EMOTIONAL STAKES: How to Make Readers Care About Your Story

Summary

In this video, Jalen discusses the critical concept of emotional stakes in storytelling, emphasizing their impact on reader investment. Emotional stakes are the internal, psychological costs a character faces, which can be more compelling than tangible losses. Jalen outlines three main ways to manifest emotional stakes: reason, risk, and sacrifice, using examples like 'The Last of Us' to illustrate their power. The video also covers techniques to raise emotional stakes, such as relevant backstories and moral crossroads, highlighting the importance of specificity and genuine connection to the narrative.

Takeaways

• 📚 Emotional Stakes are crucial in storytelling as they give a story its impactful emotional punch.
• 🧠 Emotional Stakes are not just about what a character stands to lose tangibly, but also the emotional pain or consequences they might suffer.
• 🔗 Using emotional stakes in combination with external stakes makes a story more impactful and can help readers feel more invested.
• 🤔 The most interesting emotional stakes often occur when external and internal stakes contradict each other, creating a need for sacrifice.
• 📈 Three main ways emotional stakes can manifest: Reason (external goal tied to emotional goal), Risk (gambling with potential emotional fallout), and Sacrifice (contradictory goals leading to emotional cost).
• 🏔 Examples like climbing Mount Everest to honor a deceased father illustrate how emotional stakes can be tied to external goals.
• 📖 The book 'Big Swiss' by Jen Beacon exemplifies risk-type emotional stakes where the protagonist gambles with emotional fallout.
• 🏠 In stories like 'The Last of Us', emotional stakes are prioritized over external stakes, showing their importance in driving narrative and character development.
• 💔 Relevant backstories that connect to present emotional stakes can heighten the impact and potency of those stakes.
• 🤝 Side characters can also contribute to emotional stakes, creating moral crossroads and complicating the protagonist's emotional journey.
• ⚖️ Moral crossroads, where characters must make difficult choices, can significantly raise the emotional stakes and create compelling narrative moments.

Q & A

What is the main focus of Jalen's writing video?

The main focus of Jalen's writing video is discussing the concept of emotional stakes in storytelling and how they contribute to the impact of a narrative.

Why are emotional stakes considered important in storytelling?

Emotional stakes are important because they give a story its impactful emotional punch and help readers feel invested in the characters and their outcomes.

What is the difference between external stakes and emotional stakes?

External stakes refer to what a character stands to lose tangibly if they fail, while emotional stakes refer to the emotional pain or consequences a character will suffer.

How does Jalen suggest using emotional stakes in combination with external stakes?

Jalen suggests using emotional stakes in combination with external stakes to make a story more impactful by creating a compelling narrative that resonates with readers on an emotional level.

What are the three main ways emotional stakes can manifest according to Jalen?

The three main ways emotional stakes can manifest are 'reason', 'risk', and 'sacrifice', each representing different relationships between a character's external and emotional goals.

Can you provide an example of 'reason' as an emotional stake?

An example of 'reason' is Angelica's goal to climb Mount Everest to honor her father, where the external goal is tied to an emotional goal, and failure would result in emotional pain.

How does the book 'Big Swiss' by Jen Beacon exemplify 'risk' as an emotional stake?

In 'Big Swiss', the protagonist Greta risks emotional fallout by pursuing a relationship with a client, which could lead to shame and loss if discovered.

What is the example of 'sacrifice' that Jalen provides?

The example of 'sacrifice' is Lisa's dilemma of helping her family after a house fire or being with her secret girlfriend, where achieving one goal comes at the cost of the other.

How can backstory be used to create emotional stakes?

Backstory can create emotional stakes by providing a character's past experiences that are relevant to their present external goals, making the emotional consequences of their actions feel more significant.

What role do side characters play in raising emotional stakes?

Side characters can raise emotional stakes by having their own emotional stakes that interact with the protagonist's, creating a more complex and morally compelling narrative.

Why are moral crossroads important in creating emotional stakes?

Moral crossroads are important because they test characters in situations that force them to make difficult choices, leading to impactful emotional moments that resonate with readers.

What is the final note Jalen makes about creating emotional stakes?

