Writing, On the Dark Side

Writing on the dark side

         As you gaze through my port, you will find that most of the writing found revolves around personal and real life situations. I have not entered many of the stories and poems written over the years that dive deep into the horror, thriller, suspense and often macabre genre. Ever since picking up my very first Stephen King novel I have been drawn deep into the realm's of darkness. King, who I think has inspired many writers to dig deep down inside their mind's eye, to take those inner fears, what if's, imaginations, and thrive to place the ink to the paper. I now have notebooks piled in boxes full of everything from biographical to lighter writing and two filled with nothing but extreme dark writing.

          The first King novel that I ever read was The Stand (long version) that someone had left in the employee lounge at work. As you might expect, I was also working the night shift and the sole purpose of this job on midnight's was to just be there. I had time to read. From that moment on I began reading every King novel I could get ahold of. I went on to read Koontz, Saul, McCammon's Swan Song, but every time a new King novel came out I was right there to buy it.

         My passion for writing then began to turn darker and beyond. Then I found a role playing group based on the 25 novels of John Norman. It is basically a sci-fi, fantasy set of novels with the usual warriors, free women, etc. Then I decided to attempt to play an assassin. The assassin's in this group are the darkest, most terrifying characters out of them all. Not only was I able to write the story lines out, but I was also able to become the character who not only killed his victims, but also went about some pretty harsh other acts both before and after his killing spree's. Each time I played this character, not only was it a challenge to pull off some of these devious acts, but I also had to play it from a male's mind set. Eventually as the character developed, he turned into a cross between a Hannibal Lecter and Jeffery Dahmer. I had created my first serial killer and what is really scary about it all was that I had control of the character, but wrote everything out in such convincing detail that I became the character.

         From that point on, I wrote many a dark tale holding nothing back. I started reading the criminal section in the newspapers or the local police arrest page and then write about that person, weaving my own dark scene around them. By taking these real life characters out of just plain newspaper articles and setting them in another scenario, the stories wrote themselves with no general predetermined plan at all.

         To this day, I still check the papers. When ever writers block threatens to set in, I know I can always take some idea even if its from a small article no longer than an inch or two and turn it into my own set of twists, turns, horror and macabre psychotic mayhem.

         Step into my crypt and let me tell you a few tales. I always keep plenty of fava beans and a nice chianti on hand for my visitors. Enjoy.

BlueThunder