Over the years, I’ve found a couple of writing micro-structures very helpful in building immersion in my worlds and a sense of authenticity in my characters. They are the MRU and the KAV cycle. There’s nothing particularly clever about them, they just provide me with a conceptual label for something that many writers do without having to stop and think about it.
Creating authenticity through the Motivation-Reaction unit
The MRU is an acronym that stands for Motivation-Reaction Unit. It is a means of describing the way a human being reacts to a stimulus (motivation). The MRU consists of four parts;
- The Motivation
An event or stimulus to which a character will react. This stimulus can be external or internal to the character (an event or a feeling). Events include the appearance of a tiger, a car crash, a foetid smell, a loud noise; anything that attracts the attention of a character and elicits a reaction. External motivations are appeals to the senses; sight, sound, hearing, taste, smell. Internal motivations are emotions (eg. A feeling of being watched, sadness, joy, etc.) - The Reaction
The reaction is made up of three optional parts. It does not require the presence of all three elements, but if more than one is being employed, they must appear in the right order.- Physical Instinctive reaction
We react to a stimulus at the unconscious/automatic/physical level first. Such reactions include freezing, feeling our heart race and breathing become more rapid, breaking out in a sweat, etc. - Emotional reaction
Next we react with identifiable emotions (even when we react to emotions) eg. fear, anger, horror, disgust, delight, etc. - Volitional reaction
Finally our conscious mind kicks in and we choose to act (raise the rifle to sight at the tiger, turn and run, climb a tree, etc.
- Physical Instinctive reaction
While it isn’t necessary to include every element of the reaction, the order is important. We react physically first, then emotionally, then volitionally (as our conscious brain catches up with our subconscious). When a writer puts these elements in the wrong order we always notice (even if we aren’t quite sure why the description feels wrong).
Immersion and Voluntary Suspension of Disbelief via the KAV cycle.
Some stories transport us to a new place and immerse us in this world so that we do not wish to leave it while the story is being told.
To be entranced, a reader must be willing. When an audience member chooses to listen to your story, they are willing already.
To deliver immersion we MUST make sensory appeals to our audience. In audio drama, we are limited by the medium to conjuring sensory experience through sound, dialog, and music – the other senses are not directly available to us. That said, we can activate the senses indirectly through the means we do have available.
In the real world our attention is given primarily to visual elements 60% of the time. We attend to what we hear about 20% of the time, what we feel (physically and emotionally) about 17% of the time and what we smell about 3% of the time.
Interestingly, this doesn’t reflect how our attention is captured.
The order of sensory appeals is sometimes referred to as the golden circle and at others as the KAV cycle. Our attention is captured first by emotion and movement (kinesthetic appeal, K), next by sound (auditory appeal, A) and, lastly, visually (through visual appeal, V).
In many ways this is more detailed modification of the MRU and provides the detail on the motivation side of the equation. Generally, we are doing/experiencing something and a sound catches our attention and directs our sight.
In audio drama this requires careful handling. Narration provides an easy way to hit each of these notes but, used to excess, turns an audio play into an audio book. It is far better to add these immersive appeals through dialog, sound, and music.
Music is a strong means of establishing emotion. If you are lucky enough to have a composer as part of your production team, they can be crucial to creating the emotional tone of the play and reflecting the emotions of your characters. It is also possible to construct a musical soundtrack from public domain or purchased sources. It is difficult to decide, however, which approach is the more difficult and fraught.
If you don’t have the budget for it, however, you may have to rely on dialog to communicate emotions and descriptions to achieve the immersion you’re looking for.
- DAVID: Easy Jim, one slip and we’ll be blown to pieces.
- JIM: You think I don’t know that? My hands are so sweaty (K) I can hardly hold the wire cutters.
Visual description can also be achieved through dialog, but we must be careful not to have our characters discussing what is obvious to all. The audience won’t notice “Look out! He’s got a gun!”, but “Look out! He’s pointing that Colt pistol he’s holding in his left hand two inches to the right and one inch above your heart” will come across as inauthentic and will, likely, destroy the sense of immersion you are trying to create. It is always helpful to give your characters a reason to describe things to one another (such as only one character having binoculars with which to see something in the distance).
- DAVID: Can you make out what it is?
- JIM: I’m bringing it into focus. Hang-on. Well, I’ll be!
- DAVID: What?
- JIM: It’s no rhino. That’s a dinosaur, a triceratops I think. The wrinkled, leathery skin (V), had me fooled ’til it turned around.
- DAVID: Here, give me those binoculars. I want to see.
Sound is a surprisingly challenging element to include. Given that our chosen medium is audio drama, you’d think that sound effects would be the main way we communicate what is available to the senses of our characters and while, to an extent, this is true, it is more complicated than it seems.
Some sounds are self-identifying (such as an airplane, or train, or car engine) but most are not. Most sounds require context (visual or verbal) to give them meaning. The sound of a fire can read as rain or crumpled cellophane (and vice-versa) depending on the context in which it is delivered.
This means that sounds must be explained to the audience via the context if they are to be “read” clearly.
- SOUND: DISTANT RUMBLE (S) – LET IT FINISH
- DAVID: Was that thunder?
- JIM: No. That was cannon fire. Fifty calibre, unless I miss my guess. I reckon they’ll be here by nightfall at the latest.
Generally, it is best to establish the explanatory context of a sound before introducing it to your audience.
- DAVID: Where’s that storm front, Jim?
- JIM: It’s almost on top of us. The first drops of rain are coming now.
- SOUND: RAIN COMES DOWN (S) – UNDER
Motivating action tends to follow the same repeating pattern. We are engaged in an experience (emotional and physical). We are looking forwards. Sound causes us to turn our heads, up, down, behind us, in order to change our visual focus. We look at what has attracted our attention.
A word of caution should be expressed here when we use stereo or surround sound. We hear with both ears, so placing a sound exclusively in the left or right channel will not create a realistic experience (and will be inaccessible to people who, like myself, are deaf in one ear). Emphasise one channel over another by including the sound in both channels but reducing its audibility in one.
By appeals to Kinesthetics, then Audio, then Visibility, we immersively establish the motivaters to which our characters will react.
All elements are needed and the cycle is repeated over and over.
The brain empathises with the description of action and emotion through music and dialog, activating in sympathy. The brain empathises with the presence of sound and music in a script, activating in sympathy. The brain empathises with the description of visual input via dialog and narration (so long as it is not overdone), activating in sympathy. The more this activation happens the greater the voluntary immersion occurs.
Problems implementing the KAV cycle
Some appeals are weak – too vague. Eg. A crowd is too vague. What kind of people are we seeing in this crowd (in terms of time and place). Groups lack details in general. General descriptors are too weak. A creature is too vague. More detail is needed where possible.
The more description that is supplied, the more an audience can see with their mind’s eye, but a wall of text is counter-productive. Precision is important (without being overlong). A few judiciously chosen KAV details will bring the scene to life without burying it in exposition. Don’t include details without a purpose.
Emotion should be conveyed through the scene and the action within it. Reveal details of the scene through physical details (dry mouth, heart racing, etc. wherever possible and appropriate).
Not all appeals need to be strong, but the most important ones should be. Ensure you use well chosen modifiers, adverbs, and adjectives (as well as evocative and illustrative metaphors and similes) in your dialog.
Rate your appeals. Can they be made stronger than appears in your draft. As you revise, strengthen them, but avoid the equal and opposite sin of becoming exposition heavy.
Copyright Philip Craig Robotham © 2022
