Writing for Emotional Impact

Question 1

Two Elements of “A Good Story, well Told.”

Answer 1

1. ) Create the imaginary world and life of your characters (A Good Story).
   
   • How to create concepts
   • Build Characters
   • Develop and Structure Plots

2.) Create the intended emotional effect in the reader (Well Told)

Question 2

Three types of storytelling emotions: Vo, Vi, Vis

Answer 2

Voyeuristic, Vicarious, Visceral

You want all three of these in your story if you can do it. Strive for this.

Question 3

Voyeuristic

Answer 3

Curiosity of New INFORMATION, WORLDS, RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHARACTER

Question 4

Vicarious

Answer 4

When we identify with the character we become them. We feel what the character feels. The CHARACTER’S STRUGGLE becomes OUR STRUGGLE

Question 5

Visceral

Answer 5

The feelings we most want to experience while watching a movie (or reading a book).

If the reader gets enough visceral emotions throughout the book, they will feel entertained.

Question 6

Visceral Emotions

Answer 6

Interest, Curiosity, Anticipation, Tension, Excitement, Fear, Surprise, Laughter, etc…

MAKE THEM FEEL! REALLY FEEL!

Question 7

Why do readers reject a manuscript?

Answer 7

They reject it because they are pulled out of the reading experience.

Question 8

How do you “Hook” a reader?

Answer 8

Exciting Premise
Engrossing characters
story that escalates in tension
emotionally satisfying ending

Question 9

Two requirements for an Interesting Idea (not necessarily a great idea)

Answer 9

Uniquely Familiar

Promises conflict

Question 10

What do readers want when they want something that’s uniquely familiar?

Answer 10

Something that’s unique and familiar events and emotions readers can relate to.

Question 11

Uniqueness of an idea is the …

Answer 11

Hook, gimmick, twist, The core of the concept

Question 12

Utility Phrases

What a character says…

Answer 12

What a character says when they don’t know what to say

These are used when you need a beat of time to pass, frame a gesture, or allow the reader to rest/recover after a big shock or laugh.

Question 13

Utility Phrases

…that silent moment

Answer 13

The phrase the character uses to fill in a SILENT moment, to bridge it, when language is inappropriate.

They can use a stock phrase when they’re not thinking.

Question 14

Utility Phrases

authority

Answer 14

they can use these phrases to undermine or bolster their authority underlying what they said before

Question 15

Names versus Pronouns

3rd person pronouns, multiple…

Answer 15

Don’t use Third-person pronouns.

Everything has multiple names. Use them.

It and “S/he” etc, don’t make the sentences better, but they do make them shorter.

Question 16

Names versus Pronouns

Iden..shif

Answer 16

Recognize how identity shifts, then refer to people and props by their new, varied, evolving names.

Hence the reason why Chuck gives each character three names.

Nicknames, middle names, full names, titles

Question 17

Names versus Pronouns

when we first…label…

Answer 17

When we first meet a person we’re likely to assign a label to a person based on their action and appearance. Or the person’s relationship to us.

“The blonde man who died in that movie.”

Question 18

Names versus Pronouns

Confusion, referring to characters in various…

Answer 18

If you’re referring to one character in various ways, you’ll probably want ot create a new paragraph each time you depict each character.

Create standard, consistent physical characteristic and nicknames or endearments for each character.

Question 19

Names versus Pronouns
3 things:
imp, relat, real

Answer 19

1st impression - appearance and physical action.

2nd Relationship - how does this affect me?

3rd Real name - “I’d like you to meet Thomas. “Thomas” is the most abstract or vague of these labesl. Strong to precede it with action and gesture. Or sensation, smell, tastes, sounds.

Question 20

Names versus Pronouns

authority…skate by

Answer 20

If you’re careful and write with authority you can skate with references based on practically nothing about the character.

Question 21

Gothic form:

I, S, E

Answer 21

Isolate, stress, execute

Question 22

Plot Points

purpose, set, lull

Answer 22

What is the purpose of each scene, chapter or passage?

