How to Write Scenes That Will Make Your Readers Cry Their Eyes Out

all right so let's talk about the art of how to make an audience cry now there is many a good joke out there on the Internet as to why writers do this and it generally comes down to us wanting to drink the tears of our readers like we're psychos or something [Music] [Applause] what sort of monsters do you think we are [Applause] but tiered ranking aside I have figured out the secret to how to achieve the elusive thing so let's talk about it so first things first let's talk about the science and I swear this is relevant and not just an excuse for me to talk biology now emotional tears are super fascinating because although most land animals do cry most scientists agree that an animal's tears are always either basal which is just meant to keep the eye lubricated or a reflexive which is meant to flush out debris Zoar is triggered by mistaken cues it makes the brain think that you should be flushing out DeVries but emotional tears seem to be exclusive to humans and it's theorized that it evolved as a way for us to communicate that we were in deep distress to inspire aid and sympathy in a very physiological form that's hard to fake I came home because of sadness we also have evidence that suggests that crying is a form of actual stress relief because the tears themselves contain stress hormones so it could be a way for our body to flush out some of the excess this may help explain why some people like consuming stories that make them cry because it's helping to alleviate some with the stress it's just part of everyday life this is relevant and important because it suggests that the true cause of Tears isn't sadness but rather the brain reaching a point where it's overwhelmed so it's activating the tears in an attempt to help you survive a scenario that it's interpreting as life threatening when in reality we're just watching try not to cry challenges on YouTube because we're stressed about the current state of society okay so crying itself has benefits for the audience then but how does it benefit writers the primary benefit of making your readers cry is of course that we can drink those tears to fuel us it's a scientific fact the secondary benefit is that a story that makes people cry is a story they're more likely to remember our brains are better at remembering trauma than they aren't remembering happy moments because traumatizing things are more likely to straight-up kill us and naturally natural selection Elyse speaking that's priority number one I didn't think that that word combination was a good idea and a story more often remembered is a dorium more often recommended also cryin tends to make the audience view a story as being higher quality or better now before it can get to the secret ingredient of making an audience cry we need a strong foundation so first things first generally speaking you need an impacted character you can watch an entire fictional city be destroyed and feel less emotional impact than watching a single character lose something that has sentimental value to them because empathy is our ability to connect with another person's emotions and a bird's-eye view of a city doesn't give us an actual person to connect with next up character attachment they're not strictly required most writers are unable to make readers cry without first creating a character that the audience is not only attached to but was deeply impacted by the events and if you're a book writer don't set your expectations on the lofty bar set by on-screen adoptions because visual storytelling comes with a couple tools that are really really great making audiences cry that US novel writers just don't have in our arsenal so keep in mind that most here inducing scenes and books take place generally anywhere between the heroes fall and the end of the story next up we have setting well this is much more effective on screen it does affect books as well setting can have a strong impact on our emotions also worth noting having a character revisit a location means you don't have to slow the story down as much to describe the setting which can help you focus on the important elements of the heart-wrenching scene what study would best serve your tearful scene will depend on so many stories specific variables that I cannot even begin to advise you on it an example I think of this done really well is Harry Potter in the order of the Phoenix the dark and mysterious halls and creepy atmosphere of the room with the whispering Vale contributed to the overall feeling of uncertainty and Natalie are really well with Harry's denial over the loss of Sirius and the way he kept expecting him to step right back out of the veil and lastly we have immersion if a reader isn't immersed they won't cry if a reader is confused they won't cry if a reader is noticing typos every other sentence I won't cry you get the idea okay so that's the foundation now what is it what is the secret I think that if there's one single secret to making an audience cry its to overwhelm them because remember our current theory is that tears exist because they encourage catharsis which is the process of releasing and providing relief from strong or repressed emotions not just sad emotions but strong or repressed emotions in general so you know maybe the writers of season eight of Game of Thrones thought they could just frustrate us into a tearful breakdown so then how do we overwhelm an audience sad scenes are like onions they make you cry yes nope layers onions