About emotional impact...

[AryaX]

Have you ever become depressed, in at least somewhat persistent way after reading some story? and perhaps quit reading because of it?

Like... for example... Many years ago while reading a story named Fuuka, and the so named character died, I remember I got depressed and ultimately stopped reading, not because I felt the story was badly "written" or I didn't like the characters or such, but because the characters death left me feeling as if some real person I had cared about had died...

At first I was in denial about it having happened, but then as it became clear that she was really gone, and since it wasn't some fantasy story where the dead might return, and so, was clear she wouldn't be coming back, I got depressed and started feeling that by reading I was just torturing my self and ultimately quit...

You ever experienced something similar? And... If so, do you think its a good thing or a bad thing, if a story has such an impact?

...

On a related note...

I was reading the latest chapters of My Succubus System (18+) not too long ago, in which the abilities of this... Nasty Slaver characters were "elaborated" on, and I feel like there was something, in some earlier chapter that makes me think the main character is going to end up enslaved to this monster...

Now... Maybe this will happen or maybe not... But in any case, while this isn't making me feel depressed like that other story... It did, trigger this weird... "Eww! No! I don't like this Shit!" feeling... As if something in my brain has confused the main character for a real person... and I am afraid for them? or something...

You ever experienced something similar? And if so, do you think that is a good thing or a bad thing, if a story can make you feel like that?

 

[Horizon42]

I find overwhelming emotional impact to be one of the greatest things any creative piece can achieve, so I've never quit something to get away from even negative emotions, but I have taken breaks.

 

[Mythonian]

It's a complicated topic, since every writer does their best to bring out emotion in their story and to make their readers invested in the characters and plot. If you are being immersed and feeling empathetic to the characters, that's a good thing.

However, it's also the author's responsibility to treat that investment and immersion with respect, and if a character death or major plot point isn't handled with care it can drive away a lot of readers in the way you are describing. I have dropped more than a few stories for this exact reason, where an author just tries to cause an emotional impact without considering the consequences. Emotional impact for the sake of emotional impact is poor writing.

Such situations should be used to create moments of character development and should always be written with a clear understanding of how it influences the world, characters, plot, and audience. It is difficult to do properly, but can achieve great things.

Your ability as a reader to become invested in the character is a good thing, since it means you aren't merely reading at a surface level but are making the effort to understand the character and relate to them. This is what every reader should aim to do, in my opinion, so keep it up.

There are some stories that utilize this perfectly, making an emotional character death work in a manner that leaves positive feelings alongside the sadness, giving the reader a sense of closure and completeness that provides depth to the story, making it feel more real and all the more engaging. It is unfortunate that such stories are few and far between.

Do not force yourself to continue reading if the story makes you feel bad or disgusted. Leisure reading is not about torturing yourself or making yourself uncomfortable. You made the right choice with the first one. Not every story is meant for everyone, so keep searching for others that may suit your mindset and interests better. Who knows, you may stumble across a hidden gem that you absolutely fall in love with.

Conversely, do not drop something too soon, or you may have given up on a story that grows to become something great.

 

[averagewriter]

Despite the number of novels that I have read being in the thousands, or at least tried reading till the end, the number of them that I finished is no more than than a dozen, I myself am not really sure what turns me off from a novel since I didn't really try to look into it, but I can understand what you are talking about; it sort of feels like that the novel I enjoyed reading at first suddenly become a source of distress for me no longer making it worth reading. Anyway, do what makes you comfortable and joyful, after all, that is a priority criterion when looking for a source of entertainment.

 

[Jemini]

It's a complicated topic, since every writer does their best to bring out emotion in their story and to make their readers invested in the characters and plot. If you are being immersed and feeling empathetic to the characters, that's a good thing.

However, it's also the author's responsibility to treat that investment and immersion with respect, and if a character death or major plot point isn't handled with care it can drive away a lot of readers in the way you are describing. I have dropped more than a few stories for this exact reason, where an author just tries to cause an emotional impact without considering the consequences. Emotional impact for the sake of emotional impact is poor writing.

Such situations should be used to create moments of character development and should always be written with a clear understanding of how it influences the world, characters, plot, and audience. It is difficult to do properly, but can achieve great things.

