Formulas for the 15 Core Emotional Experiences in Storytelling

Every powerful story isn't just built on plot—it's engineered to deliver emotion. Whether it's a rush of adrenaline, a gut-punch betrayal, or a moment of pure awe, these emotional experiences define how readers and viewers connect to narrative. But emotions aren't vague vibes. They're crafted, built from precise ingredients. Below are the 15 core emotional experiences and the narrative formulas that generate them.

1. Exhilaration

Formula: Momentum + Danger + Triumph + Style

You feel the rush of movement and risk—something bold and dangerous plays out with flair, and they barely pull it off.

2. Suspense

Formula: Imminent Threat + Uncertainty + Time Pressure + Stakes

You know something could go wrong. You don’t know when or how—but you care about the outcome, and the clock’s ticking.

3. Fear

Formula: Immediate Danger + Vulnerability + Helplessness + Physical Survival

You are the target. You can’t escape. And the thing coming for you wants to end you. Pure limbic survival trigger.

4. Unease

Formula: Wrongness + Ambiguity + Isolation + Slow Encroachment

Something's off. You can’t name it. No one believes you. And it’s getting closer. This is atmospheric dread, not jump-scare terror.

5. Awe

Formula: Scale + Beauty + Transcendence + Power Beyond Comprehension

You’re facing something vast or divine that makes you feel small but inspired. Often spiritual, cosmic, or sublime.

6. Victory

Formula: Hardship + Resistance + Personal Growth + Overcoming

You suffered. You changed. And now you rise. This is earned triumph—not luck. Catharsis lives here.

7. Heartbreak

Formula: Attachment + Loss + Powerlessness + Emotional Vulnerability

You loved or needed something deeply. It’s gone. And you couldn’t stop it. That’s the crack in the soul.

8. Despair

Formula: Hopelessness + Futility + Isolation + No Path Forward

The situation is broken. You’re broken. And there's no out. This is the bottom of the well—existential and crushing.

9. Humor

Formula: Incongruity + Surprise + Timing + Social Relief

A truth gets twisted in an unexpected or exaggerated way, and the release cuts tension or flips the tone. Laughter is the escape valve.

10. Devotion

Formula: Attachment + Sacrifice + Loyalty + Emotional Intensity

You’d risk everything for them. It’s a bond that surpasses logic—familial, romantic, or platonic, but deeply emotional and specific.

11. Fixation

Formula: Desire + Obsession + Lack of Boundaries + Emotional Instability

You can’t stop thinking about them or it. You’ve lost perspective. It feels like passion, but something darker is underneath.

12. Betrayal

Formula: Trust + Deception + Shock + Emotional Injury

Someone you believed in chose to hurt you. It cuts deeper because you let them in. The pain is intimate and violating.

13. Control

Formula: Power Imbalance + Strategy + Psychological Warfare + Leverage

Someone has the upper hand and they’re twisting the knife with precision. It’s power plays and cold calculation.

14. Revulsion

Formula: Violation + Corruption + Disgust + Unclean Intrusion

Something crosses a sensory or moral boundary. It doesn’t just horrify—it contaminates. You want to purge it.

15. Madness

Formula: Mental Deterioration + Surreal Logic + Identity Disruption + Emotional Spiral

Reality is breaking. The mind is fragmenting. You’re either losing control of yourself or the world—and nothing makes sense anymore.

Use these formulas not as checklists, but as building blocks. Ask: which of these emotions am I crafting in this scene? What ingredients am I using to generate it? Stack them, twist them, and build stories that hit with surgical emotional force.