have layers sad scenes have layers onions have layers you get it so most things that make us cry actually do so by layering on multiple escalating levels of emotion and crying is what happens when our brain is no longer able to process all of the layers and because the key is overwhelming people not only is it not necessary for you to stay in the same emotional Lane but weaving outside of it can actually contribute to making the audience feel overwhelmed so first let's talk about negative layers now most of these are scenarios that hold power over us because they're either things that we fear experiencing or have experienced is this Marley and me you son of a and in most cases the things that we expect to experience at some point in our lives so instinctively our brain latches onto these story elements because it wants to be prepared number one is of course the most common tear jerker of all and that is character deaths and this can be deaths of characters we know deaths of characters we don't know deaths of animals deaths of aliens this one hits hard because it's an irreversible form of loss that we can all understand and relate to on some level next up we have other forms of irreversible loss or seemingly erver scible losses such as breakups house burning down saying goodbye forever or getting spoilers for something we're just really excited about next we have shattered dreams especially when they're just within reach for those of you who have read ilithyia I think this is why chapter 47 so heartbreaking it's taking away the characters dreams right when they're right there in front of them next up we have denial in the face of loss no no it's it's not that kind of rope you know you're lying she's not even dead line hello miss my old friend this layer when combined well with others hits surprisingly hard and I think it's because in the face of devastating loss that is generally our first thought I think a good example of this is the scrubs episode where Ben dies there's your camera aren't you aren't you gonna take some pictures pictures a lot people singing happy birthday to my son who have never even met him before you know that whole routine where do you think we are but what made that death so sad wasn't the character loss instead it was the denial in the character left behind I've come to talk with you again next up we have unfairness on karmic imbalance so bad things happening to the goodest of boys Pixar watch any Pixar short and yes the opening to up counts as a Pixar short and you will find that they wield this like a knife the closer looked at a video on how to make audiences cry and he focused mainly on this aspect on the unfairness so I'll link that in the end cards for your viewing pleasure next up we have sacrifice and altruism this one hits us really hard especially when it's a scenario where we feel like sacrifice is the morally right thing to do but feel we wouldn't be strong enough to do it a great example of this is a hiccup sacrifice and How to Train Your Dragon 3 but I did a whole last video breaking down all of the ways that that movie makes you cry so I'll link that also in the end cards it's worth noting too that this sacrifice can also come in the form of moral sacrifice where a character has to do bad things for the overall good and it will hurt them mentally to have to live with what they've done but it's the right thing to do next up we have guilt remorse or regret and this is especially hard when it happens right after a character has done or said something that will cause irreversible harm or loss or damage in the relationship between characters you're not a Viking you're not my son so you'll often see this where a character in the heat of the moment shouts out some lie or even truth that will harm the relationship between the characters or when they do something impulsive that will cause harm or fall out next up we have loneliness abandonment and rejection and this one hits hardest because it's a very deep-seated human fear the fear of being alone of dying alone of not being wanted and of not being good enough our last item is helplessness loss of hope or giving up so this is the character collapsing there I is going distant their hands falling still this is generally seen in the characters darkest hour and for this one to hit hardest there needs to be no so insight either from their POV or from arts and this one is tricky because it is a slower beat and thus it's harder to overwhelm the audience with it now let's talk about positive layers counterintuitive as it may seem audience can 100% be brought to tears with positive layers in fact I read a study aware of the scenes that made people cry 33% were described as overall happy scenes and beyond that putting more positive layers on top of more negative ones can very easily contribute to the audience hitting a point where they're overwhelmed so first off we have reconciliation and forgiveness and the more passed and baggage the characters have to overcome to forgive each other the harder this will hit because in a way forgiveness is a positive form of sacrifice it's sacrificing our pride and grudges and anger for the good of the relationship next up we have reunions and passage of time I think reunions a passage of time tend to hit us so hard because they naturally make us want to reflect on the characters past and rich history together which can easily make other layers hit harder next we have end of an era so this is things like characters graduating leaving home leaving an old