Jalen's final note is that simply presenting tragedy is not enough to create emotional stakes; there must be a genuine and specific reason why the tragedy is important to the character's narrative.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Understanding Emotional Stakes in Storytelling

In this paragraph, Jalen introduces the concept of emotional stakes in storytelling, emphasizing its importance alongside tangible stakes. Emotional stakes refer to the emotional pain or consequences a character may suffer, which can make a story more impactful. Jalen explains that while external stakes are about what a character stands to lose if they fail, emotional stakes are about the internal, emotional turmoil that can arise from the pursuit of goals. The paragraph discusses how combining emotional stakes with external stakes can make a story more compelling and how the lack of emotional stakes can lead to reader disinterest. Jalen also introduces three ways emotional stakes can manifest in a story: reason, risk, and sacrifice, providing examples for each.

05:00

🎭 Enhancing Emotional Stakes Through Backstory and Characters

This paragraph delves into strategies for creating emotional stakes in storytelling. Jalen suggests using relevant backstories that connect to the present emotional stakes, citing 'The Last of Us' as an example where the protagonist's past directly influences his emotional investment in the story. The paragraph also discusses the role of side characters in raising emotional stakes, as their emotional fallout can be bargained with by the protagonist, adding moral complexity. The importance of moral crossroads is highlighted, where characters are tested in ways that significantly impact the emotional resonance of the story. The paragraph concludes with a caution against relying solely on tragedy to create emotional stakes, emphasizing the need for a genuine and specific reason for the emotional events to be impactful.

10:03

🌟 Maximizing Emotional Impact in Writing

In the final paragraph, Jalen wraps up the discussion on emotional stakes by reiterating the importance of creating a reason for the emotional events in a story. The paragraph stresses that merely presenting tragedy is not sufficient to evoke emotional stakes; there must be a clear and specific connection to the character's journey and the narrative. Jalen advises against overdoing emotional stakes for the sake of intensity, as it can lead to melodrama. The paragraph ends with a note of gratitude to the viewers and a promise of more related content in future videos, including links to previous videos on conveying emotions and character relationships.

Keywords

💡Emotional Stakes

Emotional Stakes refer to the emotional risks or losses a character faces in a narrative, which can deeply affect their well-being or relationships. In the video, the concept is central to creating an impactful story, as it is what gives characters a compelling reason to act and makes readers or viewers emotionally invested. The video uses examples like a character's struggle with a past failure and the need to redeem themselves, illustrating how emotional stakes can drive the narrative and create tension.

💡External Stakes

External Stakes are the tangible, physical, or objective risks a character faces, such as losing a battle or failing to achieve a goal. These stakes are often clear and directly related to the plot. The video contrasts external stakes with emotional stakes, emphasizing that while external stakes might be clear and structured, it is the emotional stakes that often resonate more deeply with audiences, as they involve personal growth, relationships, and internal conflicts.

💡Reason

In the context of the video, 'Reason' is one of the ways emotional stakes can manifest. It is when a character's external goal is directly tied to an emotional goal, and failure to achieve the external goal results in emotional pain or loss. For instance, a character might climb a mountain not just for the challenge but to honor a lost loved one, and failure to do so would mean failing to fulfill a personal emotional promise.

💡Risk

Risk, as discussed in the video, is another manifestation of emotional stakes where a character pursues an external goal but in doing so, they risk suffering emotional consequences. It's a gamble where the potential for emotional fallout is high. The video provides an example from the book 'Big Swiss' where a character risks social shame and emotional turmoil by pursuing an affair, despite knowing the potential negative outcomes.

💡Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a key concept where a character's external and emotional goals are in conflict, and achieving one comes at the cost of the other. This creates a poignant dilemma that forces the character to make a difficult choice, which often leads to emotional pain. The video uses the example of a character choosing between helping her family financially or being with her secret girlfriend, highlighting the emotional struggle and the necessity of sacrifice.

💡Backstory

Backstory in the video is discussed as a tool to create emotional stakes by providing a character's history that influences their present actions and decisions. A relevant backstory can make the emotional stakes feel more significant and relatable. The video uses 'The Last of Us' as an example, where the protagonist's past loss of his daughter heightens the emotional stakes in his current protective relationship with another girl.

