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.