Jeffrey Klepacz

Psychology paper

Psychology of Writing

Literature is one of the most important pieces of entertainment in the world, it helps to
make greater stories and allow us to experience things we otherwise couldn’t on our own. Yet
something most people do not talk about are the reasons that this great stories actually give us
this rush and excitement that we come to find in it. Perhaps it is the trick and the psychological
effects used that allow for thies stories to be so successful in that aspect. If you wish to know
then theis are some of the tricks used in your greatest stories.
Some of the most basic forms of tricks used by even the best authors are the use of the
Freudian Id, ego and superego. Now at a first look it can be hard to see exactly how this could be
used as a trick in stories, well it is just as useful as how authors use stereotypes, it allows an
author to easily help audiences understand the characters action, the villain of the story is
controlled by the Id ideology, the hero is apart of the superego. Just as stereotypes help to make a
blueprint of a character for development so too does the Id,Ego, and superego make for an easy
piece of the character belief system.
Speaking of that stereotype idea, people have noticed that specific character structures
and templates have been used before. Many of these templates are known by many writers and
many readers also have come to the conclusion of figuring out these, putting them in a type of
group known as tropes. Some well known examples of these known tropes are, the wise old
chinese master. This one has been used countless times and is in almost every type of genre that
involves the arts of combat, while this character isn’t namely bad for its representation, the
master always has this type of stereotypical view that makes us see older asian people as wise
master even though that really isn’t true.
This however does not mean that other similar types of stereotypes exist. One that may be
even more prevalent than that of the old chinese master is that of the wise wizard or hermit.
Existing far back to old english text, the old wizard is a character that defines the wisest of
individuals as old men with years of experience under their belts. This trope has been used for
millennia and still will be used going forward, but it still is a stereotype used to make people
understand and recognise the role of a character in a story.
Now the biggest and most looked at is the damsel in distress, from the stories of disney to
english text of old, some of the greatest stories have this very understood and stable trope. Now
as the years have gone by, it is obvious that a trope like this that is used as a depiction of how the
female of most stories is the frail and captured, it has fallen out of style and has lead to a wave of
new and interesting story threads, that now use that trope as a ground for twists and surprises a
plenty. Many people will see this stereotype as one of the easiest to make fun ove as even now
many moments of old film would be solved if the damsel in distress tried to help our heroes in
their venture. Perhaps then it is good that this specific stereotype has fallen out of popularity as
we now have much more interesting female characters and leads to come out of it.
Another one of the very important skills used in the world of writing is the use of
conditioning. Now obviously this has to have some type of explanation, number one this is used
in storytelling as a trope to explain main character personality traits, such as if the why your
villain is they way they are, and things of that nature. Outside of that area of use however, there
lies a very important part of the puzzle. You see many people come to expect certain events and
characters from their favorite t.v. shows, movies, and even books as well. Within those specific
pieces of media, sometimes the content and progression of character can become very stable and
stationary. Through this the author has the ability to set up a change or break in the status quo of
the story, leading to the plot twist or surprise event. It is this subtle type of conditioning of
readers that can lead to it, and in some cases the reader has no idea that they actually are
subconsciously being prepped for that kind of trick.
Now these interesting subjects of change for the characters of books and the changes of
how the structure is done, to affect the reader is all well and good, many people can look and see
the impact that trick like these can have in the author's audience, but a rather difficult question
must be asked, what about fiction? Now what does this mean, fiction is a type of writing done by
many different writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling, but when we think about it,
how is it possible for someone who is not apart of a fantasy world and or someone who has never
been apart of such a place to be able to understand and have compassion for people in scenarios
that they themselves have no real relation too, well it is simple, Empathy.
Empathy is one of the major building points to create interesting and relatable character,
while there adventures in a fictional world may seem strange and different to those with an
outside view. When looking at a character's backstory or events that molds them in the story, an
author or writer has tools to give that character empathy, such as a lost loved one, or a tragic
vengeance that must be taken in order to make amends for the past and actions that the character
may feel bad about. One great example that shows itself through is in the movie series Star Wars,
a story about how a young protagonist wishes to be apart of something bigger and to become
someone worth remembering. This is how, even though characters from that series are in a place
that most people will never be able to really relate to. People always have dreams of showing off
just what they’re made of and trying to leave an impact to the world before they go, that is the
power of empathy.
Truly this shows just what authors and writers are thinking when creating these
fantastical worlds. Days and even months went into planning just how big in scope and how
diverse the universes they are creating can be, but no matter how divers or cool sounding and
looking a character is, it is how they are portrayed that gives them empathy and makes their
unnatural world, a little more relatable. That is the very essence of the psychology of an author.
Their whole goal and wish is to try and make it so that a person can understand the hero and even
in the right spot, the villain and relate to them. Using not only the other types of tricks listed
above, but also many others, one can be suprised, swaded, and even captivated by that of the
greatest author.
Hopefully this has shown just how much an author can sway readers with their words and
also how even the literature and media we watch has slight psychological cues in it that allow for
the writers to change the way we think about things. As well as the shortcuts that they use to
make us understand and be familiar with their writing. This is not to say that all these tricks are a
key to the success of the writing many things go into the way that a writer does their work, but
these are some of the most used and varied tricks many author’s will cite, if you ever wish to
pick up the art of literature these are some of the best tricks to use on improving and crafting
your art to apeas a wide audience.
 Citation

● Veronica Sicoe. “How To Use Stereotypes In Writing Fiction.” Veronica Sicoe, 7 Feb.
2013, veronicasicoe.com/2013/02/07/how-to-use-stereotypes-in-writing-fiction/.

● Wood, Robert, et al. “Psychology 101: Knowledge That Will Improve Your Writing – Part
1.” Standout Books, 24 Jan. 2019, www.standoutbooks.com/psychology-for-authors-
part-1/.

● Puglisi, Becca. “Build Character Empathy in Your First Few Pages ~ WRITERS
HELPING WRITERS®.” WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®, 29 May 2018,
writershelpingwriters.net/2018/05/creating-character-empathy/.