[Part #1 Complete] Emotional Resonance vs Emotional Manipulation · 9:54am Nov 18th, 2017

Emotional Resonance vs Emotional Manipulation [Part 3]

I believe all stories, regardless of the medium and the concepts it uses, has the capability to become memorable, but not every writer whether professional or novice can pull it off. To start with, this essay will not teach you about the technicalities of writing, but to give you an understanding of what makes a story relatable in contrast to a message being shoved down our throats. In other words, let me help you recognize the difference between evoking emotions and manipulating your audience.

To begin with, no matter how cool the scene, or how beautiful the prose, if it doesn't touch the audiences' heart then it will soon be forgotten. But isn't this common sense? you ask. Continue reading and I'll tell you why it is not. When the public reads, views or watches your work, you are making a metaphorical contract with them, that you can entertain them with your art, and storytelling is an art form, it has structure and composition. However if you underestimate the comprehension skills of your audience, then more likely, you will soon break their trust, and because of that, the bookmark will not reach the final chapter, or they will not see the end of your show.

Evoking emotions is like delivering a performance or creating a painting. We judge by the details, how it was crafted and how meaningful it was presented. Watching contestants from any genre of reality TV shows, is an example on how we consider the likability of the candidate rather than the talent. When we speak of an event happening to another person, we don't go from step one to the beginning of the narrative, we go to the meat, near the emotional side of the story.

As storytellers you are in the business of delivering emotions. When you touch the heart of your audience, whether through pain or pleasure, will have a lasting effect, moreover they will be more forgiving of your beginner mistakes in the execution. Stories are suppose to be problem solving or at least what not to do in a situation, because people go to fiction to make sense about their lives. They subconsciously want to believe that if this character can win despite tremendous odds, and achieve it in a believable way, then they too can do it. Likewise, change doesn't have to be simplistically negative or positive, it can be about spiritual or physical oppressive liberation; alternatively you can be your own worse enemy. You have to let your audience see the brighter future or help them realize, if they are in the path to self destruction.

We as storytellers have an agreement with our audience, to deliver what they came to expect. Supposing we disregard emotions, then what we are writing about is not a story, rather what we are writing about are events, text books, news articles or uninspired fan fictions; these won't attract your target audience. On the contrary, even memoirs have characters in it, despite being in the non-fiction genre. We pick it up because we are interested in what happened in their lives. Telling a story is all about enthralling your audience in your world, and this is a performance in itself.

The best way to provide emotions, is to give your character humanity, and we as humans are naturally flawed. Even if your character is inhuman physically or psychologically, allow him to ponder on ideas he doesn't understand. Sympathetic is different from being empathetic, it refers to likability.

The process of creating a story is messy, as a matter of fact, one of the biggest flaws of the writer, is outlining the plot first, thinking of the cool scenes they want to write; when in reality, to write a successful story, you have to pen the emotional side first. Why? Because the outer journey is a metaphor for the inner journey. Hence why concepts do not matter, but execution does.

You can write a story about multicolored ponies living in a vibrant land, or a fantastical retelling of the War of the Roses, and still make it work, if you address reality properly.

Reality is neutral, it's neither cynical or optimistic, those two view points are mindsets and none of the two are right, if you go to both extremes then you'd be giving your story more problems than providing a solution. More on this later.

The Story Elements

A good story has a recipe, oftentimes beginners have the misconception that narratives (most importantly fan fiction for that matter) should be written on a whim, without regarding the fundamental rules of fiction writing. You have to stop and consider why you are writing the story, and when you finish it, ask yourself, will the audience remember this fondly or shudder in displeasure?

To give you an example, for the longest time, nobody can properly answer why My Little Pony was a good show.

One reviewer pointed out: it was the best show of it's kind, the characters are well rounded and realistic, as if you can interact with them in real life and get to know them personally.
Another pointed out: it has moral realism, that's why it's good. It's not cramming the Aesop down your throat, it has a structure on how they learn it.
While another commenter said: it gives people hope, and that's why people like it. It has a fresh new perspective in life, that you can be an optimist and a realist at the same time, you are not mature for giving into too much cynicism, and this cartoon addresses it accordingly.

Now put those pitchforks and torches down, I am aware that this is subjective, but here me out and I will tell you why it works, how its ingredients can make a winning recipe that blends with the narratives of Game of Thrones. The answer is simple, all their theories are correct, they simply didn't know they're describing Emotional Resonance. And it begins with...

