Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Does the degree of immersion in the character alter the extremity of plot points used?

The most powerful magnifier of emotion is anticipation. Dread multiplies horror. All horror films play on this basic emotional truth. If you want to produce the most profound emotional impact on th...

posted 6y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:57Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35481
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:37:19Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35481
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:37:19Z (almost 5 years ago)
The most powerful magnifier of emotion is anticipation. Dread multiplies horror. All horror films play on this basic emotional truth. If you want to produce the most profound emotional impact on the reader, you must build their anticipation.

Full immersion is not necessarily the best way to do this. You may start there, but anticipation needs silence, it needs a respite in which to settle in, in which to seep into the bones. And at the end, you have to let the reader run on ahead of you, get to the climactic horror even before you do.

When you do that, there is little left to do at the end. You merely confirm what they have already seen, the destination that you have led them to and that they have run on, at the end, on tenterhooks with anticipation, and seen before you get there, based on all that you have prepared them to expect.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-04-25T02:54:50Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 4