I'm doing two days together because I didn't get a chance to write my thoughts but I did have a couple days where I wrote. Cheating? Maybe...but I'm doing it this way anyway.
So...dark subject matter... I have to say that I admire those people who are unconstrained when it comes to writing darker stories, scenes or themes. I tend to balk at the idea and take the edge off of it when I write. I know for me it's a fear of being judged. I don't think I could ever write the way Stephen King does or LKH (for teh latter, while I don't uphold her as a great literary genius...she is very able to write graphic horror without a sense that she's flinching away from it). Often in a story bad things are going to happen, whether to the main characters or to supporting or even just incidental characters. it is much easier to give a main character drive, for example, if they witness an atrocity or violent acts in general. To see the suffering of others is going to affect them in some way, though there are many ways in which a character can act. I believe that one of the differences between fluff and grittier, more compelling writing is the way the writer deals with the dark stuff. Fluff is lighter and so has less in the way of suffering and violence. It makes a nice change, something to relax with but personally I find the darkness, even if it is just a thread that weaves its way through a story, to be more compelling. I would say this is the different between say, Jane Austin and the Bronte sisters. Austin's writing is much lighter and tends to have a happy ending (though I haven't read all her books yet) while the Bronte sisters stories all have dark threads running through them. Suffering, hardship, madness are themes that I've noticed in more than one of the books and that's what takes them from being romantic fluff, to a much deeper kind of romance...and that's what I like about them.
what I have been trying to figure out for a while now is how writers approach it and how they feel about approaching this subject matter. do they fear being judged but push past it? Do they just accept that it's a part of human nature? Or are they just writing what they know? I wonder because I would like to have the ability that other writers have, to write these aspects into my stories without flinching from it.
No wordcount for today. Editing was my focus once again.
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