The Character

First things first, everything begins with creating the character, or in the case of fan fiction you have to know the protagonist's established personality, one big amateur mistake is composing a romanticized or demonized version of it, without regarding the source material. This is dangerous, because from the very beginning you are already biased, this will muddy scenes and the narrative onward, not to mention you will earn the harsh remarks of the fans by falsifying, exaggerating or simply despising their characterization. You have to work with the elements established, before you can subvert or repair it .

There are many types of characterizations, found in several fiction genre. I will only mention the six most important types, these are:

The Protagonist: is the main character, not necessarily a good guy, but the most important person in the story.

The Antagonist: is the opponent, that stands against the protagonist, not necessarily the bad guy, but a person who can change or learn something.

A Round Character: is a person, who is multilayered with a life-like charm, has convictions and dreams.

A Dynamic Character: is a person, who uncovers a part of themselves, allowing them to change for better or worse.

A Static Character: is a person who develops very little in the coarse of the narrative, they are the same from beginning to end. This is unavoidable if you have multiple characters, accompanying the protagonist, but a good writer can develop the whole team. If one is up to the challenge...

A Flat Character: is a concept, not a person. It is one dimensional, and lacks a conscience between one or two traits. The thing is, we are told why this character exists, but the details on how it was sculpted is so incomplete, we wonder why it exist in the first place?

The protagonist you shaped, whether original or borrowed, must come to life, give them hopes, dreams, flaws and a personality. Creating a flat protagonist that lacks depth beyond one to two traits, will leave your audience wondering why the story is following him, when there are others who are more interesting than him. This will mess up the narrative if the audience doesn't know him beyond a limited set of traits, there will be no engagement, and won't worry when the character faces adversity, or worse if the stagnant protagonist moralizes without a warrant of merit

The story should be about the transformation and the growth of the main character, which is more important than the desire of the character is “character development.” In order to achieve this, you have to write about a character the reader cares about. You will begin to evoke emotion once the protagonist earns the adoration of the audience, only then will they start understanding what the character feels.

The Desire

The decision is yours on sculpting your character's outward appearance, but if there's one thing you should know is that a character cannot come to life, without something to aim for. As Todd Mitchel puts it: “Characters must want something in order to be interesting.” But what is that something? There is no proper answer to this, that something is up to you. The most important phase for this suggestion is step two: base that desire on an event that happened in their lives, it can be one defining moment that didn't feel substantial at the time, but it made them realize to recreate who they are.

Give your character a high stakes desire, that involves a lot of risks, but an intense reward. There has to be costs, that can perturb them to take action. They can either prevail or be overcome by the thirst, that they transform into another person entirely. This is what makes it interesting, your audience is at the edge of their seat, knowing that the cost is much greater then the reward. On the other hand, if they succeed in getting that reward in a believable way, that means they were able to see the rules, learn the rules, break the rules, remake the rules, and change the game. In real life these people are called the game changers, they are a lot more common than you think, they have inspired and moved people to take action. To achieve this result, you have to do A LOT of research.

Put emphasis on the flaws, not their advantages. We as humans have that one personality trait that annoys others, including family. This one flaw can be the basis of the character's personality. Ambition is the highest form of desire, and we sympathize with a person who has big dreams and works to achieve it, even if it compromises their moral upbringing. Selfishness can be tied to ambition, so is stubbornness, or even bigotry, and many more. This can be a weakness and a strength at the same time. This is a reminder that we have similar flaws, that even if we achieve what we desire, but stepped on people to attain it, then what we're looking at is not a person, but something else, it can be a monster or a great empire builder that history vindicated. This is scary, but this tells us that ego can lead us to places, perhaps a firery pit in the afterlife. Again reality is neutral, it's up to you on how to weave your story. Your character is human, they make us admit the bad part of ourselves, but they can also make us realize who we are in the light, and this is equally as strong.

If the character does not act on his goals, then it is not a desire, but an illusion, a wish, a mirage of the future. This is something that he really does not want to say no to, under any circumstances, but never gets it done, or has never started on it. Think of it this way, say your character wants people to “believe in themselves,” and he shouts the concept, but he lazes around all day, without going to speech lessons or leadership training. You noticed he had many opportunities to get it done, then the instance he turns a blind eye to the imperfections, but will accept anyone who agrees, and moralizes to who doesn't. Subconsciously, your audience will pick up that the message you're spreading is not about inner strength, but to submit to your fantasies. Know this, what you write, speaks about what you do, believe, and how you would act in real life. This is true in fan fiction or towards poorly written young adult novels, the key is to subvert your preferences, in favor of exploring new possibilities.