💡Side Characters

Side characters are highlighted as a means to raise emotional stakes by involving them in the protagonist's emotional dilemmas. Their own emotional stakes and potential fallout from the protagonist's actions can add complexity and moral conflict to the story. The video suggests that considering the emotional impact on side characters can enrich the narrative and deepen the emotional engagement of the audience.

💡Moral Crossroads

Moral Crossroads are pivotal moments in a story where a character must make a difficult moral decision, often with significant emotional consequences. The video argues that testing characters in such situations can lead to impactful storytelling, as it forces them to weigh their emotional goals against external pressures or potential outcomes. It's a way to explore the depth of a character's values and the strength of their emotional stakes.

💡Melodrama

Melodrama in the video is mentioned as a pitfall to avoid when creating emotional stakes. It refers to an overemphasis on emotional elements to the point where the story becomes exaggerated or unrealistic. The video advises that emotional stakes should be grounded in the character's specific circumstances and narrative relevance, rather than relying on extreme or gratuitous tragedies that don't serve the story.

💡Investment

Investment in the video refers to the emotional engagement that readers or viewers have in a story, which is fostered by the emotional stakes of the characters. When emotional stakes are high and well-crafted, it leads to a greater investment in the narrative, as audiences become concerned with the characters' emotional journeys and outcomes. The video stresses the importance of creating emotional stakes that resonate with the audience to ensure they are invested in the story.

Highlights

Emotional Stakes are crucial for giving a story an impactful emotional punch.

Emotional Stakes involve the emotional pain or consequences a character might suffer, not just tangible losses.

Using emotional stakes in conjunction with external stakes enhances a story's impact.

Lack of emotional stakes can lead to reader disinterest, even with a well-structured plot.

Emotional stakes can be more complex than external stakes, sometimes contradicting them to create compelling sacrifice.

Emotional stakes are the 'bargain' a protagonist makes with potential emotional hurt while pursuing their goals.

Three main ways emotional stakes manifest: reason, risk, and sacrifice.

Reason ties an external goal to an emotional one, risking emotional fallout if the external goal fails.

Risk involves gambling with potential emotional fallout in pursuit of an external or emotional goal.

Sacrifice occurs when external and emotional goals contradict, requiring one to be sacrificed for the other.

Examples of emotional stakes include climbing Mount Everest to honor a deceased father and scattering his ashes.

Emotional stakes can be heightened through relevant backstories that connect past emotions to present stakes.

Side characters can also contribute to emotional stakes, creating moral crossroads for the protagonist.

Moral crossroads, where characters must make difficult choices, can significantly raise emotional stakes.

Simply presenting tragedy is not enough to create emotional stakes; there must be a specific reason for its relevance.

Creating emotional stakes should avoid melodrama and focus on genuine, character-specific reasons for emotional investment.

The Last of Us is highlighted as an example of effectively using emotional stakes to create narrative precedence over external stakes.

