People today have larger tolerance to those kind of stuff, plus with that content you're targeting only specific type of readers. In my high school, we have a teacher who is a writer, successful one, he's well known in our country, and god, his books are filled with whole bunch of pervert things, pedophilia and other sexual stuff and yet, his books are acknowledged as a quite artistic. Not saying he's writing bad books, quite the opposite actually. What I'm saying, it's hard to say where to draw a line, when is too much too much. Make sure that when you write about controversial things it looks like it has a message, not like you're writing about it just for sake of writing.
I do sort of think that you can get away with more of that stuff in writing than you can on film though.
If it can be thought, then it can be written. Someone here said "Martin is the grimdarkest of them all." Not. Even. Close. Read R. Scott Bakker's Second Apocalypse. THAT'S grimdark. The main character is a genetically altered manipulative psychopath using any and all means to achieve his end, and hes the protagonist. Martin, by comparison isn't even on the same floor. Not at all saying Martin's work is subpar. It's excellent. But it also has its limits.
I am not so sure there is such a thing as too dark when it comes to books. But as a general rule, I find I need lulls in the violence and action in order to develop the characters better. Ultimately though it depends on your story and subject matter. But there is a reason people are drawn to dark complex stories with dark complex characters - and this is because the world is not a fairy tale and real people are almost always complicated with complex backstories. As others have suggested though, it is wise not to focus on your reader so much as what makes the story interesting and compelling to you. You can think more about your reader during editing, but first things first, is to let your characters live in and survive their world. Regards Si
Hello, friend. Oh! I know these mangas you are talking about. Never had the opportunity to read them but I am familiar by name. That question has no answer. Why? Very simple. If you are going to try to please the readers, many will give up in your story because the gore is not for them, and others will keep reading because violence and dark are the thing. Don't worry about your readers. Write the story you want to tell. One thing I will tell as a reader. One thing I love about a writer is first to present me the MC's situation that seems it is all safe, and nothing will happen. However, little by little the writer gives me conditions that the MC will have to make a choice, and it's always a bad one. With this what I am trying to tell is to present your characters in a safe situation then during the plot put them in nasty problems; this creates discomfort. And it's okay because you want your readers to feel what the character is feeling. I hope this helps. Keep on good work and have fun!
true but having said that some fairy tales were really dark and violent originally and got watered down for modern generations, like in the red dancing shoes where she had to have her feet cut off with an axe. I think you have to be careful in saying 'dark = deep'. I think it certainly can be but if it comes across as gratuitous that's where you lose people.
I recommend taking a look at what Stephen King has to say about this in On Writing. Tell the truth. Don't make your characters do things that they wouldn't do, and that runs both ways (towards and away from edgy). The real world is a dark place, though you can write stories that are plenty realistic without writing every detail that happened. Ideas can be more horrifying than gorey prose.