Your ability as a reader to become invested in the character is a good thing, since it means you aren't merely reading at a surface level but are making the effort to understand the character and relate to them. This is what every reader should aim to do, in my opinion, so keep it up.

There are some stories that utilize this perfectly, making an emotional character death work in a manner that leaves positive feelings alongside the sadness, giving the reader a sense of closure and completeness that provides depth to the story, making it feel more real and all the more engaging. It is unfortunate that such stories are few and far between.

Do not force yourself to continue reading if the story makes you feel bad or disgusted. Leisure reading is not about torturing yourself or making yourself uncomfortable. You made the right choice with the first one. Not every story is meant for everyone, so keep searching for others that may suit your mindset and interests better. Who knows, you may stumble across a hidden gem that you absolutely fall in love with.

Conversely, do not drop something too soon, or you may have given up on a story that grows to become something great.

Couldn't agree more with this. Inspired by the recent anime adaptation, I have just finished reading the entirety of Mushuko Tensei. That's a series that has you in a constant state of tension that something horrible and gut-wrenching is going to happen to the characters you care about, and the direction that the story takes near the end leaves you really unsure if members of the main cast are going to live or die. It would not be the first time the story has killed off characters you care about after all.

Several times while reading, I had been seriously afraid to read the next chapter. However, overall, I am seriously glad I finished that series. It was a tense and wonderful ride, and the tense situations really were handled well in hind-sight. I would have to call that series almost perfect in terms of everything it did. The emotional roller coaster was very well balanced. About the only point in the series I thought was poorly done was book 8, and the issue with it was really that just not much happened. It just depicted a happy easy life going on where everything was going well for the protagonist but not much interesting actually happened. Otherwise, the entire rest of the series was great.

That said, it takes a really delicate balance in order for an author to throw the reader's emotions through THAT much of a ride. If any of the emotional impacts thrown out were a little more intense, if more characters died, or if there weren't as many light periods where things were going well in order to give the reader a brief breather from the serious stuff, then that series would have been very difficult if not impossible to get through.

Emotional impact is good. However, great care needs to be taken with it.

 

[DarkGodEM]

Have you ever become depressed, in at least somewhat persistent way after reading some story? and perhaps quit reading because of it?

Like... for example... Many years ago while reading a story named Fuuka, and the so named character died, I remember I got depressed and ultimately stopped reading, not because I felt the story was badly "written" or I didn't like the characters or such, but because the characters death left me feeling as if some real person I had cared about had died...

At first I was in denial about it having happened, but then as it became clear that she was really gone, and since it wasn't some fantasy story where the dead might return, and so, was clear she wouldn't be coming back, I got depressed and started feeling that by reading I was just torturing my self and ultimately quit...

You ever experienced something similar? And... If so, do you think its a good thing or a bad thing, if a story has such an impact?

...

On a related note...

I was reading the latest chapters of My Succubus System (18+) not too long ago, in which the abilities of this... Nasty Slaver characters were "elaborated" on, and I feel like there was something, in some earlier chapter that makes me think the main character is going to end up enslaved to this monster...

Now... Maybe this will happen or maybe not... But in any case, while this isn't making me feel depressed like that other story... It did, trigger this weird... "Eww! No! I don't like this Shit!" feeling... As if something in my brain has confused the main character for a real person... and I am afraid for them? or something...

You ever experienced something similar? And if so, do you think that is a good thing or a bad thing, if a story can make you feel like that?

Happened to me too, I dropped the MSS novel exactly for that feeling

 

[Mythonian]

Couldn't agree more with this. Inspired by the recent anime adaptation, I have just finished reading the entirety of Mushuko Tensei. That's a series that has you in a constant state of tension that something horrible and gut-wrenching is going to happen to the characters you care about, and the direction that the story takes near the end leaves you really unsure if members of the main cast are going to live or die. It would not be the first time the story has killed off characters you care about after all.