Transcripts

hey guys it's Jalen and I'm here today

with another writing video so in today's

video we're going to be talking about

emotional Stakes I think emotional

Stakes is one of the most important

writing Concepts that is not talked

about we talk about Stakes but I don't

think we talk specifically enough about

emotional Stakes because in so many

cases I think emotional Stakes are what

truly give the story that impactful

emotional punch we've probably all heard

about Stakes which is what a character

has to lose within a story there's a I

think more important subset of stakes

which is the emotional Stakes this isn't

just what the character stands to lose

tangibly if they fail but what they

stand to lose emotionally the emotional

pain or consequence they will suffer so

using emotional stakes in combination

with external Stakes makes a story so

much more impactful if you've ever read

something and thought I just didn't care

or I didn't have any reason to care

about the protagonist or what was the

point of that it may be because there

weren't any emotional Stakes a story can

have an amazingly structure plot with

really clear external objectives but

without emotional Stakes it's hard for a

reader to feel invested a simple I think

about it in a lot of cases external

Stakes are what I want from the

character's perspective and the

emotional Stakes are why I want it but I

think it can be can be a lot more

complicated and nuanced than that and in

a lot of Stories the most interesting

emotional Stakes happen when the

external and the internal Stakes are

actually contradicting it depends

sometimes they're in unison and the

emotional Stakes are like a support that

gives you external sex meaning but in

other cases they might be contradictory

which creates this need for sacrifice

which is so emotionally compelling

personally I like to think of emotional

Stakes as the bargain so the emotional

Stakes are the hurt that the protagonist

is bargaining with as they pursue their

goal and desire I think there are a few

ways this could manifest but I've laid

out three possible ways that I think are

the main ones the first one I like to

call is reason this basically breaks

down to I need external goal because it

is tied to emotional goal so if I fail I

will suffer emotional Stakes the second

I like to call risk so this breaks down

to I want external goal but in order to

achieve this goal I risk suffering

emotional Stakes so I am gambling with

this potential emotional Fallout or it

could also be reversed I want emotional

goal but risk losing external Stakes so

I am gambling with possible tangible

Fallout in pursuing this emotional goal

and then the final setup I call

sacrifice so this kind of breaks down to

I want both an external goal and an

emotional goal but they contradict if I

achieve the external goal this will come

at the cost of emotional Stakes but if I

achieve emotional goal this will come at

the cost of external Stakes so let's

look at some examples I have one example

for each type here for the first one for

reason this is kind of the example that

I've written out Angelica's goal is to

climb Mount Everest because her dad was

a mountaineer and this was his life

school but he died a year ago his dying

request was that she go there to scatter

his ashes they had a tumultuous

relationship and she feels like she

failed him by never living up to his

expectations and this is the one way she

can redeem herself therefore her reason

for her external goal climbing Mount

Everest is to honor her father and if

she fails she will feel that she was

unable to accomplish the one thing her

father ever wanted from her and since he

is dead this is the only way to

retroactively repair the relationship

for risk this I couldn't really come up

with one but I recently read the book

big Swiss by Jen Beacon and I think it

is the perfect example of a risk type of

emotional Stakes so in this book the

protagonist Greta is a transcriber for a

sex therapist and she lives in just kind

of a state of depressed apathy but she

ends up becoming obsessed with one of

the clients who is a married woman and

she begins pursuing a relationship with

her when they have a chance encounter

and the protagonist recognizes her voice

obviously if it's discovered her true

identity and it's discovered that she

has literally been listening to This

Woman's therapy sessions the woman she's

having an affair with there will be a

huge amount of Shame from everyone

around her because of the multiple

levels of immorality within this

relationship but because the affair

makes her feel something it makes her

want something which she hasn't really

felt for such a long time she takes that

risk even though as the reader we know

eventually it's going to fall apart and

she's going to suffer huge emotional

follow-ups so the final example is for

sacrifice Lisa's goal is to help her

family who recently lost everything in a

house fire her parents were injured in

the fire and have huge medical debt and

her siblings are very young therefore

none of them are able to work however

Lisa has a secret girlfriend who lives

on the other side of the world but her

family doesn't know about and wouldn't

approve of

we hate homophobia before the fire Lisa

was planning on leaving everything to go

marry her girlfriend so they could live

happily ever after either she lives with

the guilt of failing her family and has

to live knowing that they will likely

never recover from this fire or is

unable to be with the love of her life

so she must sacrifice one outcome as you

can see that one can really tear in the

heartstrings because the sacrifice is

Gonna Hurt No Matter What so how do you

raise the emotional Stakes how do you

create emotional Stakes so the first way

is with relevant backstory backstory

that has emotions that are relevant to

the present external Stakes can create

really strong emotional Stakes because

the characters past hoons that are

reflected in the present and this makes

the present emotional Stakes feel higher

and more potent I think an amazing

example of this that I'm going to use

because it's very currently relevant in

pop culture is the last of us I'm

guessing a lot of you guys have seen

because wasn't it HBO's like most viewed

