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Dark elements can add excitement to a story... but where to draw the line? And where does this love of the dark come from?
This week's Action/Adventure Newsletter is all about the darker side of fiction.
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Are you from a family of readers? I am. When I was little, my mom and my gran would spend lots of time reading to me, and I am certain that that has contributed to my status as a bookworm.
My mom and I have a great many favourite authors in common. George R. R. Martin, Heinz G. Konsalik, Stephen King, Jean M. Auel, John Grisham... I could go on (but I won’t, don’t worry). She never managed to get into the author at the top of my favourites lists, Terry Pratchett, but on the whole we spend many hours discussing novels we both enjoy, and recommending the other new reads. I’m not sure that her latest recommendation is for me, though...
My mom and my younger sis are very much into the works of M. J. Arlidge at the moment. With titles such as Eeny Meeny, Pop Goes the Weasel and Hide and Seek, Arlidge has worked his way into the hearts of those who love crime novels that are filled with suspense. I certainly do love novels of that kind, but as someone who has to close her eyes during the gory bits of Game of Thrones I am not too great with graphic violence, let alone gory bits, and according to reviews I’ve read these novels contain plenty such moments. Looks like I will have to be the wuss of the family.
My aversion to reading (and watching) content of that nature is surprising, when I reflect on it. I will happily write dark poetry. I’m not too bad at writing dark stories, either. I believe that we all have a dark side, to a greater or lesser extent, and that may out itself in our writing and in our choice of reading and viewing material.
It’s a part of human nature that intrigues me. The world is dark and frightening enough, really, and yet we invent stories to creep each other out, and enjoy being creeped out by other people’s stories, and in doing so we might go beyond reality and invent our own monsters. Sometimes, we even let those monsters win
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Why do we do it? Is it a way of coping with life and the universe? A feeling that whatever we will encounter will never be as bad as the evil in those stories? And that, anyway, (mostly) all that is bad will be defeated in the end? I had to study this once for my philosophy course, but the nature of philosophy is that opinions are divided, and I am still uncertain as to why we embrace fictional monsters in the way that we do. Except that perhaps, as I said above, we all have a dark side and fiction is a far better way of coping with it than dragging it into the real world.
We all have a line, I think. Gory bits are mine. I cope much better when violence is implied, rather than having it spelled out in graphic detail. That way, I have control over the extent to which I allow mental images of such nature to form. Others, like my dad, are fine with such imagery. My mom can read about it, but not watch it. My sis can read about it and watch it to a certain point – she shut her eyes a few times during Game of Thrones as well, but not as often as I did.
Adding dark elements can raise the excitement level of a story. There is no doubt about that. If we do so, we need to keep in mind our intended audience and ask ourselves how much is too much.
There will always be a market for more graphic works. You may gain a bigger audience, however, if you do not spell out everything, or if you are clever with the placement of more graphic scenes. George R. R. Martin is a good example of someone who makes it work – there are such scenes in his novels, and yet I can read them because they are not the main focus. They don’t go on for page after page. It’s easy to skip over them when I need to and happily continue on with the story.
It feels as though we live in a time when there is a trend towards the more graphic but if, like me, you are not entirely comfortable writing such stories, it’s good to keep in mind that suspense can be built in other ways – there are plenty of examples out there if you read older (and still popular) novels from, for example, Stephen King, or if you want a more contemporary crime novel, Michael Connelly is a good author. I especially like his The Poet.
As always, whatever you do, have fun!
NaNoKit
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Action/Adventure: May 29, 2019 Issue [#9571]
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