The desire can become real by observing history, ask the question: how did the great men and women achieved it? And you'll hear stories like: from humble beginnings to upper-class living; from no name commoners to conquerors of nations; from hopeless sinners to anointed saints; from nobodies with agendas to tyrant rulers. You have to pay attention on how people express themselves, look back at your past and write about what hurts, but also write about overcoming the pain. Remember, if the audience doesn't buy the emotional truth over it's decisions, then you'll lose their interest.

The Motivation

If desire is what the characters hunger for, then motivation provides the fuel to keep the fire blazing. Once you established the character's goals, no matter how much the desire shifts to another want or need, their motivation will still fuel their actions. It is crucial for the reader to understand the character's motivation, despite its importance, the audience will not look for the motivational aspect of each characters penned. The motivation is a stealthy feature in storytelling, but that doesn't mean, the audience can't tell it's not there.

There are two types of motivational issues, minor and major:

Motivation provides the reason for the action, if you do not give proper context to the characters' response to a scene, be it a love confession, high-stakes gamble or a life or death situation. Your audience have the right to call it stupid, and will condemned the scene as forced. The veal of the willing suspension of disbelief has been lifted, and the story's points, plot and theme will come into question. This can happen anywhere, be it an episode for a TV show, short story, video game or novel.

Minor motivational issues, happens within a scene: it is a reaction towards a mundane event. For example, there could be no rationale for a character like Kirito to kiss Asuna, right after waking up in a virtual reality game induced coma, forgetting the fact she hasn't brushed her teeth in years, and probably has the worst morning breath ever. Actions do not necessarily need a motive to be believable, and so are reactions. As the writer you are responsible for what happens, but you have to know where to implement the motivations when the scenes need it.

Major motivational issues, is tied to the plot problems: it is the drive of the protagonist to solve his dilemmas, and the obstacles that causes him to falter. The audience will demand to know why the character is risking his life and limb, reputation or love, when faced with a difficult or dangerous situation. If the protagonist has no other motive, other than he has nothing better to do, while haphazardly thrusting himself into risky circumstances. Your critics will belittle the story at best, and your audience will declare it as trite.

Something deep inside the character must give him the drive to move on, to challenge an opponent or build his dream. This is called the Inner Character, this is the rationale on why the protagonist must undertake hardships to solve their problems.

The Outer and Inner Character Motivation:

If you've ever read or watched a flat paper cut-out of a story, then you'd notice the problems do not lay on the misuse of concepts, but towards two ingredients: the characters or the action scenes. Amateur writers who focus excessively on characters, will make a dull version of themselves, while those who focus too much on the action scenes will give your narrative a pretentious vibe. Avoiding this problem is simple, but not easy, it requires you to describe the inner and outer motivation; together it defines the complexities of reality in both the character's self and it's actions. For you to notice it work, ask yourself, does it flesh out the conflicts and theme?

The Outer Motivation:

This is the reason why desire exist within a character, it invokes his or her sense of commitment to achieve a tangible goal. That doesn't mean the story should be composed solely on high energy action, this refers to the strategy the character uses to solve the plot problems. It is the physical action the protagonist takes to move the story forward, it is up to the author to determine whether the character will pass or fail the journey. The Outer Motivation must be made clear to the audience, because if it is ambiguous, the plot will automatically have little momentum from start to finish, and will become a chore to read or watch.

The Inner Motivation:

This deals with the internal need of the protagonist: his relationship with others including himself and his flaws; it also drives the theme of the story, and impacts its depth. The audience will recognize the character's flaws in an instant, but not the protagonist. It is the negative way he treats others, not excluding himself, that governs the balance of his likable traits. It explores the conflict of the narrative.

A protagonist's philosophical outlook, is shaped within the Inner Motivation. How a character reacts to an event or problem must be consistent to what he or she believes in, and only changes when character development occurs.

For example: the audience will feel cheated when the nature of the protagonist is deemed fatalistic, but then without warning reacts hopefully to a situation, don't be surprised to expect bad reviews. Without the proper conditions for inner change being met, the inner motivation will remain unresolved.

^{This is why I don't read yaoi fanfics anymore}

Desire is the critical element to establish a goal, but motivation answers how badly the character wants it. The audience can deduce how achievable it is, if your character works on his flaws or does something to try and attain it, even if it conflicts with his end game. They'll know it's wishful thinking, if the desire and motivation does not match up to his actions.

