“Mufasa It”
Incorporating Pathos in Storytelling
MARIA VERMULMWRITING ADVICE
People aren’t that different.
Well we are—we’re each unique and have our own perspectives to offer the world—but ultimately there is “nothing new under the sun.” The things you have gone through, as much as you may have felt alone and misunderstood, someone else (probably someone not very far away) has felt the exact same way.
Everyone feels the same array of basic emotions: fear, anger, happiness, disgust, sadness, and surprise. These are common to the Human Experience.
So, while our individual, little “e” experiences cause various emotions, we’re all bound to feel emotion at some point—and that feeling is exactly the same for every person you meet, even when the reasons behind it are wildly different.
But what does this have to do with writing?
Emotion—this common Human Experience—creates empathy.
When we write, we invite readers to empathize. Fiction, memoir, biography—any story—asks the person to care enough about the character to keep reading. When we understand what we’re asking of our readers, earning empathy becomes a non-negotiable skill.
Empathy is how storytelling crosses from mere amusement into Pathos.
Pathos is a form of persuasion that appeals to emotion. We typically use it in reference to rhetoric and speeches, but it applies to storytelling as well. It’s one of three persuasive modes: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos—Credibility, Emotion, and Logic. Pathos literally means “suffering” or “experience,” which gives insight into how it can be used.
Remember how it felt to watch that scene in The Lion King?
Mufasa dies and Simba says, “Dad, Dad, come on, you gotta get up. Dad, we gotta go home.”
That is Pathos at work. The moment is powerful because it appeals to our emotions, demanding that we care about what is happening to the character. And we do! We feel alongside Simba. We understand what he’s going through. We’ve felt that grief and emotional vulnerability before. We can relate—even though we’re not lions, even if we haven’t lost a father in that way. Our psyche interacts deeply with a story, even though it has nothing to do with our personal experience, because the common ground is feeling not fact.
So, the question is: How do we establish Pathos in our writing?
Step 1: Work on the characters.
Characters are the vehicle that drives the story. If they don’t work, it doesn’t matter how beautiful, twisty, long, or adventurous the road is, you won’t get anywhere. We want characters that the reader can relate to or at least care about (preferably both). Check out other articles on how to make your characters not suck.
Step 2: Add sensory details.
This is the classic plea to show not tell the reader what is happening, especially in dialogue tags when it directly pertains to a character. Example: “She was sad.” Vs. “Her hands shook as she folded the clothes. They still smelled like him.”
Step 3: “Mufasa it.”
Incorporate loss or sacrifice. These are primal emotions; use them carefully, but use them! We live in a messed-up world. Emotions of sadness, particularly loss or injustice, are simple but powerful in earning readers’ empathy.
Step 4: Juxtapose emotions.
It’s all about balance and harmony. Give a range of feelings for readers to latch onto: a happy memory before tragedy, humor found in grief, hope and then failure, violence confronted with innocence (or the other way around). Take them on an emotional roller coaster! Avoid letting one emotion rule the story without contrast.
Step 5: Restrain reactions.
Don’t be a drama queen. Pages and pages describing a parent overcome with grief are likely to earn less empathy than a brief scene with a mother, unable to finish listening to her child’s last voicemail. Controlled or suppressed feelings begin to boil, and when the reader empathizes with a character, this strengthens the bond.
Pathos is essential for storytelling, but as we look for ways to integrate it in our writing, we must be careful to avoid overt sentimentality. Appealing to emotions is a persuasive mode and a literary tool, but it can also be used to manipulate. Don’t reach for your reader’s feelings without good reason. The plot—the cause-and-effect or Logos—must support the emotional appeal, working alongside Pathos to earn the reader’s empathy.