Emotion In Storytelling: Kindness and Pathos

by Perry Barlow (1894-1977) 1947

How does a storyteller create pathos in an audience? It’s not done by making a character sad. Nor is it done by simply killing a character off. Characters extending kindness to others is a far more reliable trick.

Not all kindnesses in storytelling are the same. “Save the Cat” moments are a well-known tool among storytellers. This was Blake Snyder’s term to describe moments during character set-up when one character does something nice for another. This shows the audience the character is capable of doing good. But these save-the-cat moments of kindness are not designed to move an audience emotionally. On the contrary, the audience barely notices they’re being manipulated into liking a (sometimes very horrible) character.

So those don’t count.

If this were a movie it would be a literal save the cat moment.
If this were a movie it would be a literal save the cat moment.

But at other times when a character does something good for another and the scene becomes filled with pathos. This moment will happen much later in the story, probably after the Big Struggle (Climax) and during the Anagnorisis part of the story structure. It seems to only work near the end of a narrative.

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CONTEMPORARY FICTION SET IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (2023)

On paper, things look fine. Sam Dennon recently inherited significant wealth from his uncle. As a respected architect, Sam spends his days thinking about the family needs and rich lives of his clients. But privately? Even his enduring love of amateur astronomy is on the wane. Sam has built a sustainable-architecture display home for himself but hasn’t yet moved into it, preferring to sleep in his cocoon of a campervan. Although they never announced it publicly, Sam’s wife and business partner ended their marriage years ago due to lack of intimacy, leaving Sam with the sense he is irreparably broken.

Now his beloved uncle has died. An intensifying fear manifests as health anxiety, with night terrors from a half-remembered early childhood event. To assuage the loneliness, Sam embarks on a Personal Happiness Project:

1. Get a pet dog

2. Find a friend. Just one. Not too intense.

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