Several times while reading, I had been seriously afraid to read the next chapter. However, overall, I am seriously glad I finished that series. It was a tense and wonderful ride, and the tense situations really were handled well in hind-sight. I would have to call that series almost perfect in terms of everything it did. The emotional roller coaster was very well balanced. About the only point in the series I thought was poorly done was book 8, and the issue with it was really that just not much happened. It just depicted a happy easy life going on where everything was going well for the protagonist but not much interesting actually happened. Otherwise, the entire rest of the series was great.

That said, it takes a really delicate balance in order for an author to throw the reader's emotions through THAT much of a ride. If any of the emotional impacts thrown out were a little more intense, if more characters died, or if there weren't as many light periods where things were going well in order to give the reader a brief breather from the serious stuff, then that series would have been very difficult if not impossible to get through.

Emotional impact is good. However, great care needs to be taken with it.

Mushoku Tensei is indeed a great example for this. I read it a few years ago and binged the entirety of the story within a week.
It's sometimes referred to as the "Grandfather of Isekai" for a reason.

 

[K5Rakitan]

I stopped writing for a while after my boyfriend died in 2015.

Characters can feel like real people, too. I would probably feel the same if Seto Kaiba died in canon. I would probably cry for a few years and then start writing fanfic in an alternate universe where he didn't die

 

[bananapink]

Mine was Kage no Tsuki and during Itachi's death when he said he will always love his brother. Those two hollowed me out, felt like I lost somrthing but couldn't explain what exactly. Though brief but those left me sad for a long time. Perhaps because I was used to reading lighthearted stories before.
It was during my second work when I went crazy just like that to the point my colleagues had to ask why I look so down haha so I told them and they read it :)

 

[LimitBound]

For me? Not really I can find characters cool and all that but I never cried or got depressed (or sad) because a character died.

 

[LimitBound]

For me? Not really I can find characters cool and all that but I never cried or got depressed (or sad) because a character died.

I kinda feel stupid giving a simple reply here where everyone is writing entire essays about what made them sad etc lol

 

[EternalSunset0]

I kinda feel stupid giving a simple reply here where everyone is writing entire essays about what made them sad etc lol

Don't be. The same goes for me lol. It's just hard for me to "completely emotionally resonate" with things. I'm not emotionless or what, but that's just how it is. I do feel sad at times and get goosebumps on some hype moments in anime though but not to the point where I cried or something I watched/read stuck with me or bothered me after watching/reading.

 

[TotallyHuman]

However, it's also the author's responsibility to treat that investment and immersion with respect, and if a character death or major plot point isn't handled with care it can drive away a lot of readers in the way you are describing. I have dropped more than a few stories for this exact reason, where an author just tries to cause an emotional impact without considering the consequences. Emotional impact for the sake of emotional impact is poor writing.

I disagree. Sometimes emotional impact without consequences in the story carries within it a message or just sets up the mood for the story.
Example, spider man, the manga, covered by japanophile on YouTube, where, sorry but idk how to put spoilers here,

//spoiler

Spidey's girlfriend dies, not because of a villain targeting Spidey, but just because she was a victim of circumstance.

//end of spoiler

It's morbid and it doesn't affect the plot overall, it just comes out of nowhere, but it works because it sets up a mood for the story

 

[Mythonian]

I disagree. Sometimes emotional impact without consequences in the story carries within it a message or just sets up the mood for the story.
Example, spider man, the manga, covered by japanophile on YouTube, where, sorry but idk how to put spoilers here,

//spoiler

Spidey's girlfriend dies, not because of a villain targeting Spidey, but just because she was a victim of circumstance.

//end of spoiler

It's morbid and it doesn't affect the plot overall, it just comes out of nowhere, but it works because it sets up a mood for the story

I wouldn't really consider that as "emotional impact for the sake of emotional impact."

The very next sentence after the part you quoted was "such situations should be used to create moments of character development" which is exactly what Spidey's girlfriend's death was for. The purpose of the scene was indeed not to progress the plot but to progress the character. Establishing the mood is a part of this, since oftentimes the "mood" of a story is portrayed in the direction a character develops. A darker mood means the character develops in a darker direction, for instance.

Character development is crucial for maintaining a story's mood, and this character development is what legitimizes that emotional impact. So, really, your example bolsters my point more than it disputes it.

