I'm not sure, but I'm thinking of writing a dark story. I don't mean a story where 'evil reins supreme'. That's just the opposite side of the mirror as I see it, and not satisfactory to me. Its all to easy to ignore your characters dignity and abuse them, they can't protest can they?
Whilst if those stories were tried on me there would be a sniper waiting, ah, metaphorically speaking naturally. Did you know that some of the most famous snipers in WW2 was Russian women btw? Women are very good on waiting and their body fat insulates them better than men too. All good qualities with a sniper, that and a steady temperament of course, so? No redheads then?
And that's the main reason why I stopped writing 'black ice', no, not redheads. I found it all to easy to introduce new cruel 'twists' and the same went for 'Amanda'. I had to rein myself in at all times. It's funny though that those stories seems to become the most read? I guess we all are becoming anesthetized by the media, needing more and more 'bucks for the money' to satisfy our need for further 'sensations'.
In fact you can read about all types of abuse every day in the papers, not to mention the Internet. I tried one of the papers at home, the one that generally seems to be seen as to have the best journalists, but it have so far (half a year) disappointed me. I'll take a book any day before that. Or this site, or any good site that tries to have some quality to their works. Although i still read it, I can't remember anything that really made me feel interested. Except a excerpt from a book by one of the Nobel price winners that I found very good, she wrote about her life, in Romania if I remember right?
It was about how their police abused and persecuted her and her mother. That was by the way almost a 'dark story', except for the thoughtfulness and clarity that she brought to it, and the hidden humor you could feel lurking in her explanation of the superior use of handkerchief as the weapon of choice for both her and her mother, fighting the police-abuse and terror, on all levels, from their workplaces to their homes. And you know what, it worked and made sense, reading her.
I wonder if anyone here might have done a 'dark story' already? You're welcome to 'point me' in that direction if so, there are a lot of good writers here, from both sides of the fence, 'black' as 'white' so to speak. I'm not even sure what I mean by a dark story. It's just a feeling I have, so far.
When you write a story you are supposed to put in 'obstacles' that your hero can overcome, but what abut corruption, of your mind and soul? Are there any such stories here? About the grey men, those empty ones with paragraphs filling the place where they once had their soul? Those that throw out people to torture,knowingly, hiding behind some laws new 'interpretation'. A bureaucracy is only as good as the men and women working there.
If I succeed in doing it I think I will try to keep it to one or at most ? page(s:), as I otherwise will get stuck with yet another 'project'.
Awh sh*, I can already see it start to grow at the horizon.
Comments
Dark subjects
don't necessarily need to be devoid of humor, in fact at times the humor will not only mitigate the darkness but be a very good contrast to the general mood of things in the story. Also, darkness comes in many shapes, types, and intents in stories. I would point you towards the Halloween stories from the contest this past October, and the All Souls contest from the year before for some examples of that. But darkness doesn't have to be just horror, it could be something as simple as overtones in the tale, or the mood of the character(s) in a story.
Hope I haven't confused you here with this one. :)
:)
Confusing me is all to easy Maggie.
But I've gotten some invaluable help from both Karen J. and Vessica defining what I was looking for, and it helped me a lot. I think I'm starting to see what kind of story I meant now.
But I'll look at the stories you suggested too, to see if it will make it even clearer.
It reminds me of a little girl i read about a long time ago.
When asked why she talked so much she answered that she only did it to find out what she was thinking of :)
I think that sums my confusion up quite nicely.
Btw; She finished with asking the person asking her.
"Why do you ask? Don't you do it too?"
Loved that one.
Darkness...
Well if you want good examples of true darkness, look into the works of Edgar Allen Poe, there is a reason he's known as the master of horror, and also my childhood role model I might add mew ^^
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Bisexual, transsexual, gamer girl, princess, furry that writes horror stories and proud ^^
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
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Black and Grey
I've attempted to write some darkness stories, to varying degrees. Stories where the protagonist is not a good person, the difficulty I have found is how to make a non-good character, a likable person (if I don't like someone I am unable to spend time with them, even when they are imaginary). A couple of times, I cheated and just touched on a moment of the character's life, without delving to deeply into them. The other times I have tried to emulate a mechanism executed so well by Glenn Cook in his Black Company novels, which is to create a world where there are no white characters, just black and grey. I don't really like the results of Heart of Darkness, which was my first attempt at this. But I think I did a much better job in Courtesy of Scoundrels (everybody is grey) and Hermit Lord (everybody is black, though I am not sure I succeeded in selling that the protagonist was the darkest of the bunch).
Thanks :)
Yeah, I know, princesschelsea. Edgar Allen Poe, he's quite near poetry at times as I think, but of the more horrendous scarifying quality of course :)
But I was thinking of something more 'normal' as I tried to write it, I think my brain have a lot of inertia to it, and it takes quite some time for it to 'turn'. So I wrote 'jellyfish' but somehow I seem to find redeeming qualities in my character too much of the time.
I'm not satisfied with it as being of my original idea. But I still like it? Don't ask me why, that would crave a brainscan of the more detailed sort.
And Arcie Emm and me seem to have meet the same problem, sort of :)
Beautifully stated that one Arcie btw, concise and to the point. I will look up Courtesy of Scoundrels and Hermit Lord to see what you are thinking of.
Maybe I will make a 'cleaner try' next time. I'm not into 'non empathy' but I would like to create a character that do good without the capacity to have it in his heart.
There are people like that, trying intellectually to see a concept they can't understand, and there should be a way for them too to find their way home to peace.
A merry Christmas to you both.
Yor.