You don't have to turn the character into an emotional junkie, you have to study the scene and ask yourself: what are the emotional choices I can evoke in the scene? It's all about carefully selecting concrete details. Examine the scene and ask what are the options to create sadness, joy, anger, fear and disgust. With all that said, the writing has to flow, there will always be room to edit it for later, however sometimes being spontaneous can write a better scene.

Conflict:

The essence of drama. The cardinal rule of writing is show don't tell, and this rule has never been more important when writing about conflicts. Flaws are not weaknesses that lessens the story, it is a necessity for your character to suffer, physically, emotionally, psychologically or spiritually; in the face of adversity.

The journey is more important than the end nor the start. The audience inhabits the soul of the character, when the characters suffer, they will feel the emotional trauma as well. The setting is a metaphor for the struggles that life throws at the character, and the inner journey is the mentality he has with his surroundings. The inner story of the protagonist gives depth and realism to the narrative, it is about the personal struggles not the physical, this part deals with the outer story, where the protagonist must develop a plan of action to maneuver from his or her opponent.

Conflicts are fun to play around with, here are a couple of brief explanations about the types of conflict:

Man vs. Man: this can be a straightforward fight between characters, or it can be as subtle as both having the same desires and only one of them can have it.

Man vs. Self: this refers to the character's internal conflict, whether he should base his actions or choose his path on right or wrong, emotion or logical, if ever he should change or not. This is where biases form and adds to the central conflict.

Man vs. Society: where tradition or societal rules hinder the characters. This can be fun for the writer, you can make a commentary about politics, education, etc. The society in the story can be about the whole population, the government or a fascist country ruled by a dictator, with a cult of personality.

Man vs. Nature: this classification of conflict is sometimes argued as an inaccurate categorization because nature has no free will, despite its critics, this external conflict refers to the struggles of survival against natural forces, be it by the rough terrain of the wilderness or being stalked by wild animals.

Man vs. Technology or Machine: can refer to the external conflict of the characters struggling against robots, and the internal conflict against why society would build them in the first place. This doesn't have to be about hardcore science fiction, it can be as soft and subtle about man power being replaced by machines who does the job much faster, more accurately and are cheaper to keep.

Man vs. Fate or the Supernatural: If your character is struggling with morals or defying fate, then this is considered as an internal conflict, but the external conflict crops up if the character goes against something supernatural, be it gods, vampires, monsters and can also be about the zombie plague.

However these labels are only good at analyzing the story, nobody would sit down and say "I'm going to write about a man vs. man story for today." In hindsight the forms of conflict are good for story analysis, but not for starting one. When writing about conflict there are three references you should consider:

Finding the right kind of conflict, what are the problems big or small that are relevant to the characters? Brainstorm by creating a list of conflicts your characters will face, and keep asking what could go wrong. When you complete the list, begin ranking them from toughest to easiest.

Adding weaknesses, by not having weaknesses your character will automatically be boring, this is similar to playing a video game with all the cheat codes on, it's fun at first, but then it gets old the longer you play invincibly. This phenomenon is called the hedonic treadmill, in summery it means, you chase at something which makes you happy for a short term, that is until you begin to adapt to your circumstances, and you're back into being no happy than you were before.

By draining all the conflict in the story, you are erasing reason on why the character keeps pushing and what the audience are getting from this. The weakness is an ingredient that amplifies the conflict, and determination could be that one asset your main character can have. Weakness can refer to tangible items like not having an education or living in poor conditions that gives the character a disadvantage against his peers; it also applies on how the character behaves, like how cold he is to others, or how extreme of an idealist or cynic he is when he starts his day.

Indeed even gods suffer from this, every Roman or Greek gods have very human weaknesses that got them in trouble. Just ask them about Kratos.

The last one is the question, what overall effect your story has? The final result of the increased conflict, ask what was the struggles about? Because the conflict, explores the theme of your story.

Your audience has every right to criticize your story, be it gentle or harsh. You can't please everyone, but honor the intelligence of your audience, if the majority resonates with the story, then you've done a good job everything fell into place. Don't explain everything, the audience will get bored by the info dump, give less and they'll receive more.

You don't need a happy ending, but you need a satisfying ending that wraps up the conflict, which leaves the audience wondering if it's truly over. You can choose to resolve the conflict at the end, or not to resolve to give it a more open ended interpretation, in order to achieve this you have to answer why the character chooses to struggle in the first place. If the majority are unfulfilled with the story, revisit the story elements, the reviews will point it out where you went wrong.

