Hi there forum friends! I am Dory Oat. It is a pleasure to meet you all. I joined up today because I am worried, I have a darkness in my soul and in my writing which always seems to come out, I just don't feel satisfied by anything tasteful. On the other hand, however, most of my consumption of writing in its many forms is tasteful, pleasant and cheerful. I have deep concerns that I am ruining a lot of what I write before it begins. Whenever I want to write something incredibly PG or family friendly it ends up becoming rather sick and twisted, and if it does not, upon reading the work it feels like my heart was not in it. I suppose I must have rather dark axioms, or something. Should I just write dark and incredibly polarising things? But then there's the question of how dark is too dark? Do people even want dark things in their lives? I don't think so. I don't think they actually do. I'm a contrarian by nature, I don't want to corrupt people's souls (but then again I do) (but I don't) (but I also kind of do) I don't know, every piece of work I put out I look back on with disgust. Again, pleasure to meet you!
Stephen King, Clive Barker, and R. L Stein start out PG and get darker in their books. While Goosebumps is for kids, sometimes they get a bit extreme , and yet still manage to remain kid friendly. That is how Horror works. Though there is Mystery and Thriller that start out dark, and go back and forth through out the story between lighter and darker bits. There is nothing wrong with twisting stories from one direction to the next. So there will always be a spot in society for the darker side of things. Even War stories have darkness in them. Not every story has to have sunshine and daisies to be a fun read. It can be fun to be slinking down long narrow corridors in and out of the shadows waiting for the next event to make the skin crawl a bit more, or give a good jolt fear. Dark has its own fan club, and can be an element in any genre really. As long as it all fits together like a puzzle, then it works. Good luck and have fun.
If you find writing dark things cathartic for your mind, then it helps. It doesn't have to be published, or even shown if you don't want to. There is no right or wrong way to write, or right or wrong genre for you. Simply write whatever you like. Don't worry about what others will think. In a world so large, someone else will like what you write. It could be many millions of someones in time. But you will never know unless you write it first. We all have our own egos, and nobody wants to hear that someone doesn't like something we've done, especially something so personal as writing. But it is inevitable, unfortunately. Don't let one persons opinion or judgement deter you from going for it though. Write for you first, and worry about everyone else much later, if at all. The first thing is to get it out of yourself and onto paper.
I've written horror since I was about 15, and I wouldn't say my stuff is particularly twisted, at least not compared to King or Laymon (although I've heard others say it is and even refuse to read further). And, like you, I've tried to write other stuff - but it doesn't seem to work. Things just aren't interesting unless there's a little - or a lot of - blood. As to whether people want it? I think there's a now-buried thread on the forum somewhere about the declining horror market, so who knows. But what you want to write is what you should write, whatever it is. Good luck with it all, and welcome!
Welcome @Dory Oat ! I'm Iain, one of the mods here. If you haven't had a chance to yet, be sure to check out New Member Quick Startand Forum Rules, and don't be shy about contacting me or one of the other active mods (jannert and big soft moose at the moment) if you have any questions or problems. I like it dark. My writing (you can look for it if you want, I'm not advertising) can be extremely dark, to the point that I've had members tell me they disliked it for the way it made them feel. So let the black flag fly high and don't be afraid to share, just do us a favor and put a Trigger Warning either in the title or the first bit of anything you put up for critique in the Workshop. Doesn't have to be a lot of detail, but since we're reading here to critique, it's only fair to let people know what they're getting into, even if (and I hate this part) it does reduce the impact of the story. But I'm getting all moderatorish again. I love dark stories, I can't wait to read yours. Wander around, join some discussions, critique some stories (you need two critiques for every one story you post in the Workshop) and make some friends. There are plenty of us here on the dark side, you'll find us soon enough
Just remember, if there's a one-in-a-million chance of someone liking what you write, there are at least 7000 to 8000 people in this world just waiting to see what you've got. Gotta write it first, though!