Set-up leading to a pay-off

lull slowing the pace so subsequent pay offs generate stronger reactions?

Question 23

Plot Points

What questions, grip, reversal

Answer 23

What questions does the current scene answer? What new larger questions will the scene raise?

Gripper Scene - intended to seize the readers attention.

Power reversal where power shifts completely from the stronger character to the weaker?

Question 24

Plot Points

not stunned, anec, recog, shar

Answer 24

The best stories are not the ones that stop the audience in its tracks and leave it stunned. …the best stories excite the reader or viewer, evoking a storm of personal anecdotes with everyone talking at once, thrilled to discover a new connection between themselves and the larger world.

a good story
recognizes something in the world and gives people permission to explore it. Usually the
story also gives the topic a shared language and supporting metaphors that allow people
to discuss it.

Question 25

Plot Points

unresolved
Express
Collect
prompts

Answer 25

telling good stories is listening and recognizing
themes which seem unresolved for people.

express what other people
can’t.

By collecting
the best ideas presented by people, this is an opportunity to make something to which a
larger audience will instantly connect.
Again, a story that evokes stories is a good story.

listen for statements or jokes or observations that excite people and
prompt them to talk. Listen for something unique, beyond the politics of the moment,
some unresolved and generally unexpressed idea that will last over a long period of time.

Question 26

Tell a Lie, Bury a Gun
gun

The Gun, ending

Answer 26

According to Chekhov, if you put a
gun in a drawer in Act One, then you must take it out and shoot someone in Act !ree.

If you do this well enough, you can create an organic feel. The viewer/reader will feel it’s natural and they might not know why.

The gun is about ending something not about beginning something.

Question 27

Tell a Lie, Bury a Gun

The Lie: prom, cri, sec

finding cli…

Answer 27

Another type of gun is THE LIE

An insincere promise/crime/secret is a lie is a gun.

A buried gun will save you from writing endlessly without finding your plot Climax. Fiction shouldn’t drag.

Question 28

Tell a Lie, Bury a Gun

unmask early

Answer 28

In
both books, Choke, Fight Club, a kind-of social contract requires that their deception be revealed, and that
the liars be subjected to the reaction of their victims. !e lie gives the narrator power
over others. !e truth places the narrator at the mercy of others. What’s important is
how the narrator is brought back to an honest relationship with his community.

a well buried lie respects the reader’s time.

Tell a lie, tell it early, bury it, and unmask the teller before you get bored.

Question 29

A Story from Scratch
One

Verb

Answer 29

Gesture trumps dialogue.

Verbs connect with more basic structures of the brain.

Question 30

A story from scratch
Two

setting action
body contra
distance

Answer 30

Establish setting through action

Also depict body language that contradicts what’s actually said in dialogue.

Establish the setting and the activity and important objects.

Measure distance in a way specific to the situation.

Question 31

A story from scratch
three

Narrator on the body
no simile

Answer 31

Keep the narrator aware of the cumulative sensations of his or her body. Describe
the narrator’s walk in terms that will suggest a zombie or monster staggering through a dark
setting. And, mention creating a “trail” to foreshadow the up-coming plot point.

A black tennis ball, round as the period at the end of a sentence.
!e dot at the bottom of an exclamation point.

Note: Using a simile is always less effective than stating the quality that’s similar. Instead
of “the tennis ball looks like the period at the…” use this moment as a chance to state the qualities
of the ball – round, black – then state the similarity to a punctuation mark.

Question 32

A story from scratch
four

Creating a response in reader

Answer 32

there’s an old method for creating a
sympathetic, physical response in the reader: describe either the inside of a character’s mouth or
the soles of his feet. Another old saying goes: If you’re going to do something in a story, do it three
times. So, here I’m using the soles of the narrator’s feet under three escalating conditions: contact
with spit, urine, then bleeding. !is gives a nice balance between the ball writing in black oil,
and the narrator marking his journey with a map of red blood.

