Why Movies Make Us Cry

Published October 26, 2018

Emotion in Screenwriting and How Novelists Can Use It.

What a treat to have Kevin Ikenberry at Write Brain in October. His presentation proposed to answer the question, “How do film techniques translate to the novel?” In a nutshell? Emotion is a product of story structure. As writers, we can double down on the two aspects that the written word excels at – imagery and emotion.

Kevin distilled the science of building emotionally resonant story into four steps by asking these questions:

Who is your protagonist?
What is your protagonist trying to do?
Who is trying to stop your protagonist?
What happens if your hero fails?

He also went into detail about the tricks and tropes for structuring your story to provoke emotional reactions of your characters. One that stood out was isolating your characters in some way. Such as making them an outsider or a “chosen one”.

Thank you Kevin for a fantastic evening!

If you missed October’s Write Brain then…

Please join Pikes Peak Writers for November’s Write Brain.

Sharon Manislovich will present Web Presence 101.

You’ve got a product and you want to market it. Where do you start? Should you create a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter presence and be done with it?

Find out the answers to these, and many more questions on Nov 20, 2018 — 6:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. at Library 21c – 1175 Chapel Hills Dr, Colorado Springs, CO 80920

See you there!