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\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why do some things \u201cland\u201d emotionally and others fall flat?\u00a0 So often we hear about our culture being desensitized to many things.\u00a0 Violence, language, sex.\u00a0 The list goes on.\u00a0 I\u2019m convinced that\u2019s true.\u00a0 But there are other times where even the most desensitized to things are affected profoundly, and I struggle to understand why.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Was that scene more shocking than another?\u00a0 Not necessarily.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In looking at what makes a story \u201cbad\u201d (meaning it doesn\u2019t <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n (This is the opinion of the author – it doesn’t necessarily reflect the opinion of WhiteFire Publishing or any of its authors)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" David White, Publisher Why do some things \u201cland\u201d emotionally and others fall flat?\u00a0 So often we hear about our culture being desensitized to many things.\u00a0 Violence, language, sex.\u00a0 The list goes on.\u00a0 I\u2019m convinced that\u2019s true.\u00a0 But there are other times where even the most desensitized to things are affected profoundly, and I struggle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"\n Why do some things \u201cland\u201d emotionally and others fall flat? So often we hear about our culture being desensitized to many things. Violence, language, sex. The list goes on. I\u2019m convinced that\u2019s true. But there are other times where even the most desensitized to things are affected profoundly, and I struggle to understand why. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Was that scene more shocking than another? Not necessarily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In looking at what makes a story \u201cbad\u201d (meaning it doesn\u2019t\nfeel \u201ctrue\u201d) I\u2019m starting to believe that some storytellers have spent their\ntime giving us counterfeits rather than the real thing. As writers we know what emotion we want our\naudience to have at a particular moment so we give them something to evoke that\nfeeling. But did we give them the real\nthing? <\/p>\n\n\n\n I feel like we get this often when it comes to good\nthings. We replace joy with\nhappiness. Its not necessarily a\ncounterfeit, but it\u2019s maybe not the emotion we were looking to evoke, and it\ndoesn\u2019t seem quite right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I think the same is true for all these \u201cbad\u201d things. Lots of storytellers use violence and\nlanguage for their shock value. \nCounterfeits work great here since your goal isn\u2019t a deep emotional\nresonance. Counterfeits tell your\naudience how to feel \u2013 they don\u2019t encourage them to feel it with<\/em> the characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A wise piece of advice was given when it came to audience\ninteraction said that the audience doesn\u2019t need to know (what\u2019s happening, how\nto feel etc.,) it needs to wonder<\/em>. Similarly, I was also once told, in regard to\nsuspense stories\/scenes, that it wasn\u2019t about shock but rather about dread. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Counterfeits tell us what we need to know and shock us. They don\u2019t fill us with wonder and\ndread. That\u2019s why they\u2019re counterfeit.\nThey take away our reactions as an audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While we are becoming (and largely have become) desensitized\nto devices like shock, I wonder if it\u2019s even possible to become desensitized to\nwonder and dread. Those live inside\nus. They\u2019re natural. We can\u2019t live without them. This also means that if you want to evoke an\nemotional reaction, you don\u2019t have to\nshock <\/em>your audience. You have to get\nthem to feel it (along with the characters). \nIf you have a character death in your story and you want to shock the\naudience with it, take a step back. Is\nthat the reaction you want? Let them\ndecide how to react. Don\u2019t worry about\nshowing them something they\u2019ve never seen before (at this point we\u2019ve seen it\nall, right?) let the audience\u2019s imagination run\nwild<\/em>. They\u2019ll make something up\nthat\u2019s even more shocking than you could imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And this way, above all, is how you affect your audience\ndeeply. If you want to change them, let them participate in the process<\/em>. I\u2019d also like to stress that when I say \u201ccounterfeit,\u201d\nI don\u2019t mean that something isn\u2019t true to life. \nSometimes things that are true to life fall flat in storytelling \u2013 I\ndon\u2019t know why. What affects us while\nwe\u2019re engaged in a story is fundamentally different than how it affects us when\nwe\u2019re living our <\/em>story. Don\u2019t confuse realism with authenticity. What matters is that the emotions are real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to change the world through story, if you want\nto \u201cland\u201d that emotional scene, don\u2019t try to shock us. Make us wonder. Make us dread. Let our imaginations do the work for\nyou. The audience is your partner. Don\u2019t give us counterfeits. Only the real thing can effect great change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BONUS:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I started thinking about this topic for two reasons. The first was reading a blog post about\nbecoming desensitized by media. I\nabsolutely think this is happening. We\ncan talk about news and real-life events being shown to us on a daily\nbasis. I think that\u2019s an important\ndiscussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But so often I think that our reaction \u2013 particularly in\nfiction, television, and movies \u2013 is \u201cmeh.\u201d Not because we\u2019re desensitized, but\nbecause we\u2019ve seen it before and it\ndidn\u2019t affect us. <\/em>It didn\u2019t make us\nwonder or dread or even try to use our imaginations. I literally couldn\u2019t be bothered<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then I saw the new movie (or should I say film?) Unplanned. <\/em>I was prepared to be shocked. That was, after all, what all the hype was about. But shock isn\u2019t what I got. I got dread. