EMOTIONAL STAKES: How to Make Readers Care About Your Story

Рет қаралды 9,810

Күн бұрын

RELATED VIDEOS:
→How to Convey Emotion in Your Writing: • How to Convey Emotion ...
→How to Write Compelling Character Relationships: • Writing Compelling Cha...
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - what are emotional stakes?
1:51 - types of emotional stakes
how to create emotional stakes:
5:03 - relevant backstory
6:53 - side characters
7:41 - moral crossroads
9:03 - giving tragedy narrative meaning
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Пікірлер: 57

@NickSklias Жыл бұрын

Shaelin, You're one of like 3 youtubers who I get notifications for, and I am never disappointed. Thank you for creating content that allows us to steep our minds in the craft of story.

@wordcharm2649 Жыл бұрын

Same. She's literally the best. 🥰

@KreativeHogwartsLegacyGUIDES Жыл бұрын

this. :) we all say this over and over and we are never let down. most channels just make cut and paste content. not her

@76kilosofshade81 Жыл бұрын

Agreed. They present topics and ideas and perspectives I've never thought of despite writing since I was 5! It's a bit frustrating to realize I know almost nothing though

@plantman4444 Жыл бұрын

Agreed 💚

@NickSklias 11 ай бұрын

@@Zeynep-tu2px Honestly, "Film Courage" (for screenwriting tips) and "Thunderf00t" (for debunking). Of the 3, Shaelin is the one who inspires me to write the most.

@maironelfstone896 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for laying this out so clearly; this helps a lot. I have always had a hard time creating emotional stakes beyond just killing off characters. This has given me so many great ideas, so thank you!! ❤

@ShaelinWrites Жыл бұрын

omg creating emotional stakes by just killing off characters MOOD (this is why i was considered the serial killer of my writing program hahaha)

@pee74332 Жыл бұрын

Hi Shaelin, I want to thank you for all the wonderful content and the amount of topics you cover. Out of all the authors with similar platforms on YT, I feel like you give a higher level of advice for fellow writers who want to improve and up their skills. I have used many of your tips to improve my own writing and I am very happy with the results. I also appreciate the vulnerability it takes to discuss things like having doubts about your writing, and how to continue to love what you do😊.

@ShaelinWrites Жыл бұрын

so happy my videos have helped!!

@SillverBel Жыл бұрын

Not surprised that Shaelin would be a fan of TLoU. The story is somewhat thematically similar to her beautiful short story, "I Will Never Tell You This." Still one of my all-time favorite short stories. Highly recommend it! Shaelin, if you ever write an apocalyptic story, I know it'd be amazing.

@ShaelinWrites Жыл бұрын

Ahh thank you the relationship in TLoU also reminded me of IWNTYT!!

@SillverBel Жыл бұрын

@@ShaelinWrites Of course! Love your work and tips!

@EvoluteCreator 9 ай бұрын

@@ShaelinWritesI'm totally lost on this what is iwntyt edit: NEVERMIND. im a goof...clearly i have more shaelin bishop reading to do

@thecatmangaming5503 Жыл бұрын

To add to your point on the final ep of TLOU... not only did Sarah die at a human's hands, she died at the hands of an authority figure acting on what they thought was the greater good in containing/making a vaccine for the infection

@molasses3850 Жыл бұрын

This is what I needed. I was wondering what I needed to make my story better and this is it

@wrigleyextra11 Жыл бұрын

The Last of Us uses an archetype as old as LotR and its fellowship - we only care about the hero's journey because of how those around him are emotionally invested in his shortcomings, even if the fate of the world is the ultimate consequence.

@kentonwoods9972 Жыл бұрын

The best external and emotional stakes I’ve ever seen in media is in The 100, especially seasons 2 and 3. I learned SO much about narrative structure and character from it - I always wondered how it managed to be so intense and emotional, and since watching your video I now understand the techniques they were implementing. I highly recommend watching it!

@ThreadBomb Жыл бұрын

Interesting, I will check it out.

