Hi everyone!
Thank you so much to everyone who has viewed and supported my first foray into vlogs earlier this week! It was simultaneously a terrifying and fantastic experience, and based on what I’ve read and been told in person, I think I’ll do more in the near future :) (If you haven’t seen it yet, click here to check it out!)
In that first vlog, I admitted to something that made me blush on-screen: much of what the characters feel and experience on an interpersonal level came from my own personal experiences…more so than any other story I have ever written.
Last night, when I was at a friend’s Halloween party, I was talking with some of my friends there and telling them about this, and some of the comments they made started to make me think further about this…
This emotional connection is what draws people in to many stories. I read an article not long ago about this very thing, too, and I believe I recall the word used was pathos: when you frame anything into a narrative where the people and their experiences are the focus, it causes a reader or viewer to feel empathy for the characters, and feel more drawn to them and their story.
How important is this, you say? Here’s an example of a story without that element:
A great evil’s power resides within a ring, which is taken cross-country to a volcano where it is cast into the fires and destroyed.
Sound familiar? It should…I’m pretty sure anyone reading this is likely to know the story of The Lord of the Rings. Except…if the way I told it just now was all that the story consisted of, it’d be kind of boring. Tolkein’s writing style aside, that would not have been a memorable story.
But when your story includes a single Hobbit who thinks he can’t make a difference, but still rises up to save the entire world, through pain and hardship and loss, overcoming the most difficult obstacles ever, along with a fiercely loyal friend who never gives up on him…that is a story that connects to the readers. Not to mention all of the other characters’ stories: Aragorn’s struggle to rebuild the great kingdom, Legolas and Gimli’s friendship, Merry and Pip’s adventures and friendship, and Gandalf’s rise to become the White Wizard.
I’m getting a bit off topic here…but then I wonder, how much of the emotions evoked in Lord of the Rings came from Tolkein’s own experiences in life? We know from her interviews that JK Rowling’s own life experiences and emotions were poured into the Harry Potter novels, and they are one of the most wildly popular books out there, for both children and adults!
So I wonder…is this the secret to writing stories that people will love and connect with? Stories that they will obsess over and write fan fiction about and make fan art for?
It looks like I’m going to find out in the coming years…because as hard as it was to write some of the scenes in The Orc War Campaigns, especially the final episode…I want to keep doing this. I want to infuse my life, my experiences and emotions, into the stories. It helped me connect with my characters better, and it is my hope that it will help you, my dear readers, connect with them as well…
Thank you for reading, and for all of your support over the past few years! <3!
-Jon Wasik
A Writer at Heart 