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I was expecting <\/em>to be told what was happening \u2013 to watch the character develop and culminate in her seeing the abortion of a child on a monitor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I was wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The best thing the filmmakers have done is set us up knowing that this scene was in the film. (I hope in the home video versions they have a warning at the beginning to set it up.) I was expecting it to be toward the end. I was expecting to follow Abby through her journey to that moment and be forever changed. But Abby\u2019s story wasn\u2019t the one that mattered. Our story \u2013 the audience\u2019s \u2013 was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So we start with that scene. \nWith no time to prepare yourself with story or character\ndevelopment. Boy, does that front-load\nthe dread<\/em>. The whole scene is set up in such a way as to\nbuild this tension, and it doesn\u2019t\u2019 stop. \nFrom there on everything in the film is predicated on this scene. Everything you see \u2013 everything you feel.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The writers (I believe Abby herself wrote the basic form in her book by the same name) added every scene to keep up this audience reaction. By skipping around in time a bit and telling the end first, then Abby\u2019s story, we\u2019re constantly in wonder about how she got there <\/em> and in dread because we know its not over.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n When I\u2019ve told people about this film, I\u2019ve described it\nthis way: \u201cIt\u2019s one of the worst things I\u2019ve seen \u2013 you should see it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both are true. I\nbelieve that the reaction that the writers were looking to evoke was disgust\nand sadness at the abortion industry. I\nthink they nailed it \u2013 in that it\u2019s truly terrible<\/em>,in the most classic sense of the\nword. Maybe that\u2019s what I meant when I\nsay \u201cworst.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, at the same time and by starting the story where they do, they manage not to make us hate <\/em>Abby. We get to experience the dread <\/em>with her. We then get to experience her life. It makes us empathize with people like her \u2013 those that have had abortions and (at least some) of the people who work in the clinics. We\u2019re on their side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least for a while. We do get a hint of darkness in Abby, but I think we need this too. The message is \u201cif you don\u2019t turn away from evil, this is what it makes you.\u201d Abby doesn\u2019t like what she\u2019s becoming. It gives the audience a choice \u2013 asks us a question. \u201cIs this who we want to be?\u201d Her answer is complicated and takes some time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And I think that all these things add up to a truly\nauthentic story. Does it matter that\nit\u2019s a true story \u2013 that it really happened? \nI don\u2019t know. It takes some of\nthe sting of the counterfeit away, knowing its true. If it was pure fiction, I suppose it could be\ndismissed. Regardless, the storytelling\nprinciples remain the same. They could\nhave told the same, true story in a different way and still counterfeited <\/em>us, the audience. They didn\u2019t. \nI\u2019m thankful for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n PS<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m still troubled by the question of who should see\nthis. I know that most adults should be\nable to handle it. But when you\u2019re\nmessing with the audience emotions, you\u2019re playing with fire. I\u2019m further hindered by my own emotional\nreaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Should my 13-year-old daughter see it? I don\u2019t think so. Maybe that\u2019s me being over protective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But again, I don\u2019t think so. Do I want to fill her with that kind of dread? In the end, the story\u2019s one of redemption and light, and I don\u2019t think you can have that without some element of sin and death. I\u2019d rather fill her with compassion. Compassion for those who have experienced things like Abby did \u2013 for the children lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the overwhelming emotion the audience feels is pain,\nsadness and dread. Even the ending \u2013\neven knowing it in advance \u2013 is tinged with just a bit of that dread and\nthinking, \u201cMaybe this doesn\u2019t go so well after all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So even with all the complaints about the MPAA\u2019s R rating, I\nthink they did us a service (and not just for the film\u2019s PR). This is something we need to think about\nbefore going to see it. To know it\u2019s\ngoing to affect us. If that rating had\nbeen PG-13, a lot of people would have gone without\nthinking about it<\/em>, and this is a film deserving of consideration both\nbefore and after viewing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So use your judgement. I stand by my statement (with some small corrections): \u201cThis is a terrible <\/em>film. Everyone should probably see it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n (This is the opinion of the author - it doesn't necessarily reflect the opinion of WhiteFire Publishing or any of its authors)<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-publishers-desk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1978"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7675,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions\/7675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
feel \u201ctrue\u201d) I\u2019m starting to believe that some storytellers have spent their
time giving us counterfeits rather than the real thing.\u00a0 As writers we know what emotion<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/read.whitefire-publishing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Unplanned.jpg\")
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