Emotion and empathy in the creative process of the screenwriter

The purpose of the paper is to present an insight into the creative process of the screenwriter to find out what kind of emotion-based decisions emerge during her writing and how the different modes of empathy can help the screenwriter to find more creative, unconventional, and ethical content-related storytelling solutions.

The aspects of self-empathy, mirrored empathy, imaginative empathy, and empathic action play a role in all creative work. In addition, generating an emotional response and triggering identification with the fictitious characters in the reader are the screenwriter’s fundamental tools.

The paper analyzing cases in literature and research looks at the theories of empathy, identification, and othering in artmaking, and dives into the writer’s screenwriting process using autoethnography. It looks at the practices of conscious choices in the screenwriter’s assignment frame and thus delves into the question of interpersonal understanding helping creativity, imagination, and emotions to emerge in the creative process.

The abundance of audiovisual material around us strongly shapes our way of perceiving ourselves. Audiovisual fiction is a social technology that influences a person’s perception of others and the social relationships between people in general. In a world of ever-hardening attitudes, there is a need to critically examine the impact of fiction on viewers and how improvident and violent fiction can have a devastating effect on the social climate.

Thus, the conference talk provides valuable knowledge on the screenwriter’s role in changing the prevailing paradigm in audiovisual storytelling.