This element wouldn't be complete without the Inciting Incident, this is the event that draws us in the story, where we start becoming emotionally involved to the event that forces the character's journey, or the realization that he or she must answer the call to adventure. A notable example of this, is when Katniss Everdeen volunteers as tribute to participate in the Hunger Games, to spare her little sister from dying in a survival game to the death.

The flaw of the protagonist often comes from the result of a past experience, in consequence it affects the present and this one flaw is hindering them from reaching the goal, at the outset the character will never realize this flaw. A goal is something that matters to a protagonist, now with the desire and motivation established, this will open up to the last element: change.

Change:

We are now at the end, adding the last ingredient to complete the recipe. The protagonist must change, no character changes at the beginning, he or she doesn't realize they have to change at first, and they will resist it, nobody wants to give up a part of themselves, but change is the key to become the better you, depending on the theme and mood of the story, character growth can be positive or negative.

Upon reaching the middle of the story, the protagonist spends the first half in the area of unknown, they still don't want to change at the middle, however they will reluctantly try to change and often fail as the audience watches the character struggle, that makes us want to root for them more, because we want to see them overcome hardships. This is where the Moment of Grace enters, it means the character realizes the flaw or flaws he has to conquer. The Moment of Grace can be done negatively, for a stubborn character to realize this, it's either he notices it first, or he has to be berated by his peers for not seeing this earlier.

At the end of act two, but at the beginning of act three. Allow yourself to be in a dark place with your protagonist, this is called: The Dark Moment, this is where he or she is at their lowest, before their off to face the antagonist, it's either they muster up the courage for the final fight or give up and go home. Nonetheless, they are not the same anymore, personality wise they've grown, their attitude is different, their outlook in life emerged anew, they were able to adapt enough to face adversity.

In conclusion, you have to understand the power of the protagonist, he or she is the person who the reader experiences the tale, they should not be the same from beginning to end, their growth is the key to the emotional momentum, it doesn't matter if their journey ends in success or failure. What matters is if it feels real, often times we are annoyed at a story, when the characters don't behave like human beings. When the author fails to grasp rudimentary psychology, the audience will have trouble comprehending an alien mind and will not empathize. Give your character the potential to be dynamic, observe people, writers of fiction should be obsessed with how people behave, understanding them will help paint the fullest possible picture of your character.

My take away from doing the research and sharing it with you. Change also applies to how you write, not just about characters, or plotting, it's about looking at the conventional ways on how to create anything, be it a story, a job interview, reevaluating your life, baking a cake or ECT. Before you can truly innovate, seek on building solutions based on the fundamental truths you can find. This is time consuming but this tactic on how to solve problems will give the solution a creative edge. Heh, been reading too much on Elon Musk and other billionaires.

Summarizing The Story Fundamentals in one sentence:

character - is where one stands as eyes for the audience to watch their life
desire - give the character something they want badly

motivation - we are emotionally moved when we see others struggle and achieve their desire

conflict - give a character a flaw that they've covered up

change - let the character learn that he or she is a likable person

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References:

By the way just in case a certain someone is reading. The tutorial I made, is for anyone who chooses to write well, it is backed up by the research I've done upon reading the blogs of actual writers, and watching their videos. I'm trying not to use his fanfics and works, but it's just that bad, it fits every criteria of what not to do. Not only does it break all the rules of good fiction writing, but in essence bad writers have nothing to say. Which I'll be talking about in part two of this article: Emotional Manipulation.

I promise, I'll write a bibliography after I truly finish this, cause face it this is a chore.

4 Types of Conflict in Fiction Writing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMUOEJ-HRYk

What every writer should know about conflict in fiction writing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYM5LutMFPI

Writing Better Fiction: How To Increase Conflict and Tension:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=920nocKqrZI

The 6 Elements of Fiction:
http://thewritepractice.com/elements-of-fiction/

Types of Characters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjByX2ZG3oY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdgj4ryTeJg

STORY BASICS:
http://www.filmschoolonline.com/sample_lessons/sample_lesson_screenwriting.htm

Motivation:
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/motivation.shtml

Evoking Emotions in Your Fiction Reader:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q3mnltBf8o

Creating Emotional Resonance
http://www.missourireview.com/tmr-blog/2014/02/writing-beyond-good-creating-emotional-resonance/

Pixar - What Makes a Story Relatable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTM-AdrIpaE

Game of Thrones — How to Evoke Emotion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgZXDeGjf84

Edit: because of my desire to wrap up the article, I realize that the section about change is incomplete, in fact all of this is incomplete, there's still so much to talk about.

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