I received quite a lot of feedback on suicide survivor that suggested I was too kind to the bad guys. It prompted me step outside my comfort zone and write something quite unpleasant (think Carrie but without as much blood). I'm heading towards the end of it now. Climax still to come with quite a lot of serious nastiness planned. So far there's a lot of foul language and some quite explicit sex, and I'm wondering whether or not to publish or leave it in a bottom drawer somewhere.
So I'm wondering who might want to see what's in the darker depths of my muse's repertoire, and who would rather keep the guarantee of a happy ending in a Maeryn Lamonte story.
I for one shall wait in anticipation
Whatever you give us.
Expectations
Just put the warnings upfront so you don’t disappoint everyone . . . and go into it figuring you may not catch as large an audience. Lots of kudos here for light escapism, and nothing wrong with that — people in this community deserve a bit of escapism, given what the real world is like. Harder stories generally do less well in that department, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t as good, or shouldn’t be written.
— Emma
I'm sorry, but I would avoid "nasty"
I think that Emma is right, a carefully worded set of warnings would be a really good idea.
For me personally, though, I have found that I tend to "live" stories even when I am away from them. The one thing that helps me from getting too upset is to know that "all will be right in the end, and if all is not right, it isn't the end". Your stories do always come right at the end, even though you put the protagonists through the mill on the way. Anything darker, I fear, would lurk in my darkest subconscious, and keep me awake at night!
Lucy xx
"Lately it occurs to me..
what a long strange trip its been."