THE VALUE OF EMOTIONAL APPEAL
Last night, someone asked why do so many writers (and readers) hate "Twilight" and "Fifty Shades of Grey," and there were some good answers, but I think it's more important to ask "Why do so many readers love 'Twilight' and 'Fifty Shades of Grey''? The "secret" lies in emotional appeal. I wrote this lesson ages ago, but it's time to whip it out again.
As a grammar guru and prose perfectionist, it pains me to admit this: A novel with emotional appeal toward its target audience will succeed above all others. E.g. Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey. Marketing helped these novels, yes, but marketing only goes so far. These books are horribly written, no doubt, but they capture raw emotions despite their major flaws. And this is why writers like Meyer and James will win over large crowds time and time again. Even more interesting, it was all subconscious on their part, but that’s largely because of their low EQ.
In the end, does it matter that their work is flawed? Not really. We’re writers, so, of course, we’re going to rant about their flat characters and terrible writing. But lots of readers aren’t writers, and they just want an emotional experience. LOTS of writers fail to deliver this to readers, actually. A work can be well written, have flawed characters, and amazing plots, but if said work fails to capture the emotional appeal of its target audience, it has failed at its job.
Don’t ignore craft. Ever. But also consider your audience. Figure out what they want. And by “figure out,” I don’t mean insulting their intelligence like a lot of writers do. Tossing in love triangles because Twilight had one. Tossing in BDSM because it’s in Fifty Shades of Grey. Those things have nothing to do with emotional appeal. Not on a surface level, at least. Muse human nature, and you’ll find your answers.
I dissected "Harry Potter" as well, but I never officially wrote a post about it. Think of it like this: The Harry Potter novels have magic and dragons and shit, but lots of other fantasy works have those things, too, and much more. So, why did Harry Potter succeed above those?
Take away all that stuff and, at the end of the day, Harry is still just a teen boy who can’t ask out girls and copies his best friends’ homework and does rebellious shit like sneaking out at night. He’s the modern teen in a magic world. And lots of fantasy books lack this huge relatability factor.
Most writers are incapable of producing emotionally-appealing work, they're out of touch with their emotions. It's not a scene-by-scene thing, either. It's something that comes from the soul.
Thoughts? Opinions? :)