Storytelling should evoke an emotional response in the person experiencing it. That doesn’t matter whether it’s a movie, a stage play, or a novel.
If you can’t get your readers to invest in your characters, there won’t be an emotional connection. And without that emotional connection, you don’t really have a story—you just have words on a page.
There are certain scenes in books that I absolutely love because of the emotions they evoke. I want to talk about a couple of those scenes and then explain what makes them work so well.
Example 1: The Stormlight Archive
I’m mostly a fantasy reader, so my examples come from fantasy.
The first scene I want to talk about comes from The Stormlight Archive.
(Spoilers ahead.)
Dalinar and Adolin are fighting for their lives after being betrayed by Sadeas. They’re stranded on a plateau with chasms surrounding them, completely unable to escape. If nobody comes to help, they’re going to die.
The emotional payoff comes when Bridge Four, led by Kaladin, chooses to return and save them.
There are a few reasons this scene works so well.
First, you have two incredibly powerful, highborn lords placed in a vulnerable position. They cannot save themselves. They need outside help.
You cannot have emotional connection without vulnerability.
Second, the scene is built on everything we’ve already experienced with Bridge Four. They’ve spent the entire story being abused and treated as disposable by people of higher social status. Their hatred is understandable.
Yet they choose to save Dalinar and Adolin anyway.
Not because they’ll be rewarded.
Not because it’s expected.
Simply because it’s the right thing to do.
That payoff only works because of everything that came before it. The buildup is what creates the emotion.
Example 2: The Name of the Wind
There are countless emotional scenes in The Name of the Wind, but one of my favorites is when Kvothe wins his pipes.
Again, the scene only works because of the setup.
Earlier in the novel, Kvothe loses his parents and his entire troupe. He clings to his father’s lute because it’s the last connection he has to his family.
He plays it constantly.
Eventually the strings begin to break.
Instead of giving up, he learns to keep playing with fewer and fewer strings.
That earlier struggle becomes incredibly important later when he’s performing for his pipes. During the performance, another string breaks, but because of everything he’s already endured, he finishes the performance beautifully anyway.
That moment doesn’t happen in isolation.
It was created hundreds of pages earlier.
By the time readers reach that scene, they already care deeply about Kvothe. If they didn’t, winning his pipes wouldn’t mean much.
It’s similar to talent shows like American Idol or America’s Got Talent. Before contestants perform, viewers usually see short videos about their lives. Those segments exist for one reason: they create an emotional connection.
Without that connection, audiences simply want to skip ahead to the performance.
Readers feel the same way about your characters.
If they don’t care about your characters, they won’t care about your story.
How to Create More Emotional Scenes
1. Use music while you write
I like listening to fantasy soundtracks while writing because they help put me in the emotional state I’m trying to create.
If I’m writing something darker, I might listen to The Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Different music helps me capture different emotions, and those emotions often find their way into my characters.
2. Emotion comes from conflict and tension
This is probably the biggest lesson.
Emotion grows out of conflict.
Your character wants something.
Something stands in the way.
That’s where emotional investment begins.
If your character wants love and immediately finds it on page one, you don’t have much of a story.
Instead, there needs to be an obstacle. Maybe they sabotage their own relationships. Maybe outside forces keep them apart. Whatever the barrier is, it creates tension, and tension creates emotion.
3. Show your character’s emotions
Rather than telling readers your character is sad, show them.
Let readers notice the sadness through behavior, choices, and actions.
Maybe your character withdraws from friends.
Maybe they make poor decisions because they’re desperate for connection.
Readers are much more likely to feel an emotion when they discover it themselves.
4. Emotional scenes often become stronger during revision
One advantage of later drafts is that you already know how the story ends.
That allows you to plant emotional setups much earlier.
It’s almost like being able to see the future.
Your readers experience the story for the first time, but you’ve already seen every payoff. Use that advantage to strengthen earlier scenes so the emotional moments land even harder.
5. Draw from your own experiences
Think about the last time you were angry.
Or heartbroken.
Or embarrassed.
How did you actually behave?
More importantly, what caused those emotions?
We all experience these feelings, which means we can reverse engineer them. The more honestly we understand our own emotional reactions, the more believable our characters’ emotions will become.
Final Thoughts
The biggest lesson I take from these stories is that emotional moments don’t happen by accident.
They are earned.
The powerful scenes in books like The Stormlight Archive and The Name of the Wind succeed because they spend hundreds of pages building toward a single emotional payoff.
If you want readers to laugh, cry, cheer, or mourn alongside your characters, don’t just focus on the emotional scene itself.
Build the foundation that makes that scene possible.
When readers truly care about your characters, they’ll care about everything that happens to them.
