How to Create Emotion in Your Fantasy Novel
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- čas přidán 11. 06. 2024
- Here's what I learned from The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass. Get the book here: amzn.to/46WqI1U
Apply for my Fantasy Outlining Bootcamp: bit.ly/outlining-bootcamp
⏲️ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Introduction
00:35 - Infuse infodumps with meaning
05:05 - Write around the emotion
10:51 - Small details create big emotion
15:46 - Building an emotional hook
20:53 - Ask your characters the right questions
24:56 - Create polarity shifts
28:03 - Moral elevation
Stories used as examples:
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch - amzn.to/3NnolhQ
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - amzn.to/3t8iI05
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King - amzn.to/41eLrN8
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - amzn.to/46XaFku
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson - amzn.to/3TcoSqC
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As someone who has done a LOT of writing courses, this was NEVER taught to me this clearly and succinctly before, thanks so much. I can already tell I'll be coming back to this video many times
Edit: Man, you're really using ALL my favourite books for examples here lmao
Happy to help!
You have great taste.
@@Jed_Herne
@@Jed_HerneYes, I agree with the others. I have never felt so confident of my writing skills until now. Your explanations, that book, plus the examples, paint a real clear picture.
Honestly, that kid wanting to leave, but being kept in there, really evoked sympathy in me for the ghosts. I felt like they wanted to tell him, and felt guilty about it. Normally, I would expect secret holders to be unkind or not cooperative, or something.
Hearing you read Kaladin's line gave me goosebumps, the best line from the series so far; 'Honors dead, but I'll see what I can do!'
I also had goosebumps. Great stuff.
As a testament to good writing: I've never read six of crows but hearing how th mastermind character express his love for the girl while he was drowning actually brought a bit of tears to my eyes. So I got one can say it worked! Lol
Six of Crows is superb; the Graveyard Book is a timeless masterpiece - I love that Gaiman waited until he felt he was a good enough writer to write it. Your analysis is great, thank you.
The hardest part of watching your videos is forcing myself to keep working on my current story. You make me want to start something new every time.
Ha, don't do that!
The best writing videos are when you have to stop a dozen times to write notes on the story outlines you're working on! Thank you for the great video!
I can "understand" feelings (as in the physical impact and logical reasoning for why someone reacted emotionally to a situation) and write them to some extent, but I cannot "feel" them properly myself. Not really. Struggled with that for years, even had therapy.
This results in the emotion in my characters being too... bland? Robotic? Untrue?
Anyways, I hope one day I will be able to write something other than set-pieces and worldbuilding setups and have actual believable characters.
Love you videos, Jed!
9:45 OMG best analogy ever. I love this look at the planets orbiting around the sun/core emotion.
The orbiting the emotion section is an awesome lesson, which a lot of professional showrunners could benefit from applying.
As a person with a disability who is writing a magical realism set in an apocalypse spearheaded by a character with a disability, the first point really resonates with me. I just want to talk about my disability, and my experience with it-really, all throughout the story-so that first point gives me the permission that I need to do just that.
What disability will your character have?
Book of Eli?
Okay this is goin to sound crazy to most people which I understand. But I’m twelve years old and a suspense/horror writer. I’ve submitted short stories twice to magazines, got rejected, but I have started writing my first novel. Anyway watching people like Jed, even though he’s a fantasy author, really inspires me to keep going
I’m also a young writer, but I can never find the inspiration to keep writing during school and other things. Tips?
@@onepineapple8133 you need to read a lot to write allot. Set a word count goal for each day, mine is 2,000 words but you can do however many fits your schedule. write at least once a day. And write a story you love, not one others want you to write. hope this helped😃
@@onepineapple8133so this might only work for me, but whenever I get free time to just think, I sometimes just fantasize about things happening to my characters and just seeing where it goes. Even just thinking about stuff that will never go in my novel just helps me flesh out the characters and get a new perspective on them. You might even get a burst of inspiration at some point. The greatest ideas come when you least expect them to.
Btw I’m also a younger author so hopefully this helps👍
i wish i started young, i always loved reading but never had the courage or time to try writing
@@divinrth5187 It's never too late😁
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:00 📚 *Infusing Info Dumps with Meaning*
- Infusing info dumps with meaning allows conveying world-building details without overwhelming the narrative.