@chloe3471 Жыл бұрын

Yes, the writing in The 100 tv show early seasons was captivating. It held my interest through the horrible acting 🥴

@chukwuezeokoli4919 8 ай бұрын

Now that you mention it, I see that! For example, Clarke as a character often had to wrestle emotional goals and external goals literally all the time, and morals always tied into it. In the earlier seasons, she definitely usually picked external goals, and dealt with the catastrophic emotional consequences that would come from within her and from others.

@1hullofaguy 8 күн бұрын

This is my favorite of all your videos, and at this point, I’ve watched quite a few

@abhinavthakur4556 6 ай бұрын

I have been on this journey recently on learning everything about how to tell a story. I have reviewed most of the channels and what they have to say. Most of them are just jargon with one or two good things to say. Every single time I come here, I end up taking more than most of them combined. You present the information so beautifully. Primarily, because you have this sense of teaching and understanding of how to teach to anyone I guess. Kudos

@yonathanasefaw9001 Жыл бұрын

I am writing an emotional novel with a character named Gabor so thank you for sharing your thoughts on emotional stakes throughout the video.

@TaharkahX 8 ай бұрын

You are going to make one hell of a writing professor (if you're not already teaching). I learn so much from you.

@emmandres 8 ай бұрын

Thanks to this video, i made a major change to my story and i think its really improved it. Thank you so much shaelin!!

@VideoGameRoom32 Жыл бұрын

This is so helpful. I like to put my characters in emotional stakes and also where the readers can show them sympathy or empathy or they can relate because they felt the same way or know someone who has in their life.

@nitesky5815 Жыл бұрын

You're single handedly teaching me alot and for free can't thank you enough ❤ love you.

@AryaCyrus Жыл бұрын

Thank you Shaelin! But all the setups you categorize assume the emotional goal is clear. What if a story explores emotions themselves? My character is in a perilously high-stakes situation, internally and externally. But the inciting incident has thrown her very idea of happiness and emotional loss into question.

@GeoPhilosophy Жыл бұрын

Wow! That sounds like a really fresh thing in a world where everyone's recycling the same stories.

@nevisnebis1207 Жыл бұрын

In this case, wouldn’t some of the most important stakes be emotional stakes? Forgive me if I misunderstand, but I think that in this case the main stakes of the story would more likely than not have to do with emotions. The main character may not understand exactly what the stakes are, but for you as the writer you would know what they want deep down and what it is that they stand to lose, right? (Actually whoops, I just reread the comment and you said you have both internal and external stakes. So internal stakes aren’t necessarily the most important, but the rest of my comment still stands, I believe)

@AryaCyrus Жыл бұрын

@@nevisnebis1207 Good question. The surface layer of the story has a clear market-appealing ending. But the deep layer I've left to the reader to decide. So no. Even I can't easily answer the moral dilemma. And I'm getting a PhD in it. So I know nobody else has an easy answer for it either, though it's a question that everybody grapples with.

@ShaelinWrites Жыл бұрын

Other commenters have already smartly noted this, but it sounds like you have a really strong set up for emotional stakes there already! If the character's sense of happiness/loss is totally disrupted it sounds like a situation primed for really interesting and high emotional stakes with a lot to dig into there.

@AryaCyrus Жыл бұрын

@@ShaelinWrites Thank you for your generous words. The challenge is crafting the character arc. In any other story, the good and bad are clear. Even in moral gray zones, the gray is because you're in the middle of the two poles, but the moral poles themselves are clear. You don't confuse the ultimate good with the ultimate evil. But what if I give you reason to suddenly doubt that what you're raised to see as the highest evil in the world isn’t evil? Not only that, what if it may actually be the highest good? Now what is the character even hoping to do, when there is no right thing to do anymore? What's the emotional introspection of such a character like? I've found no similar story to learn from.

