"Emotional Impact" in writing. · 2:47pm Nov 1st, 2012
So... lately whenever I get stumped on how to write things, I've been going to a specific AMV video and watch it a few times. It doesn't relate to the story whatsoever, but it just gives me this huge "emotional impact" that no other AMV has done.
I don't know what it is about this AMV, but I've shown it to friends who have never even seen or heard of the anime and they are just staring at the screen in wonder and all that good crap. It just gives them this feeling as if they can relate to it, or can understand the relationship without any context.
...I feel like I have done this... maybe once or twice in SoarBurn. The first time was...
A lot of Chapter... I think six of Winding Roads, when Soarin and Braeburn spend the majority of the chapter in one room close to each other, just talking about what everything means and how they got to this point.
And...
Well..
This fucking scene which I thought when I wrote it it turned out like crap, but you people thought otherwise.
"Brae... hey, can you hear me?" Soarin asked. The earth pony glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, nodding slowly as his chest heaved, only causing him more pain and more sobs. The pegasus uncurled one of his wings and draped it over the other, offering some comfort. "You don't have to talk, just listen to me."
"W-Why do ah even have ta do this?" He cried out "Ah can't apple buck no more, my life is ruined from here on out, I'm a complete lost cause, why do ah need ta walk?"
Also that once scene in chapter eight with Soarin and Rapidfire talking and Soarin breaking down about his fears over his and Braeburn's relationship, that was last minute and I ended up going overboard with it.
I don't know, I just like giving the audience an emotional impact about everything, and make them understand my characters more and more.
THe AMV...I need to watch later...in class...The emotional impact is a great way of characterization that can show weakness in the characters. The one reason I like your story is the fact that you include the mental breakdown of the relationships that one partner has over the other...I seen other stories include the same concept...(Recently read a story that had one pony suspect that her coltfriend was cheating on her with somepony else,) which really helps to define the character.
Believe me, it's a good thing to get an emotional response from your audience. That's how you know you've got them hooked and believing your characters. We know Braeburn's only known farming his entire life and has only the typical Apple Family baking skills outside of that. With his legs broken, Brae's a mess not just because it was by a bunch of homophobes (he's used to that by now as terrible as that sounds) but because he now his entire way of life, just about the only consistent thing in his life and probably the only thing that kept him stable before Soarin, has been stripped from him. That'd be like Rarity suddenly losing her fashion sense or Rainbow Dash permanently breaking a wing. It's a downright tragedy and you hit the nail square on the head. It's even worse that Soarin's new to this whole emotional crap and has no idea how he can make it up to Braeburn for not being there when his life came crashing down all at once.
These are believable characters. These are characters with real problems, real personalities, and real insecurities. It's a good thing you like giving us these emotional impacts and making us understand your characters more because it's something you HAVE to do as a writer. There's no two-ways around it. No believable characters equals boring characters equals boring stories. You can have a grand adventure shared between 7 or 8 characters, but if they just turn out to be bland stereotypes then the story will only crumble as the story itself will have no personality.