show ever Joel's external stakes in

getting LA to the fireflies is that

she's immune and this is a chance to

save Humanity the funny thing is that as

the viewer we almost don't really care

about that what we care about much more

is the emotional Stakes which is his

need to protect and take care of Ellie

because he was unable to save his own

daughter and as their relationship

becomes stronger as he stops resisting

past wounds and kind of lets himself

heal through this relationship the

emotional Stakes only rise because this

relationship means more to him and also

to Ellie and also therefore to us if

Joel didn't have a backstory where his

daughter had died these emotional Stakes

would not nearly be as strong we can see

through the story that this is his

chance for both healing and Redemption

from the death of his daughter Sarah who

he wasn't able to protect and so the

potential emotional Fallout here is huge

this relationship between Joel and Ellie

is the emotional center of the story

it's why we're invested in the story

right it's a great example of how

emotional Stakes take huge narrative

precedence over external Stakes even in

a story where it's literally a zombie

apocalypse so the external Stakes are

very very high the choice to have Jewel

have lost a daughter in the past to be

honest is an extremely obvious writing

Choice it's because it's such a good one

right like you just couldn't tell the

story without that even though it's a

fairly obvious backstory Choice like

it's obvious because it's so good it's a

very clear example of emotional stakes

and how we attach more to the the

emotional Stakes than the external

Stakes

external things are huge so the second

way that you can raise the emotional

Stakes is through the side characters

Side characters also have emotional

Stakes their potential emotional Fallout

is being bargained with both by their

own choices and actions but also by the

protagonists so you can really up the

emotional Stakes not by just considering

the emotional follow the protagonist

will go through but also how they're

bargaining how they're bargaining with

other people's emotions as well this can

put the character at a very compelling

moral Crossroad I think this setup from

Big Swiss is a great example of this the

main character Greta is bargaining with

her emotional mistakes an emotional

Fallout but she's also bargaining with

the emotional follow of the woman that

she's having an affair with this woman

doesn't know the extent to which Greta

is bargaining with her emotional Stakes

but she is and it creates much more

textured morality which leads to the

final point

moral Crossroads testing your character

by putting them in situations that truly

test them can make some of the most

impactful moments in the story will a

character do the right thing at the cost

of their own emotional Fallout going

back to the last of us because I think

it's the re I think emotional Stakes are

the reason why this became the most

watched show in HBO's history is because

of the way this show and I mean

obviously the game before it I haven't

played the game so sorry not a gamer but

I think that it's a story that just

knows how to use emotional Stakes

properly and I think that's why it

struck a chord so in the last episode of

The Last of Us Joel has to choose

between the external goal of a cure for

the literal zombie apocalypse and his

emotional goal of protecting Ellie he's

put in a situation where he can't have

both he has to pick save Humanity or

save Ellie we understand as the viewer

why he picks save Ellie because that was

the emotional goal also going back to

the fact that his daughter didn't die

because of a zombie infection she was

killed by a person had she been infected

and died that way maybe he would have

had more emotional Stakes related to The

Cure but that's not what the cause of

the loss was it was a human being who

killed her it really ties into the

emotional stakes in a way where he

doesn't save Humanity but he saves her

and we understand why that choice was

made because of the emotional Stakes

that were established I just want to say

as a final note simply presenting the

reader with tragedy is not enough to

create emotional Stakes we've all read

or seen countless stories that feature

loss or tragedy and most of us have

experienced some kind of loss of tragedy

within our own lives so merely

presenting sad things isn't enough to

create emotional stakes and if you go

too heavy-handed with it it can start to

become very molodramatic the goal isn't

always to have the most extreme

emotional Stakes all the time there has

to be a genuine and specific reason why

the tragedy being used to bolster the

emotional Stakes is important to this

character in this narrative Beyond just

the fact that it exists there has to be

a reason why the choices made regarding

the emotional Stakes are specific and

important to this character just putting

them there isn't enough it has to be

tied in in like a genuine specific way

if your goal is just create the most

intense emotional Stakes possible by

packing as much tragedy as possible that

can lead to a lot of melodrama think

about stories you've read that maybe had

really intense emotional events and

people died and stuff but you just

didn't really care it's probably because

there was no specific reason why that

emotional event was creating emotional

Stakes for this character just the

presence of tragedy isn't enough there

has to be reason is my final PSA but I

think that the things before that I

talked about can be used to create

reasons so that you actually are getting

the most impact possible out of your

emotional states so that is all for this

video thank you guys so much for

watching I just hope that this quick

video and quick chat on emotional Stakes

can help you make your writing more

emotionally impactful I'll leave links

to some other related videos that I've

done in the past one on conveying

emotions through your writing and one on

like character relationships because I

think those can all tie into this idea

thank you guys so much for watching and

I'll see you in another video bye

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thank you

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