is punctured, one finds an empty room behind
the problem is they’re asking the wrong question. the issue is not one of finding the correct vocabulary or phrasing. the question is how to capture what vocabulary and phasing are, by their very nature, unable to touch
if more authors asked this very simple question the world of english literature would be in a very different place
“i don’t understand why it isn’t working!”