not the current story that I am focusing on, but a story I am fleshing out still is quite dark. The antagonist, for lack of a better term is a good guy gone bad posing as a good guy still. His fall deals with human sacrifice, torture, demon magic, using instinctive fears that are built into all humans against them for his own pleasure and gain. Personally I let them go as dark as they NEED to without letting it get out of control. I personally draw the line at sexual darkness and rape and such. There are certain things that are just better left unsaid.
oh i see what you mean. i let my stories get pretty dark. in the story im writing right now one of the characters is about to commit suicide
I can put my characters through hell and back without blinking an eye as long as they can come out on top and get a victorious ending. I can't leave them someplace horrible and end it that way without feeling terrible. This is provided that it's an actual serious novel with characters I care about, not a short story about people getting eaten by monsters on a camping trip or something, in which case I obviously don't care less.
I find if I make things too dark, none of my characters can see. So I always give at least one of them a flashlight. What I'm more worried about is making my stories too loud, because I can never seem to find enough earplugs.
I've tortured, murdered, ripped limb from limb, kidnapped, enslaved, plotted against one's own children, shown molestation and rape from a victim's side (not graphic, but emotional), and plotted the murder of mankind... So, what I'm willing to write and just how *darkly* I end up writing it are different things. In doing this, I have kept away from detailing bodily functions and looks upon faces when murdered... I have not described visually how the severed limbs looked or how bloody the mess would have been (no spurting or spraying of blood described from the wounds, I allow the reader to decide how graphic to make it for themselves)... I go dark, but I don't go gory, if that makes any sense at all.
LOL! They run into walls and get hurt, right? I can kill mine off and do horrible things to them without much thought, most of the time
Love the analogy. I'm with Sidewinder. I like things very dark, and is writing a story where the main character is the abusive part in an abusive relationship. A a lot of other dark stuff all over the story. But you can't make a good story if you just parade the the worse things you can come up with one after another. They reader will have grown bored and callous after half an hour. There is no darkness unless you have some light. There need to be contrast.
Hmm well I write a lot of humour but in the past twelve months of writing I have: Torpoedoed a yacht, invaded minds, had a 17 year old poisoned by a woman he considered a mother figure, had a daughter murder her parents (she did her mother at 11), internet stalking and girls kidnapped, married under age and murdered by a corrupt general, assasinated a king, abused and neglected a child, had an eight year old imprisoned by his grandfather and then had him witness the grandfather behead his school teacher, had a 17 year old execute a corrupt general, rather gory bird fights, school teacher bullying a student, my MC kidnaps an old lady and a five year old, and that is just my first book Second one is much darker, I do something in that, that as a mother I don't think can be beaten for dark really. i generally use my main characters to keep it light and have moments of reflection but I always have too much plot.
This book has yachts, internet stalkers, generals, kings, school teachers and killer birds. What kind of story is this? Sounds like a disturbing read (In a good way of course).
I would say, I don't mind going all the way. I might not keep everything that is 'dark' about the char in the final draft, but I find it helpful to go beyond my comfort zone and explore the depths, at least in the initial drafts. Doing this helps me understand the char inside-out. I can also end up with images the readers will not forget long after the story is read, and those I keep in my final draft. The only possible caution generally (because there are always exceptions) is, like any other aspects of fiction writing, too much of a dark char or story may not be good.
It torments me so but I can go pretty dark. I've whacked the innocent protagonist kids for pete's sake! I've even had a character literary choose to go to hell in a moment, and a protagonist at that. (For a Christian writer like me, this is kind of a big deal. Of course, I did save him. ) Honestly, as long as I am not promoting anything I feel immoral, there's really very little dark territory I won't consider exploring.
Yeah, never good to bore the reader with darkness. I also make it a habit to give one of my characters a can of Febreeze, in case things start to stink too much.
In my current story, I've actually had to lighten it up. The first pass had a character rape the Sue, who then couldn't pass the resulting child and had it cut out under medievil conditions, turning her into a vampire was the only to save her life, and the midwife took the child. The second pass had the character torture her and accidentally give her an exotic infection because his weapon had a specific type of blood on it. The third pass had the character still cut her and rough her up a bit, but he didn't get around to the torture. She develops a normal but fatal infection. In all three cases, the character learned later that he needed the Sue's help to avoid a fate worse than death. In the third case, there is still the angst without having him start as a complete monster. (There is still a process of redemption.) Edit: Actually the difference between the second and third pass wasn't for sake of darkness, just for the sake of everything around it making sense.
A fantasy of course lol It begins with a fairly normal argument between a king and his son who has not bothered to go to school that day His older sister then assassinates their father, and his older brother announces he is gay and moves in with his lover, leaving the seventeen year old king. He has inherited a corrupt magical kingdom. It isn't really that dark in comparison to the story of his older brother. That has several events that that made me physically sick whilst i was writing them - he was the eight year old imprisoned, in my first book it is just a remembrance in my novella it was an event. My second book contains suicides and the full revelation of Socrates' upbringing and about his sister. My third book has the darkest thing I think i could ever possibly write or come up with,
How dark will this Forum permit? I like deep, disturbing, dark stories --so dark it's blinding. But, alas, down this macabre path, we are much restricted here. (I'm not complaining --just saying). -------------------------------------------------------- Be good, wise and strong
I can go dark, but there always must be a bit of light or hope. Even if there's the most evil and dark ending ever, there is still a glimmer of light or hope somewhere, no matter what. As a whole, my earlier stories tended to be a lot darker, many of them war-focused, with murder and political intrigue and war atrocities and all that good stuff. My darkest story was basically putting an innocent cute little teenage girl through hell and making her emerge - after years of very unpleasant stuff - as the greatest and most brutal world conqueror, even moreso than the likes of Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great, making her carve a swarth of destruction through Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. I gave up on that story after I realized it was too mature for me to handle at the time, though I could return to it. As I've been getting older, I've realized that my stories have gotten lighter in tone, although not always.
As dark as needed. There isn't anything I would consider too dark to write about. However, there is a place where I would draw the line on a piece I wanted to share with others.
But, if you're willing to ... 'go there', wouldn't you want to take someone else with you? Why write so dark for yourself and keep it in the 'dark' from others? Somehow, secretly, I think people want others to find and read their most intimate diary-entries. (It's no fun only knowing 'it' yourself). ------------------------------------------------ Be good, wise and strong
A lot of the darker stories I write are based on recurring nightmares that I honestly wouldn't want people reading about. I've written and shared stories featuring addiction, insanity, rape, kidnap, torture, stalking, murder... but there are some things that tip "dark" towards "revolting" and even though I like reading/writing it I know the majority won't. There's no hope or light in them - they're just depressing. I write it to get it out my system rather than to share.
My stories tend to get very dark and gruesome. Not over the top and when un-needed, but when needed I spare no detail and I try to make the reader want to vomit
My stories have a touch of darkness to it. I usually like writing kinda happy stories lol (with conflict ofc)