Question 33

A story from scratch
five

Don’t show the reader…moving

Answer 33

Don’t show the reader anything unless that this is moving or acting in relation to other things. People hate slide shows but they love movies.

Describing the bloody feet is an on-the-body passage. It’s followed by a gesture.
Please avoid dialogue if you can use gesture, instead.

Question 34

A story from scratch
six

Burnt Tongue
delib mis…

Answer 34

Let’s talk about ‘Burnt Tongue.’ You can prompt your reader to stay more focused by
misstating something. Especially in dialogue: “Don’t make him pissed off.” We’ve already
demonstrated the anger, with the hostile sound of horns and the engine. !e dialogue merely
summarizes that. To make it do more – help characterize Jenny – you can spin her slang any
“wrong” way you’d like.

Question 35

A story from scratch
seven

describe your world as a person moves…

Answer 35

Describe your world only as some object or person moves through it. In a Film, the
camera would be the motion, continually pushing through the static landscape, adding a sense of
motion to the naturally slow movement of the sun, the wind, the plants. !e added action of the
camera would heighten all that and justify the viewers interest. In fiction, consider always
introducing your world through the objects that move through it.

Question 36

A story from scratch
eight

action imp…time passing

Answer 36

Catching sight of
it when the ball bounces, bouncing in one place until I %nd it, there. !en, rolling along
the rut, leading me into the cottonwood trees that grow along the creek side.
Note: Here, action implies time passing. I’d never want to say: “Fifteen minutes later…”
or “All afternoon…” By linking verbs, I can suggest lapsed time.

Question 37

A story from scratch
nine

texture of narrative vary

Answer 37

!e previous paragraph is an example of cutting to “big voice” and leaving the
narrative “little voice” scene for a moment. !e goal is to vary the texture of the narrative and
imply more time and distance passing.

Question 38

A story from scratch
ten

describe your character
more spec…

Answer 38

You describe a character by how the character describes his or her world. !e more
speci#c, the better. Not “vegetables” but “tomatoes.” Not “the gutter of a house” but “the gutter of
Mr. Lloyd’s house.” You can risk these odd extra details because, at this point, your plot is moving
so well. People will read along, looking for the next verb.

Ah, money… It represents the ultimate possibility. Money alone is boring, abstract
shit, so make it equivalent to a character’s dreams and priorities. Build a character by describing
what he or she would do with a new fortune.

Question 39

A story from scratch
eleven

sounds
read a loud

Answer 39

If you read your work aloud, you learn to love repeating sounds. !e most-fun ones
are explosive B’s or P’s. !ey act like a full-stop, and you can really “pop” them into a
microphone. “… blood, busted, blasted, bouncing, back…” Like a series of good jabs in boxing.

Question 40

A story from scratch
twelve

tension
under…

Answer 40

You want a fast way to create tension? Hold a character underwater. It’s worked in
a million movies, from “!e Poseidon Adventure” to “Aliens IV.” It worked well in “Guts” and
that’s why I don’t want to over-use it, here. But a jar of gold makes a nice symbol for attachment
to material possessions and the cost of being greedy.

Once you establish the theme or “horse” of physics, it doesn’t take much to revisit it in
the reader’s mind, to create a beat of time and better pace your actions. Here, it acts as a
fragment of “big voice.”

Question 41

A story from scratch
thirteen

Vertical versus Horizontal
plot…emotion…

Answer 41

Here’s another concept: “!e Vertical versus the Horizontal” of a story. !e
Horizontal means the string of plot events from beginning to end. !e Vertical means the
accumulation of emotion that leads to a character’s “transformation” near the end of the story.
Most #rst drafts are limited to establishing the horizontal – the plotting, scene, characters. It’s
usually in re&ection that a writer #nds and heightens the emotional or vertical aspects of a story.

