Last week, I talked a bit about anime and me, so you know that I’m not the world’s leading expert in Japanese animation. Sword Art Online, in particular, taught me a lot about the seemingly endless power of storytelling, though, so today, I want to share some of those lessons with you.

Give the audience something to believe in.

All of the anime shows that I’ve watched/am watching ran for no more than a single season and contained anywhere from 13 to 26 episodes (SAO had 25), each being 20 minutes long. That’s not a lot of time to fall in love with the characters, even by my standards. So, why did I feel like I had no choice except to love them?

Anime is teaching me that character development isn’t always about a complicated backstory that will surely take multiple books/movies/episodes to sort out. It may not revolve around an epic quest or tragedy either. Sometimes, all it takes to connect with a fictional friend is a single, shared belief.

The characters in SAO are passionate about what they believe. They place great value in love, happiness, home and hope, and they fight valiantly for all of those things. This inner fire is contagious from their first episode, and by the end of those 20 minutes, protagonist Kirito’s goal had become mine. Beat “Sword Art Online”. Set the other players free. Get home.

Don’t fear the melodrama.

When I was writing the first draft of my debut novel, it came time for me to introduce one of my trilogy’s central characters. From the moment she appeared in the story, she worried me with her ultimate drama queen outbursts. Like, where did that come from?!

After toning down what I thought was an obnoxious level of melodrama, I introduced my character to one of my beta readers and close friends, still worried that this girl was unrealistically theatrical. I was surprised, therefore, when my friend said, “[She’s] my favorite.” When I asked why, she told me that the girl is believable. She’s dramatic but never without a good reason.

Since then, I’ve learned how to better empathize with my character and channel her personality into appropriate chapters and scenes. But I don’t worry about her anymore—she’s a freaking warrior.

Anime has only reinforced the lesson that this character taught me. We’ve all been in situations that made us want to spit nails or fall to our knees and sob. And how many times have you wanted to run, screaming, through an abandoned anywhere? We’ve become so good at harboring our emotions… maybe a little too good. Anime is reminding me to keep myself and my characters as transparent as possible.

As Yuuki puts it in Sword Art Online II, “You hit me with everything you had, so I decided I could trust you with everything I had.” I call this a positive result of melodrama.

There is always another perspective.

Duh, right? But this lesson was hammered into me throughout the first half of SAO II. Sometimes, the events that haunt us with their terribleness are the same events that gave others a second chance. That truth carries a lot of weight and reminds me that no matter how many POVs I use in my stories, there are always others to be considered.

Here’s to the power of storytelling (and the end of the 30-day writing challenge)!