Creating Emotionally Devastating Scenes.
Crafting a scene that earns the total sympathy of your readers can be challenging, but it's not impossible. Most emotionally devastating scenes fail at two things, but when these are done right, the results can be powerful.
⚪ The Important Concepts for Writing an Emotionally Devastating Scene
Before I explain these concepts, let me share a case study.
I wrote a story about a young orphan named Jackie and her younger brother. Their village was burned down, leaving them as the only survivors.
For the next few chapters, readers followed their painful journey and their struggle to survive. The younger brother had a heart problem, and Jackie vowed to become a cardiologist to save him.
She was very ambitious about it, but at the time, it was very ironic. Later in the story, when they encountered a tragic living condition with a family, the brother died while telling his sister how much he missed their parents.
When her brother was fighting for his life, she was sent out of the room, only to be let in again to see his cold, lifeless body.
⚪ Explanation of Concepts
The build-up is extremely important when you aim to convey strong emotions. Here's a secret: if you plan for a scene with strong emotions, start leaving breadcrumbs from the very beginning of the story.
Take the previous case study. I carefully built up their journey so people could easily relate and feel the pain of the older sister during her brother's sudden death.
You need to give the situation enough reason to feel utterly hopeless and devastating. Gradually cultivate the tension until it's ready to let loose.
⚫ Understanding the Use of Breadcrumbs.
Breadcrumbs in stories ensure you utilize the time you have to build up certain emotions around your characters.
At the beginning of my story, Jackie’s fate was already pitiable, but she survived every hurdle. This gave the readers enough to feel for her while still leaning away from the outcome. When I built enough, I introduced her brother's sudden death.
Hence, leave your breadcrumbs while leaning away from the outcome.
⚪ How to Properly Leave Breadcrumbs
When building up your story, consider these elements:
☞ Character Relatability: The characters need to be realistic to draw readers into the story. This helps readers invest themselves in your story.
☞ Realistic Emotional Pain: Just as characters need to be relatable, their emotions need to be realistic and not appear forced.
☞ Create a Strong Emotional Attachment: Give them something they care about or that has the power to ruin their lives in any way. It could be something that makes them happy or something their happiness relies on. When it's time, snatch it away without remorse.
☞ Have a Backstage Struggle: This struggle keeps readers occupied, so they won't see the outcome coming. For example, Jackie’s constant struggle to find food and shelter keeps readers engaged while the impending tragedy looms in the background.
☞ Attach Believable Elements: For a realistic character, emotion, and struggle, attach believable elements. It could be death, ailments, sickness, disorder, disappointment, failure, etc.
Now that we've covered the build-up, let's move on to the next crucial part.
This is when you make your readers feel the strong emotions alongside your characters. All the tension you’ve been building up is released, making all emotions come into play.
☞ Break Your Strong Attachment: Cut off your strong attachment from your character when they least expect it or at a point when they couldn't use more struggles (i.e when they are helpless).
This will not only evoke readers’ emotions but also pique their curiosity as they wonder how the character will survive the situation.
☞ Description of Sensory Details to Invoke Emotions: The advice of "show, don't tell" will be really helpful here. It's crucial to ensure that the final execution matches the build-up.
A well-crafted build-up can fall flat if the emotional release isn't handled effectively. To avoid this, blend the climax seamlessly into the narrative, making it feel natural and impactful.
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