3 Secrets To Heartbreaking Scenes

What's one thing that makes you love a book?

For me, it's if the book makes me cry. Weird? Maybe. But it means I'm invested in the character. Whatever happened has touched me. From the top of my head, I can think of three books that have made me cry, but that's besides the point. 

It doesn't matter if the tears are because cracking up way too hard at a joke or because of a death scene. I still like the book. But today, I'm not talking about how to write funny. I'm going to talk about how to write sad.

Without further blabber, here's three secrest secrests secrets to heartbreaking scenes.

Why is it so hard to type "secrets"?

1. Get yourself in the mood. 

Source: Tenor

Before you do anything else, you have to feel the heartbreak. Be the heartbreak. This step is often overlooked because it seems pointless. I'm not an actor. No one's going to see me cry, you say.

To which I reply: you're right. No one's going to see you. Unless you're working in a public space. If that's the case, you might want to find a more private space where you can hunker down and binge eat chocolate to deal with the imminent emotional trauma and the potential of drowning in despair which may come about from the process of drawing yourself into the emotions of the characters playing in your mind...

But when you as the author experiences the same emotions has a profound effect on what you write. Robert Frost explains it nicely.

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader." 

Imagine you're a tourist and paid a nice sum to a tourist guide. You go along with this guide and they're pretty knowledgeable and a decent human being, but they hate the destination. It's not hard to tell, right? They're unenthusiastic. You might have been excited about going there, but the guide ruined it.

The same theory applies to authors writing scenes. If you, the creator of your character's lives and dictator of their world, don't have it in you to sympathise with them, what chance do the readers have?

My favourite way of getting into the mood is to firstly get into the mindset of the perspective character and sinking into what they would feel. The reason I like this method so much is because it helps with Step Two.

2. Nail reactions. 

A couple days before writing this post, I was browsing Pinterest because I was procrastinating and I found this gem:

Source: Unknown

"It's not the death that kills you. It's the reactions of their loved ones."

This was the clicking moment for me. What happened didn't affect me as much as how it happened. "How" goes back to the characters. How do the characters react? For example, look at this:

I buried my dog in my backyard. 

Then take a look at this:

I buried my dog in my backyard, tears rolling down my face.

The problem with the first example is that you don't know how I feel about dogs and because of that, you don't know what to feel. Did I hate that dog? Did I love that dog? Was that even a real dog?

The second one isn't a masterpiece, but you can tell I'm feeling sad. I mean, sure, you can argue no, Liz, you were crying tears of anger. To that I say, how do you know what I'm feeling? Are you an empath? But let's not talk about that any more. For the purposes of this example, I'm sad, alright?

Source: Giphy

Reactions are so important. Jean Valjean going limp didn't hurt me as much as Cosette collapsing in Marius' arms. Anakin's fall didn't hurt me as much as Padme's loss of will to live.

As much as we grow to like a character, if they die, we aren't as likely to be miserable about it and cause a fandom revolt than if another character was there to cry too. The other character/s acts like a validator that the dead character was loved and deserves our tears.

How the character reacts depends on who they are. It worked for Cosette to cry in her man's arms, but it would be totally weird to see Hiro cry in his lady's arms, assuming he had one.

Even an ambiguous narrator should show some form of emotion. Say your character is the earth. Erupting volcanoes and floods wrecking buildings can send emotions just as clearly as a clenched fist or trembling lip. 

If your character isn't the type to cry, don't force them into it. Be true to what the character would do. Don't force them to react in a way that wouldn't be natural to them because instead of being a validator, they just make us cringe.

The reaction stage leads to my last point.

3. Balance despair with hope.

Everyone's dead. The city's in ruins. Only one person is left, our MC. All of the MC's friends are dead. MC is left orphaned. Our MC will starve. Alone. Our MC will freeze. Alone. Our MC will die. Alone. And no one can stop their death. Because our MC is alone. 

Source: Imgur

A common mistake I see reading books is that authors get stuck in the gloom. They think that by prolonging the sadness will make the sense of sadness in the reader stronger.  

Did my example above make you pity MC? Probably not. I guess it didn't help that it was kinda funny. Or repetitive depending on how you see it. You're probably wanting to get out of the gloom and doom and into a happy story with puppies and rainbows.

That's because humans crave a story with hope. Although dark stories are the trend and negative endings are becoming more popular, we still need the confirmation that something goes right. Someone has to be alive to tell the story of how everyone died. 

It's the lack of hope that makes the rates of depression and other mental health issues increase over time. Movies, comics, books are losing what makes them special. That's not right.

Within the darkness, there must be some light. Even in the darkest stories, a glint is enough to show that yes. We move on. 

Let's use the Les Mis musical as an example. If you haven't watched it, continue reading the next two paragraphs at your own risk because I'm going to talk about the ending. For those who have watched it, good job. *thumbs up* Les Mis is a generally sad musical. Every character except Cosette and Marius dies by the end. If the story stopped after Jean's death, it'd be pretty gloomy, wouldn't it? But no, we stopped after the Do you hear the people sing? reprise. 

One song made all the difference between a depressing ending and an epic finale. If you're not aware, the song is about the oppressed people fighting against the suppressors. That's hope right there. 

Source: Tumblr

Michael Morpurgo puts it like this:

"Wherever my story takes me, however dark and difficult the theme, there is always some hope and redemption, not because readers like happy endings, but because I am an optimist at heart. I know the sun will rise in the morning, that there is a light at the end of every tunnel."

That sums it up, yeah?

Edit 20 December 2020: Hey there! This post is getting an update! To read it as soon as it comes up, subscribe to Lizorae's newsletter. You can find it in the left sidebar. Happy authoring!

Edit 11 January 2021: The new post is here!

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The process of making heartbreaking scenes is in three steps. You, as the author, have to get into the mindset and emotions of the character narrating the events. This is important because it's the reaction of the character that crushes the reader's soul.

But remember not to become stuck in darkness. Move out of it. We move on. Something depressing becomes bittersweet.

I don't know anyone who, deep down, would rather depression than bittersweet.

Related:

MAKING READERS FEEL SOMETHING: 6 Secrets To Writing Powerful Emotions
Writing is a real job! An author's purpose
Do books really need a moral?

What books or stories have made you cry? Break your heart?  What's your favourite secret? Do you have a tip to share? Leave a comment below. If you liked this post, be sure to share, follow and eat chocolate for more content! (Eat chocolate anyway.)