It’s no secret that stories change lives. Some authors set out to change the world with their words, and others do it unintentionally. Either way, your stories will affect readers’ lives. Regardless of what you think about our world, we can all agree that there needs to be more good in it. Your stories can be that good. Today, I want to introduce to you a new concept I read about called moral elevation and how you can use it in your books to make the world a better place.
The Emotion Of Elevation
Dr. Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist who specializes in emotions and morality. He started his career studying the emotion of disgust. In his research, he learned that people don’t just feel disgust for physical things like rotten food or dead bodies, but also for social immortality. That sent him down a path of researching morality, where he realized that there is a sliding scale of evil to good that people evaluate others by. Do something that leans toward evil, and people will feel disgusted. Do something that leans toward good, and people feel the opposite of disgust—elevation.
Dr. Haidt coined the term elevation to mean the uplifting feeling people experience when they witness unexpected acts of kindness or courage. Have you ever seen people step out of their way to do something for a stranger? Someone who pays for the person’s fast food order behind them. A man who offers his umbrella to someone who has none. Even letting someone get in line in front of you. If you haven’t seen anything in person, there are tons of videos on social media. A man who walks around and gives bouquets of flowers to random women just to make them smile. A woman who jumps into a harbor to save a dog because the only way out of the water is a ladder and the dog can’t climb it. Several strangers who coordinate to stop traffic for a car whose driver passed out. These are all examples of events that cause moral elevation in people who witness them.
Elevation isn’t a normal emotion you see on the feelings wheel, so what does it feel like? Haidt explains it as a warm feeling in your chest, an uplifted spirit, or even a prickling behind the eyes like you might cry. The person witnessing the kind act of another will often feel love, admiration, and a desire to be closely affiliated with the do-gooder. Typically, people who feel elevated tend to want to do acts of kindness or courage themselves too. They feel more willing to give, help, and speak positively.
Elevation In Fiction
I’m sure none of this comes as a surprise to you (well, except you may be like me and not know it was called elevation), but what I want to get across today is that you can do this in your novels. You can elevate your readers to feel happier and more gracious. You can inspire them to be better. You may be saying, Liz, I write dark themes. That’s okay! Your whole book doesn’t have to be light and bubbly to cause your readers to feel elevation. You simply need to work on your character development.
How To Elevate Your Readers
Elevation is all about good people inspiring others to be better. If you want to uplift your readers, you simply need an inspiring character. It can be the protagonist or a secondary character, but I believe every book should have at least one morally inspiring character.
Once you pick the character, it’s time to develop their internal journey. Now, your character does not have to be an upstanding, morally sound person. Readers like to cheer for the good guys, but nothing makes them cheer harder than a not so good guy whom they want to be better. As Donald Maass says, “A character who is good is good; a character whom we want to be good is even better.” Why do you think all those villain tales are popular right now? The world wants to see characters who rise above their own selfish desires and be better. They want the inspiration to do the same.
So, pick a morally uplifting feeling you want your readers to experience. Courage, generosity, humility, perseverance, forgiveness, etc. Once you pick one, start your character on the opposite side of that sentiment. Begin the story with a person who holds a grudge. Put in event after event that makes them even more reluctant to forgive. Give them opportunities to offer forgiveness and make them deny it. Then, at the climax, write a scene where the character finally learns the lesson and gives forgiveness. But don’t stop there. You have a full internal character arc but no elevation yet. At the end, let your character forgive even when it isn’t deserved. Talking it that one step further shows the character doing an unexpected act of kindness and courage (not just them being a decent human being). It creates elevation in readers to see the morally uplifting moment, and they’ll wish to emulate it in their own lives.
Final Thoughts
Regardless of your beliefs, we all want the world to be a better place. We all have morals. Use your story to instill in your readers a sense that the world can be better. That goodness does exist even in dark times. Take a handful of your characters and give them all some moments of unexpected kindness and courage to elevate your readers. As Martin Luther said, “If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.”
Thanks for reading!
Write a tale
Leave a trail
0 Comments