- Donald Maass suggests attaching emotional significance to setting descriptions by considering the character's perspective and emotional impact.
- Example from "The Lies of Locke Lamora" illustrates how emotional experiences of characters in a location enrich world-building without explicit description.
04:25 🌟 *Writing Around the Primary Emotion*
- Avoiding the direct conveyance of a single emotion in favor of exploring complex, multifaceted feelings within a scene.
- Illustration from "Six of Crows" showcases how subtle emotions are depicted through character interactions without explicitly stating the primary emotion.
- Crafting scenes with layered emotions akin to a solar system's orbits around a central emotional theme.
10:23 🎨 *Small Details Create Big Emotions*
- Emphasizing the impact of specific, vivid details in eliciting profound emotional responses from readers.
- Stephen King's "Doctor Sleep" passage demonstrates how a focus on nuanced, specific imagery elevates emotional depth.
- Highlighting the importance of specificity in evoking profound emotions, particularly in significant scenes.
15:52 🪝 *Building an Emotional Hook*
- Crafting a compelling story opening by combining intrigue with emotional investment.
- The necessity of instilling a strong emotional goal for the protagonist in the story's initial pages.
- Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book" exemplifies creating both intrigue and emotional hooks, sparking curiosity about the character's circumstances and desires.
20:19 🌟 *Creating Character Goals*
- Strong character goals set up an intriguing story promise.
- Emotional depth in characters enhances the narrative.
- Surface-level questions don't reveal the true essence of a character.
22:39 🕵️♂️ *Asking Deep Character Questions*
- Character depth lies in probing, meaningful inquiries.
- Deep questions unveil emotional truths, driving character development.
- Meaningful life events shape a character beyond surface traits.
24:46 📚 *Creating Depth through Character Analysis*
- Analyzing characters through deep questioning enriches narratives.
- Probing questions lead to new character insights and appreciation.
- Detailed character understanding fuels passion for writing and improvement.
25:00 🎭 *Creating Polarity Shifts*
- Characters evolve through highs and lows, not static emotions.
- Emotional connection arises from the sequence of highs and lows.
- Modulating intensity between polarities enhances reader engagement.
28:02 🌟 *Principle of Moral Elevation*
- Characters doing inherently good deeds, especially in challenging situations, elevate narratives.
- Moral elevation as a cornerstone evokes strong emotional responses.
- Memorable moments in stories often involve characters inspiring or lifting others.
Made with HARPA AI
EW. AI is putrid.
Amazing video, my favourite one yet!
Currently on my second draft of my fantasy story in progress. Emotion is something I know I need to work on thanks for the advice.
Just bought the craft book and the six of crows. 😂
I use an emotion thesaurus for my writing. It helps so much with the show, don't tell thing creative writing professors in college always drill into you.
It is so useful for helping to communicate outer body language, internal sensations, mental responses, how a given emotion might be suppressed and more. I would be lost without that book.
All this advice in the video is more difficult for me, who is writing my gothic fantasy novel in third person limited pov
That's such a good book and useful tool. I mostly use it to "check my work" so to speak, as I'm pretty good at hitting the notes I want. Or sometimes to enhance things, but mostly checking. It's a great tool I use to make people see it and feel it like they're living it. Love it when I give the right emotional punch to a scene.
@@tearstoneactual9773 Just recently, in my book, I was writing a action-oriented combat sequence where my protagonist is fighting a troll in order to save a hostage cat. I used it to help show an instance showcasing the feral rage and animalistic carnage of my protagonist that kills off the troll
@@unicorntomboy9736 - Literally Save the Cat. :D
I use The Emotion Thesaurus as well. It's great. I've actually bought it for a few of my Story Coaching clients as well, because it's so useful.
The way you glance at the camera while reading "not yet" 😂
I'm sold on whatever you're pitching!
23:00
The Deep Questions to ask your character:
- What’s the first thing you remember that made you truly happy?
- When and how did you discover that life isn’t fair?
- Who first broke your heart?
- What accomplishment proved to you that you can do anything?
- When did you decide that you had to grow up?
- What’s been your biggest sacrifice?
- What was the most romantic night of your life?
- What disgusts you?
