User blog:Master Masked Man/A guide on emotion

Hello everyone! I am known around here for my humor-related trollfics, but I also know how to do emotional stories. The ending to Recycled! is a huge example of this.

Some small tips!

 * Listen to sad music. I prefer Mother 3 and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon music, but anything emotional helps.
 * Inspiration always helps! The ending to Recycled! was inspired by the tear-jerking ending of Mother 3 and it had a few references to things that happened in my life (I didn't become king or anything, I had to move away from a lot of my old friends multiple times. I became quite popular in my newer friend groups, but that didn't stop me from missing my old friends).
 * It doesn't always have to be death. Sure, Recycled! had emotion that was mostly about death, and that's perfectly fine and usually works, but death isn't the only way to have a dramatic moment. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon proves this. Let's say your character is moving away from friends and family to fight in a deadly battle. You could make an emotional event out of that! Killing off characters is extremally effective, but don't be afraid to think outside of the box.
 * Don't just think it has to be like "he was so ugly everyone died"! Like I said, killing off characters is effective, but don't kill off way too many. Don't expect somebody to get emotional over the death of 15 supporting characters that barely did anything! I'd say about a limit of 4 deaths per story, and each death must be far away from another, about 5 chapters.

All Types of Sad Moments!

 * The Death: This is by far the most common (and probably most effective) way of making an emotional part. Make sure we care about the character and the character actually does something for the plot!
 * "Don't Leave Me!": Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is just one of many examples. Two characters, probably best friends or lovers, are forced to seperate.
 * The Tragic Backstory: A character has an incredibly sad backstory. I don't mean the cliche "MY MOM AND DAD DIED AND NOW I'M AN ORPHAN AND THE BAD GUY TOOK ME" type of thing, I mean a backstory that is actually sad.
 * more coming soon