{"id":49588,"date":"2018-07-11T17:46:51","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T00:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.flyingwrestler.com\/?p=49588"},"modified":"2018-07-11T17:46:51","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T00:46:51","slug":"emotional-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flyingwrestler.com\/2018\/07\/emotional-investment\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Investment"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I read a script (or watch a movie or TV episode), there is one question running through my mind, which forms the foundation of my reaction to it:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo I care?”<\/p>\n

And if I\u2019m evaluating someone\u2019s work<\/a>, I\u2019m asking, \u201cDo I think audience members in general will care?”<\/p>\n

This is really what they pay us writers to do, when you get down to it, beyond everything else. We are supposed to grab people, to make them emotionally invest in the character(s) and situation(s), so they\u2019ll want to keep watching\/reading.<\/p>\n

If we don\u2019t, it doesn\u2019t matter how well we execute on the page. Not really. We have to convince them to want to be there, to want to stay. And that\u2019s about how it feels for them to be a part of the story.<\/p>\n

Most of my notes on most scripts point to this central need. Writers sometimes lose sight of this as the goal, and don\u2019t realize just how challenging it is to make millions of strangers engage and feel something about a story and characters. It\u2019s hard! But it\u2019s maybe the most valuable thing we do as writers \u2014 give the audience something to care about, to connect with, to lose themselves in. They want to experience the events of the story as if they were happening to them \u2014 to feel a part of it, and so connected that it really MATTERS how everything turns out. Almost like it\u2019s their favorite sports team playing for the championship<\/a>. And it’s our job to make that happen.<\/p>\n

There are two aspects to emotional engagement. Both are important.<\/p>\n

The first is about making them care about the predicament(s) of the main character(s) — to feel for the people and what they\u2019re going through and trying to achieve. So many of my blog posts are about different ways to try to ensure this happens: by seducing them into some connection in the opening pages<\/a>, by making sure the main character has one big problem<\/a> they will actively focus on throughout, and that it has high enough stakes<\/a>, and that the story is told subjectively through their point-of-view<\/a>. Achieving a kind of emotional oneness with the main character(s) is something we take for granted, as viewers. But as writers, we have to strategize and work hard to make this happen.<\/p>\n

The other way to engage audience emotions is through entertaining them. That is, we lead them into experiencing pleasurable emotions, that they chose to watch the movie\/show because they’re hoping to feel. Different genres do this differently \u2014 depending on whether their audience showed up to laugh, to be scared, to experience romantic love, etc.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy to achieve high entertainment value if you\u2019re not also making them care about the characters and strongly bond with them. But occasionally it happens. If a comedy is funny enough, or a horror film scary enough, or an action-adventure has big enough spectacle, bonding with the characters can sometimes be slightly less crucial. With some movies, the audience just wants to laugh really hard, see awesome eye candy, etc., and they may or may not be quite as connected with the people. These kinds of movies are like amusement park attractions, to me. Sometimes they can be big successes. And a writer who can entertain this hugely can definitely find work. They just might not stick with you as much.<\/p>\n

Most writers I work with aren\u2019t focused in that direction. If anything, \u201centertainment\u201d seems to be a lower priority. They\u2019re not actively going for a particular genre, other than perhaps \u201cdrama,\u201d which can be the hardest to make \u201centertaining\u201d (and can sometimes become bleak, or boring). With this kind of script, it\u2019s that much more important that the audience have strong emotional investment in the characters and their problems, and what they\u2019re doing in the face of conflicts and complications they encounter to try to reach their goals.<\/p>\n

In my view, most writers could stand to focus on both of these ways to engage audience emotion more, as the one-two punch of what makes a script really “work” — assuming it also has a strong enough original premise. And when you come right down to it, virtually every other screenwriting trick of the trade ultimately works in service to one or both of these goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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