What an awesome video, I definitely took notes. My story is supposed to be super emotional and the goal of the main character has to do with a feeling, but I have been struggling to convey the emotion without forcing it (or without being too obvious). I hope I can get better at it!
It's like you knew what I needed! You are the best, Jed!
Happy to help!
Great points! I’ve been trying to flesh out my side characters and want to be sure my ending hits home. I think I’ll be rewarding this a few times
Loved the video! Especially the part about meaningful infodumps. I just read the scene in the first harry potter, in which Hagrid and the Dursleys explain Harry's backstory through a verbal conflict.
That's a fantastic example as well
This is one of your best videos. Excellent content and here I am considering getting that reference book. lol
Gonna have to watch this another time as I'm currently reading Words of Radiance
_The Emotional Craft of Fiction_ is such an amazingly helpful book; when you walk through the exercises and take it like a course, it can give you so much perspective on how to work emotional depth into your writing.
This was really helpful! My MC doesn't have a ton of agency in book I (that's one of his flaws), and this helped me focus on how to deliver that flaw, the emotion around it (past trauma), and how he overcomes it at the climax.
Tigana is the ultimate emotional fantasy novel, for me. Tigana and Who Fears Death. Both masterclasses!
Love your videos Jed.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me for these questions I answered “10, red, school” 21:01
Very important video for me personally. Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
There is a theory of emotion that has "secondary" emotions. They are just as real and valid as "primary" emotions, but they do not happen on their own. Anger is probably the biggest secondary emotion. There is always some other emotion or perception that comes along with it, or even precedes it. Of course fear is probably the most common emotion that goes along with anger, but it can be many other things.
Ah there it is. I was curious when a video would focus on a major issue I'm dealing with and that's trying to work out a revenge scenario. I've noticed recently there's a problem with that revenge because there is no clear targets for that revenge at first due to the problem being a law and not a person. I've come up with a few people that can be the targets of said revenge but then comes another problem. How far can my hero go down a revenge path with possible hope of redemption...
The reason I say this video somewhat focuses on this problem I'm having is because how my main characters entire image in nearly every way is molded by this revenge path eventually leading to a path of renewal of a sort
This sounds like it could be an integral part of the plot. Your character is on a quest for vengeance but doesn’t know who he’s supposed to be angry at.
@@paulbischoff5685 Yeah you could definitely say that for sure. I'm having difficulties deciding what to do, what not to in do certain circumstances cause it has to with religion and cultural differences between to Kingdoms
@@Royalscriber5633Have you tried asking your character?
@@JohnSmith-pv2qc I don't think I've asked all the right questions but have definitely thought about what some might be. Once I get some down I plan on doing just with several characters.
This video is so amazing. As soon as I read the title I knew: This is the lesson I need, these will be those advices, that I've been dying to be told. Thank you.
What a fantastic video Jed! I literally took three pages of notes!
That's awesome, Josh! Glad to hear it.
I remember feeling a profound sense of shock & ennui when learning that all of Susan's siblings tragically died in a train crash.
Dress shirt & Adidas pants actually made me subscribe.
Business up the top, sport mode down the bottom
the dr sleep passage got me feeling all kinds of ways
Naur i made myself cry with one of the entries for "what's the first thing you remember that made you truly happy"
Thank you for making this video! Very informational and it was great to see examples from different stories. I'm gonna rewatch to take notes hehe.
And gosh, that scene with Kaladin is so amazing, makes me want to read the book again 😆
Glad it was helpful!
I love this book and listen to it on audible many, many times. Particularly when I get infuriated with show-don't-tell spam by adamant amateurs.
In a break between parts, doing something else, I was literally just pondering the same criticism of modern media at the examples of Tears of the Kingdom (here more gameplay-wise) and the show Star Wars: Ahsoka, both released this year. Thanks for saying that big moments in big movies often lack depth nowadays. The stakes are placed high, but don't feel like it. That's why Drama movies and shows often evoke much deeper emotions in me.
Thank you for this! I needed it to level up
Ur videos rly help me sooo much. I am always taking notes and reflec what u say to my own book, characters and story, etc. It's amazing!
I just wish there would actually be a german youtuber like u, who also supports authors.
#video_request make a video for the face of the franchise, like how to choose the best character to be the representation of the audience if i have a lot of characters to choose from (for example, Pikachu from Pokemon, etc etc) and also how it affects the audience's expectations and beliefs.
