Ways to Make Your Readers Cry 😢 (With Examples) — Pt. 1
1) Make sure you’ve created a character the audience cares about. A character who has struggled and who the readers can relate to will pull more of an emotional response. We relate to Katniss because of her unwavering love/protection for her sister. We want her to win and come home to her.
2) Make the characters struggle/give them a difficult journey. Nothing is easy in life, whether it’s fiction or reality. It can be tragic to see a character we’ve grown to care about get shoved around by life, bad situations or just plain bad luck. Katniss may have saved her sister from the Games, but she had to deal with losing Rue, getting hurt, thinking she was betrayed by Peeta, etc.
3) Show, don’t tell. It all goes back to the way you write the story. It’s much more sad to read the details and description of (ex. someone dying) rather than the author just saying that they died.
4) There must be stakes. The character(s) must risk losing things as they adventure throughout the story. Cause and effects for their actions. When the bad effects outweigh the good, things can become really sad. Katniss and Rue try to slow down the Careers and a terrible effect is that Rue dies. A life just might be the highest stake you can dangle over a readers head.
5) Give the characters (and the reader) hope. Then take it away. As the characters are approaching something that seems impossible, they must feel hope that they can win, that there is a way out of this alive. You could take this in dozens of different directions (not limited to these):
• There is a way out, but no one sees it. • There was never a way out and they were doomed from the start. • They find a way out but at very high stakes— death. • Sacrifices are made in order to win/get out. • There is a way out, but betrayal ruins it all. • There is a way out... but only for one person.
When Katniss found Rue in a trap and got her out safely, they experienced a moment of false-hope. Everything was okay now, right? She dies seconds later.
6) Make it unfair. When an experienced solider rides into battle, he is aware that he may die. This can be sad, but it’s not necessarily unfair. Change a few things up... and it can become truly tragic: a young, frail boy is drafted into the war right after his newly wed wife fell pregnant. Or, a little girl whose name is pulled from a glass bowl to fight to the death in a game for entertainment. We don’t weep for Kato or the Career pack in the Hunger Games because it’s not unfair for them. It’s unfair for Rue.
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