 

[NotaNuffian]

I would get emotionally attached to the people in works that I like, like Paul in MT and Geese (because I like the guy for all the odd reasons), for manga Break Blade's Gillian (? The specs guy, fuck MC) and in a shit ton of good (for my taste at least) CN works like World's Best Martial Artists and currently what I reading, Sword of Coming. The notes seem to hit close to home, especially on elders who doted and shelter you and elders who tried to get you to improve on yourself to face the hardness in life, friends that seem to have your back, even when it means that it will get them killed sooner than later.

If I cannot resonate with the work, for instance like Slime Tensei where Shio was dead and all I could think of was "oh dang" and... nothing else.

"Too much death cheapens the value of life while too little cheapens life itself."

 

[AryaX]

There are lots of novels that I think are generally very good and I follow regularly, sometimes rather obsessively even, checking if new chapters have been released many times a day, every day... and such. Some are just amusing and care free, while others are very dark with seriously nasty stuff happening, but it does seem like its very Very rare for me to feel much of anything for any specific characters in the stories... Either the stories in which I do start to feel something for the characters, are always the stories where nothing worrisome ever happens to them, or I simply almost never get attached to any of the characters... not sure which it is...

 

[SaddyStorm]

I got used to death (the fictional sort) early on. And just like to remember the impact the characters left in that world. But, that doesn't mean I don't get an emotional response to the actions of characters or because of the status of the character, namely them being alive and well. My top pick for a story in which I want to strangle all the main characters (though to be honest I haven't read the most obscene of writing much, since I know it's gonna be trash from the synopsis usually but this one gave me hope for the characters and fucking crushed, spat and pissed all over it.

Demon's Journey | Royal Road

Palan is raised in the harsh world of the demons, depending on himself to survive while raising his sister. One day, his sister falls sick and he's forced to make a deal with an angel in order to save her life. Unfortunately for him, that deal sends him a world away from his sister. What happens...

www.royalroad.com

Hated this story's characters, like actually loathed them, maybe that was an overreaction but I find this somehow worst than every slave, mind control, harem story. The only thing worse than this would be Ch**d P**n, and a lot of other things but this is pretty high in my list of hateful shit. This author's other works (I've only read two of them, this and Godking's Legacy; both make me want to fucking kill the main cast for being such absolute hypocrites and psychopaths.), she(?) has a talent for writing these kinds of novels, I honestly am impressed.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Have you ever become depressed, in at least somewhat persistent way after reading some story? and perhaps quit reading because of it?

Like... for example... Many years ago while reading a story named Fuuka, and the so named character died, I remember I got depressed and ultimately stopped reading, not because I felt the story was badly "written" or I didn't like the characters or such, but because the characters death left me feeling as if some real person I had cared about had died...

At first I was in denial about it having happened, but then as it became clear that she was really gone, and since it wasn't some fantasy story where the dead might return, and so, was clear she wouldn't be coming back, I got depressed and started feeling that by reading I was just torturing my self and ultimately quit...

You ever experienced something similar? And... If so, do you think its a good thing or a bad thing, if a story has such an impact?

...

On a related note...

I was reading the latest chapters of My Succubus System (18+) not too long ago, in which the abilities of this... Nasty Slaver characters were "elaborated" on, and I feel like there was something, in some earlier chapter that makes me think the main character is going to end up enslaved to this monster...

Now... Maybe this will happen or maybe not... But in any case, while this isn't making me feel depressed like that other story... It did, trigger this weird... "Eww! No! I don't like this Shit!" feeling... As if something in my brain has confused the main character for a real person... and I am afraid for them? or something...

You ever experienced something similar? And if so, do you think that is a good thing or a bad thing, if a story can make you feel like that?

Fuuka pissed me off. I took the tme to like her and she gets killed. Like wtf.

 

[ChronicleCrawler]

Fuuka pissed me off. I took the tme to like her and she gets killed. Like wtf.

Drop em' the moment they killed her. Like what the hell are you doing dear author?

 

[BenJepheneT]

"Too much death cheapens the value of life while too little cheapens life itself."

Dragon Ball has BOTH these problems. Everyone dies but then they have one episode dedicated to a heaven where everyone just looks alright.

Toriyama is a god bro, doing two wrongs in one.