job to pursue their dreams it's things where the characters are moving towards something that they want but to do so they're leaving behind the familiar next up we have heartfelt confessions vulnerability and intimacy I think this hits so hard because it's a sign of closeness and trust but also because it is in a way another form of sacrifice because we're sacrificing our sense of safety to expose these things to other people next up we have consideration nurturing or caring I think this one also strums on our sacrifice strings a bit which is interesting given in most of these scenarios the sacrifice isn't that great often it's just time but it still impacts us really hard and maybe that's because in society today we often feel like people wouldn't go out of the way to help someone else in a scenario like that next up we have a cheaping lifelong dreams and I think this one hits so hard because all of us have had a dream at some point or another and many of us are forced to give up that dream in the face realities societal pressures or other setbacks sometimes we even just grow out of the dream which isn't itself sad so seeing a character get that dream achieving moment resonates with a large often forgotten and sometimes even repressed pool of emotions within us next we have intense mutual love and this can be familial platonic romantic any type but just seeing characters being close and bonding can often strum the heartstrings to the point of Tears when combined well with other layers next up we have faithfulness and loyalty this is much like the last one and I think it touches us so deeply just because it's something that most of us strongly desire but he forgot me a long long time ago [Music] next we have healing acceptance hope or a moment that symbolizes the character is gonna be okay he didn't say some way even though we yelled at him I was always mean and he's still batteries II didn't meet well of course not I think relief factors largely into why this one hit so hard because it's a sudden release of tension and the flood can sometimes overwhelm us and last but not least there's a really interesting one that I found through my research and that is representation there's something about the same part of our identity portrayed in a story that resonates with us in a really deep way beyond simply relating and this applies mostly to groups that very rarely get to see themselves represented on screen or in story so those are some of the big layers that I found that you have to work with and the interesting thing here is that most of these layers are not capable of making an audience cry on their own you have to layer them and layering them is not a science it's an art some of these elements will layer to be more impactful others will be detrimental to each other when layered sometimes you may have too few layers in the audience's underwhelmed who can be able to tell the tower sometimes you may have too many layers on the audience is pushed beyond overwhelmed and enters a realm of just being confused and not being able to keep track of all of the information now beyond layers there are a couple tools you can use to help drive the nails deeper so I'm gonna briefly cover those firstly we have parallels be ok baby stay with me not her you know [Music] and these work especially well when they draw a line between the present and the far past to remind us of the deep history and connection between the characters being impacted parallels also contribute to your audience being overwhelmed because it opens up another threat of thought and that will run in the background as they watch the scene play out I think a great example of this is Full Metal Alchemist Episode four in the Brotherhood one and this is where the father says that Edie is no different from himself this simple line is the character dry in a parallel and then our brains want to check the fact and in the background as the scene plays out we're digging up the past context to hold it up to the current and see if they match they aren't perfect parallels but us having to go back and think about that past scenario well the scene is still playing out contributes to us being overwhelmed next up we have callbacks much like parallels callbacks can remind your audience of emotional depth and history between characters or even characters and places or characters and events next we have contrast most stories need some truly happy moments to be able to pack heart emotional blows and that's because the contrast of holding up this earlier happy time against the current horrible time will help contribute to making them feel emotionally confused and overwhelmed this isn't always true as with any piece of writing advice ever but it can be helpful next up we have twists now you can 100% make an audience cry with events that they saw coming before they even picked up the story but twists can contribute to overwhelming your audience emotionally if used correctly yeah we're doing here people are so stupid hate wants to die she's making Anna do all this because she knows that she's not gonna that's a lie Jessie eats time mom it's ready Oh twists best contribute to tears when they paint the past relevant to the current event in a new light and like call backs and parallels leave the audience starting up threads of thought trying to search over the story with this new light you've handed them seeing if this new context changes their stance in the current scene twists can also add layers of conflict and tension which can again