This is gold! Thanks!
I just love Six of Crows, it was great to see this amazing scene analyzed here
I love your book examples. It really helps see the advice in action.
I really love ur videos im writing my novel too and im planning to move to Australia soon wish le luck and i wish u all the luck in the world
I recently finished my story after thinking about it for 6 years, I just really hope it was worth it.
I bought the book before my first draft, but it didn't make much of an impression on me at the time. I'm now going through my first edit, and plucked The Emotional Craft of Fiction from my bookshelf because of your excellent review. Maass' advice has become much more clear and relevant, now that I can actually apply it to scenes where a deeper visceral response is needed.Thank you.
I found this video very helpful in thinking through scenes differently. It was especially great to have the examples to see the advice in use.
Glad it was helpful!
Great Information! Thank you for reviewing these tips in depth, and including such good examples. This really helps the ideas sink in.
Great video, top quality!
Every time I think a scene has one primary emotion, half the time it's actually the emotion that character expects to feel, and not actually what they end up feeling. So I keep ending up with accidental complexity by fooling myself 😂
If you can do more videos like this that would be some of the best writing advice out there.
great video! I loved it so much that I got that book on audible this morning to start listening to it. I will most likely get a physical copy in the near future! Your videos have been a great inspiration to me and has given me a big push I've needed to get my manuscript done! Thank you again for your videos!
You're welcome!
I read that book, and it was really good 🙌🏻
Thanks for the information sure itll do me some good
I'd like one more thing in these kinds of videos please. Could you please suggest which tips are best implemented at First Draft and which should be reserved for Revision stage?
Young new writers could find your videos and think they must literally do all this in Draft One, and slow down their writing. I have been guilty of this myself 😂
Love your content. Keep it up brother
Good point
Really good video
This was a good video
Man that last one locked me in for a great idea.
This one’s a f heater bro
Okay, a prediction before watching the video, then i'll edit if I'm wrong. "How to create emotion in a novel?"
First: make imperfect but recognizable character(s) that the reader will like and identify with regardless of their foibles.
Second: beat the crap out of said character(s).
Third: have the character(s) somehow find a way to pull through after all.
Fourth: don't quite let the character(s) reap all the obvious rewards of their quest, but just enough to be grateful they get to keep going onwards, having helped the world in their own particular personal way.
In the end, Bilbo would only accept a small chest of treasure from Erebor, plus a share of the troll gold on the way home, but he was visited sometime later by Gandalf and none other than Balin. Gandalf remarked, "You are a fine person, Bilbo Baggins, and I am quite fond of you, but you are only just a little fellow in a wide world after all."
"Thank goodness!" said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tobacco jar.
2:10 A great description overall, but that one bit didn't really make sense. Decent citizens would stand out in such a place like babies in a snake pit, not like serpents in a nursery.
Is there anyway to buy the chart you show as an example @ 23:48?
Another great video with tons of useful info, so thanks, Jed!
Many it's just men, but the excerpt from Stephen King does nothing for me. It's passive and has so many filter words, and I feel nothing. It's the polar opposite of immersive.
With all due respect I want to know if the advice you give is legit cuz it's sounds like it, I really need some writing tips and this channel is helping me out a lot.
0:26 - I think you just meant 'intuitive'?
I hate the music. It's no help in trying to stay focused ! Love the content.
A lot of the time Jed has good advice, defnitley a journeyman level writer, but I do wish his videos didn't come off as a sales pitch so often. I could really do without the constant references back to his writer bootcamp or the infomerical style testimonial videos. Those especially are synonymous with scammers and scam websites for a lot of us. It makes me suspcious almost as soon as I hear them.
Apart from that he has good points, but take everything with a grain of salt. He's qualified to offer advice as a writer, but he's very fixed in his own methods and those aren't going to work for everyone so don't be discouraged if he disavows part of your process. He's not the be-all-end-all authority. Even if he's trying to sell himself as one.
great writers don't make content like this
Tbh i never finished any of your vids, it's just so long
First!
it upsets me that you pronounce Silas sill-es instead of sigh-less
sounds like schnee
GREAT! VERY USEFUL , TRULY INSPIRING, EXTREMELY MOTIVATING! BRAVO!!!