@tyler4797 Жыл бұрын

As a new and first time writer. This was a very helpful video!:)

@Lara_Ameen Жыл бұрын

Love this video! I also love how many books are behind you! 😍

@ClaireSamuelsVA Жыл бұрын

4:32 Me too, Lisa. Me too

@ShaelinWrites Жыл бұрын

Lisa is so real honestly

@AdamFishkin Жыл бұрын

Your final PSA was small but effective. Having people doing things for a reason can be a weird blind spot, even for the best of us who love threading intricate character beats into each other. But nothing is done by accident, unless you've created a universe where its gods just use human lives as a toilet.

@rhett-says-hullo4229 Жыл бұрын

i think that last point about tragedy alone isn't enough is super true! I realized that in The Kite Runner, Amir's best friend being r*ped would not affect every life choice from that point on if he didn't have Baba as his father. Baba who cared about justice and wouldn't approve of Amir's reaction to the tragedy, Baba who appreciated that best friend more than him, Baba who actually thought of that other boy as his own son. If this particular character didn't influence Amir so much and create specific emotional stakes, the tragedy would have an entirely different effect on Amir's life.

@yasmin-uk4gt Жыл бұрын

great video ❤

@TylersTrying Жыл бұрын

What a killer shirt.

@tonkinthehanoian1843 15 күн бұрын

I'm discovering my story on the way and realised immortal characters would eventually found their existence stakeless in retrospect, so I'm stuck for how they should move on. This might be the key.

@thesapphicbouquet8133 4 ай бұрын

TLOU was a very good example. Thanks for making me think about plot differently. Something to note is that within the game, the Fireflies are not a completely good group, they are treated as radicals who are hellbent on returning the state of the world to its pre-zombie state. There are articles and whisperings of how Fireflies are chaotic terrorists who have no concern for human life within the game. I think it's even in a news article where they set off bombs and killed innocent civilians. And multiple times in the game events of Firefly terrorism are discussed by Marlene and others; and they're framed as "resistance fighters" which is disingenous. Point being, in the end, Joel was always going to be more likely to pick Ellie, because the cure wasn't going to be 100%, it may not have worked. Even Marlene admits that what they're doing is rushed and that Ellie isn't being given the right to consent. Which is a clear reflection of the Fireflies priorities of returning the world to an ideal state over human life. Thematically it just makes sense.

@ChBrahm Жыл бұрын

The opposite to The Last of Us ending happens at the end of the Spiderman game. Peter has to chose wether to save his aunt by giving her the cure to some sickness OR give it to the doctors so that they can reverse engieneer a cure for the rest of the world But aunt is so sick she wont survive until the cure is made. So he has to choose And because he is spiderman he chooses to save the city and lets his aunt die

@MikeODea-qf1ed 11 ай бұрын

Thanks

@antanowrites Жыл бұрын

[Insert emotional damage meme]

@yapdog Жыл бұрын

Another great video, Shae-Shae _(

@ThreadBomb Жыл бұрын

emotional damage -> emotional stakes

@halixmm Жыл бұрын

DONT GET ME STARTED ON JOEL AND ELLIE THAT LAST SCENE OMGGG ITS NOT LOOKING GOOD ITS NOT LOOKING GOOD I HAD TO PAUSE THAT EP SMMMMM TIMES

@olsonjeremyd Жыл бұрын

All this talk about steaks is making me hungry

@coffeebreakhero3743 Жыл бұрын

I like my steaks raw and bleeding. I can smell the fear of the steak's last moments when it's really emotional. If it was separated from its offspring steaks which swore vengeance against me, then the emotional steaks are even bigger. In the end though the young calf found me sated and was like "nah I don't want to kill you", and then I ate him. He was a very emotional steak. I could taste the confusion and existential horror and moral breakdown or delusional values.

@NickSklias Жыл бұрын

As a vegan, all steaks are emotional for me.

@coffeebreakhero3743 Жыл бұрын

@@NickSklias I'm most emotional about meat when my cat catches something and I'm happy for her because she seems like she's really proud.

@NickSklias Жыл бұрын

@@coffeebreakhero3743 awhhh ❤🥺 I'm feeling the emotions 🥲