contribute to overwhelming your audience the useless human neglected to present to you the tool of moral complexity a highly forgivable human error it is not as if she spent 40 hours last month researching moral grayness lucky for you there is a whole video on the topic which you should watch because moral complexity correlates strongly with audience overwhelming levels next we have fading images when it comes to sadness tied to irreversible loss one of the best tools in your arsenal is to remind the audience of a future that can never be I think that humans feel lost most in terms of stolen moments when we lose a parent what breaks us is how we'll never again get to bake Christmas cookies with them how they'll never see their grandkids grow up or how we'll never again get to argue about Star Wars with them it's about moments that will never be so give the readers an imagined moment earlier in the book so you can steal it away when the loss hits next we have the Maddox and symbol with something I don't know how commonly this affects the average reader but this gets me every time and this is where one or multiple emotional layers are applied in a way that resonates with the core theme of this story or are symbolic of a character's journey or change I won't go in depth because it's a newer story and spoilers but our dark duet in the final bit of the book does this I feel like very well and I think this is a large part of why it impacted me so much and reduced me to utter tears by the way don't listen to our dark duet as an audiobook while you're driving because it's really hard to drive when you are just bawling your eyes out and lastly we have pacing if to overwhelm your reader you need to raise the fear and tension go for a faster scene on the other hand if you want to give readers time to digest something ponder past implication Shen's explore parallels or other things that require taking a breath slow this thing down with longer paragraphs and more pauses for the character to think things over and last but not least this isn't a tool but it's something we have to very briefly touch on and that is bathos which is the tear killer bathos is a lapse in mood from a grandeur serious topic to a trivial or ridiculous one leading to an anti-climax there are many stories that had scenes that could have easily led to the audience crying but the writer was scared that the scene was gonna become cheesy and so cut it short with a joke or something silly which wicks the tears right out of the audience's eyes making an audience cry is all about careful balancing and stacking of blocks building a tower right up to the point where the audience is overwhelmed and not a block more making an audience laugh on the other hand is all about knocking those blocks over in a sudden and surprising way don't knock over the blocks until you're done stacking them you also have to be careful because surprise itself is a core component of humor and can thus unintentionally lead to bad those now that's not to say you can't have a story that makes people cry and also still has humorous moments throughout it I personally think a good example of this is guardians of the galaxy - but not everyone agrees with me because not everyone has the same interpretation of humor and sadness which left many feeling the sad scenes in the movie were ruined by bath O's so I present to you the conclusion there is no formula no hard science no one thing that will work for all audiences and writing is complicated as hell and all of this depends on your story setting characters plot and so many other variables no one but you could ever hope to comprehend how all of those different things in your story are going to interact and what's gonna work the best in your specific scenario and if that wasn't complicated enough all of these different variables affect the audience differently what makes you cry isn't necessarily gonna be what makes me cry and if you try to make it to generalize you might not emotionally move anyone but generally speaking I think that's the problem that most stories hit is under layering and not hitting the point where the audience is overwhelmed so look through the list and see if there's maybe something else you can incorporate into that scene that you want to make readers cry and don't slap all of your layers on at once spread the reminders and reveals and events out a little bit throughout the scenes so that readers have a chance to kind of digest them if you enjoyed this video make sure to give it a thumbs up and share it actually does help if you want to cry and you like new adult post-apocalyptic dystopian books Alethea a go buy it and then tweet at me when you cry if you cry because I do deeply enjoy knowing that readers cried from it so thank you so much for watching and as always I will see you in the next video [Music]

Channel: Cloud Kitten Chronicles

Views: 2,523

Rating: 4.9636364 out of 5

Keywords: how to make your readers cry, how to make your readers feel emotion, how to make your audience cry, how to make the reader cry, how to write, how to write character deaths, how pixar makes you cry, megan tennant, screenwriting, video essay, writing advice, screenplay, the closer look, henry sharpe, up, interstellar, the green mile, essay, video, analysis, lecture, how to, how to make, how to make the audience cry, depressing, tragic, how to make a sad scene, how, sad scene, scene, death

Id: aN_vR72lOgg

Length: 22min 30sec (1350 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 12 2020