Question 42

A story from scratch 14
Character taking action

don’t why…time pass

Answer 42

Do not explain why a character takes an action: i.e. “I hid the gold under the tree so
I could come back for it, later.” Simply take the action. Also, by revisiting each of the &uids
which have soaked our narrator, we can summarize the various segments of the story, keeping
them all present in the reader’s mind. !e dog piss keeps the dog around as a character, too. !e
summary helps pace the on-going physical action and implies time and distance passing

Question 43

A story from scratch 15
language

don’t writerly

Answer 43

About language, decide what words your narrator does NOT know, and avoid them. For
example, my narrator doesn’t know the word “stride.” Using too great a variety of words can
sound “writerly” as if the story is told by a writer instead of the narrator.

Question 44

a story from scratch 16
a character’s experience

describe nar by imme xp

Answer 44

Since the ball is behind the narrator, let’s not assume the thing hitting him is the
ball. Instead, describe the effect using comparable things which will describe the narrator’s life
history: baseball, television, sports, etc. We know the attacker is the tennis ball so this sequence is
an opportunity to describe the narrator by how he describes his immediate experience.

Question 45

a story from scratch 17
verbs!
dynamic

Answer 45

A good action sequence feels like writing for a sports

broadcast, just using one dynamic verb after another

Question 46

a story from scratch 18
buried gun

recycle, comic, meaning

Answer 46

Anytime I need to interrupt the action, I need only bring
Hank’s car back around. All of my seemingly wasted years of cruising in cars with bored friends,
they keep this story moving. Another aspect of using limited elements – characters, settings,
repeated actions – is that you can recycle previous passages for comic effect, or simply to create an
event with economy. For example, once we know what a gesture means, we no longer need it
de#ned. !e character only performs the gesture, and it’s already loaded with previous meaning.

Question 47

A story from scratch 19
desire

nothing to lose

Answer 47

A character with nothing left to lose can reveal his deepest desire

Question 48

a story from scratch 20
tension

sympath

Answer 48

To create tension, we need to suggest that Hank might win. !is will generate more
sympathy for the narrator and make the obvious impending plot reversal seem like more of a
victory. For a stronger effect, I need to reread the opening of this story and borrow some of that
earlier wording to echo the scene where Hank was clearly superior. Just a few well-chosen words
can keep that earlier scene present in the reader’s mind.

Question 49

a story from scratch 21
gesture and dialogue

lim few, action speech brain, avoid

Answer 49

My preference is to limit dialogue, and to con#ne exchanges to a few lines. !e goal
is to sort and separate action and speech, because they engage different parts of the reader’s mind.
And – please – always avoid perfect “tennis match” exchanges where characters respond exactly to
what they’ve been asked. If you can resolve a situation with a gesture instead of dialogue – use
the gesture.

Question 50

a story from scratch 22

physical vs metaphysical strength

Answer 50

We’ve ful#lled the social contract. And the narrator has abandoned his childhood
goals after #nding they had little value. Jenny was not his salvation. Neither was money. In
the next revision it would be good to develop the theme of physical versus metaphysical strength –
how at the narrator’s time of greatest in#rmity he wins the tennis contest by trusting in
something he can’t explain. Like Luke Skywalker closing his blast shield, becoming blind, then
trusting the ‘force.’ People love that shit. Once more, notice that your characters can ask
questions, and these don’t have to be answered by another character. Your reader knows the
answer.
Also, consider a different #nal line. It would be nice to have the dog present in this last
scene, to point up the narrator’s humanity, possibly to retrieve the ball and thus demonstrate that
the ball is no longer possessed, and the spirit which occupied it is now at peace. !e sun is setting.
!e heroic narrator is battered and bloody and limping home. Perhaps the old woman will call
after him, shouting a kind-of existential chorus: “Who are you? What do I owe you? God bless
you…”. !ose are all elements to keep in mind.
So far this is the “horizontal” of the story, the chain of plot events. !e vertical will come,
with it the emotions and symbols.

Question 51

Belief - def

Answer 51

Belief - noun

an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists.

something one accepts as true or real; a firmly held opinion or conviction.

Question 52

Attitude - def

Answer 52

Attitude - noun

a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior.

“she took a tough attitude toward other people’s indulgences”