It’s common knowledge that emotions give stories depth. Even with the most archaic fairy tales, it’s fascinating to see a child’s eyes light up as you describe the epic battle between the heroic knight and the ferocious dragon – the unfaltering bravery of the knight as he stares down devastating power, the desperation and hope of the townsfolk and damsel trapped in the ivory tower. However, channelling your characters’ emotions only scratches the surface of good storytelling. Want to find out what it takes to tell a story that truly captivates? Read on…
The depths of emotion
Joy, sadness, anger, disgust and such make up the range of emotions that we experience on a daily basis. With writing, you can certainly create content that elicit such emotions in the reader, but professional screenwriter Karl Iglesias believes in a more psychological approach when defining emotions.
In Iglesias’ book Writing for Emotional Impact: Advanced Dramatic Techniques to Attract, Engage and Fascinate the Reader from Beginning to End, he outlines three distinct emotions in storytelling:
1. Voyeuristic emotions
2. Vicarious emotions
3. Visceral emotions
Voyeuristic emotions are defined as a reader’s curiosity towards the new – this can be anything from learning new information to learning about the characters in a piece of writing. “Interest, desire to know, to understand, to eavesdrop on intimate conversations are examples of voyeuristic emotions,” explains Iglesias.
If you’re a fan of fictional content, be it movies or books, your attraction to them could potentially be explained by your voyeuristic emotions. “Make-believe is the glass wall that separates the intriguing events you’ve created in your script from the real fear of consequences we might experience in real life,” points out Iglesias. Referencing the thriller movie Jaws, he describes how swimming in shark-infested waters is potentially suicidal in reality, but when we experience the same through the magic of cinema, it drives us to imagine ourselves being in the same terrifying scenario as the characters on screen.
The next emotion, vicarious emotions, is what happens when we identify with a character – we become the character and feel the same feelings they do. “We live vicariously through them, and it’s no longer a story about a character in a struggle; it’s about our struggle,” he writes. Be it a children’s cartoon or the next Marvel movie, it’s natural to root for a character we identify with. Take Loki from Marvel’s Thor series – he started off as a villain, but as people learnt more about his conflicted upbringing and ambitions, people began resonating with him and even wanted him to succeed in the latter films.
Finally, visceral emotions represent the wants and expectations of your audience. For movies, our expectations are based around the movie trailer and whatever advertising we see beforehand – when we decide to watch Jaws at the cinema, we are paying to experience dread and fear… you’d be understandably upset if the movie turned out to be filled with rainbows and unicorns, right?
Getting these emotions through
Knowing and setting emotional expectations beforehand is essential for predicting audience reaction, but how exactly should a writer build up these three emotions?
Let’s start with voyeuristic emotions. Although this type of emotion is highly subjective and dependent on the writer’s passions and interests intersecting with the readers, copywriters in marketing often have restricted creative control when it comes to content – the client gets to set the narrative and rules – which means that it’s the copywriter’s job to make these restrictions interesting for the audience.
Firstly, you need to have a thorough grasp over what you are writing about: the client’s brand story, the (new) products they want to promote and what makes them uniqye are good starting points. It’s also a good idea to learn about the vision behind the new product, as it may help you to curate writing that better resonates with and attracts the target audience. Additionally, consider the use of provocative leads to help build curiosity towards your content.
When dealing with vicarious emotions, you need to create relatable characters. “Vicarious emotions are enhanced by our curiosity about human nature and the human condition. If we recognise the emotions the character goes through, and we’re connected with that character, we should experience the same emotions vicariously,” explains Iglesias. Which means having an empathetic character is crucial when trying to reach your audience.
As for visceral emotions, it’s all about curbing expectations and choosing what emotions you want the audience to experience. If you aren’t too sure how audiences will react to your story, read it to a few friends or colleagues first – their first impression will be a good gauge of how the general audience will react, thus letting you know if the emotions you wanted to convey are present or not.
Good writers are able to create emotional attachment between audience and the characters… but the best writers also curate which emotions are felt through clever narrative and planning. Should you need help bridging emotions between your brand and your audience, then look no further, Wordsmith is available to help!