We already covered portraying a character’s emotions, and now I want to address the emotions we try to arouse in our readers. When an author writes something to get an emotional response from the reader, we call it an emotional beat. These are very useful in connecting with the readers and getting them emotionally invested in your book.
Definition
I recently heard author Kary English put it this way: an emotional beat is a piece of text that elicits a single, specific emotion. Beats can be anywhere from two words to two sentences. They must evoke an emotion in the reader in order to be considered a beat.
For example, the sentence “he looked at her” has a neutral feel. It’s not an emotional beat. If I want a beat, I should write “he glared at her” or “he ogled her” to convey anger or lust.
2 Types Of Emotional Beats
There are two types to emotional beats: risk and reward. They are essentially opposites.
1. Risk
Risk beats are not always negative emotions, but they are emotions that raise tension in the reader. They stimulate adrenaline, and it kicks in the flight, fight, or freeze response. These emotions center around conflict. Adventure, horror, suspense, and romance are some examples of risk beats.
If our protagonist hears loud noises coming from the hallway outside her apartment, it’s an adventure beat. There’s a call to action to see what’s happening. When she cracks open the door to look outside, it’s a suspense beat because we don’t know what will happen. If she sees a man holding a gun to her neighbor’s head, it’s a horror beat. On the other hand, if she sees a shirtless hunk trying to move a couch into a nearby apartment, it can be a romance beat.
2. Reward
Reward beats are emotions that lower tension in the reader. These emotions are pleasurable and uplifting. Generally, they create a sense of fulfillment in the reader because they come from a sense of resolution instead of conflict. Examples of reward beats are wonder, humor, love, and catharsis.
Back to our previous scenario, let’s say the noise in the hall is the hunk moving furniture. Our protagonist watches and realizes the man has a magical power. He can stretch the doorway so the couch fits through it. When he changes the dimensions of the door, it makes the loud cracking sound she heard earlier. This is a wonder beat. Once the man gets the couch inside, he turns and sees her watching him. Embarrassed at being caught gawking, she says something awkward—a humor beat.
Fast forward, they date and eventually kiss. The kiss is a love beat. (Love/Romance is an emotion with both risk and reward sides. For example, flirting is a risk since you don’t know what will happen, and a kiss is a reward that relieves the tension the flirting raised. Therefore, I differentiate the two with different names. A risk romance beat deals with wooing, while the reward love beat deals with fulfillment.) Fast forward in our hypothetical story, and the couple decide to get married. This is a catharsis beat—a purge of all the tension that leaves the person feeling refreshed. The protagonist has pursued and finally achieved her goal of winning the man’s affection.
Application
Emotional beats help you identify if you are writing enough of the primary emotion in your story. Each genre is based on what primary emotion a person wants to feel when reading the book. Most genres are named for their primary emotional draw: Horror, Romance, Thriller, Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Humor, etc. Science Fiction and Fantasy are the exceptions, and these both have the primary draw of wonder. In order to see if you are meeting your readers’ expectations, count the number of each type of emotional beat in your book. Your primary emotion is the one with the most beats. If you are writing an adventure but have the most romance beats, you may want to reconsider your genre or rewrite the book.
Now, you don’t want only one emotional beat the whole book. You need to fluctuate them so the reader gets an emotional roller coaster ride. It’s common to pick an opposite emotion to complement your primary emotion so it enhances the impact of the primary. It’s the same concept used with foil characters. If you’re writing horror, you can add the secondary emotion of humor. This gives the reader a break from the heavy theme and accentuates the horror, if you do it right.
Final Thoughts
Emotional beats are helpful in diagnosing the tone of your story. If your readers say they don’t care if the main couple gets together, you may need to add more romance beats. If people are laughing the whole time they read your horror novel, you want to cut down on humor beats and add more horror. Once you master how to balance emotional beats and which work best together, you can steer your reader to whatever emotion you want. And when you can do that, your readers are going to come back for more.
Thanks for reading!
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