How dark should I go?

Krelian · Aug 3, 2013

Heather Head said:
I'm thinking of The Long Walk (an early Stephen King story written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman). It starts out sort of hopeful with very dark undertones and as it progresses gets darker and darker. He makes friends, loses them. He just wants to reach the end and win the "prize"--which is that the govt will grant him any wish in the world. In the end (SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT) he "wins"... but he's so completely ruined that all he "wishes" for is ... well, you'll have to read it to find out. It's quite good. And quite, quite bleak.

END SPOILER

If that's the sort of book you want to write, write it.

I rather like the suggestion, however, of keeping it sort of mysterious. Let it be bleak with a glimmer of hope but... no resolution.

On the other hand, if what you set out to write--and still want to write--is a fun romp through a post-apocalyptic environment with a happy ending, then write that. Nothing wrong with that. I know the Play Book says we're supposed to be all serious and realistic if we want to make "art," but I don't buy it. Shakespeare's comedies are masterworks in their own right and far from "realistic."

Or, how about parallel books? Ever read Milton's "Il Penseroso" and "L'allegro"? Or Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience"? Yours could be the novel form of that. Could be cool.

I am so glad you mentioned The Long Walk, as I loved that story, and I loved the ending. That bleak ending worked in context and can't see it ending any other way. Your ending can be bleak, if it's logical within the confines of your novel. There's no such thing as too dark, or too light, as long as it makes sense.

WriteMinded · Aug 3, 2013

Sad endings are one thing, but books where a bunch of people struggle for hundreds of pages and end up dead having accomplished nothing, make me feel that I, like the characters, have wasted my time. If you are going to kill all your characters, have them be the ones responsible for getting CA's grid up and running. Otherwise their deaths are meaningless and so is the book.

Just my two-pence.

Lycoplax · Aug 3, 2013

kingzilla said:
So my question is which of the three do you prefer? I prefer the darkest one slightly because I think it is the most realistic, but it is pretty brutal. I appreciate all the advice you give me. Thanks!

Your friend doesn't have to like it. If you like it, and it's fitting to the story, go ahead. There are plenty of readers, myself included, who like a dark and bleak story from time to time. The stories I write typically have a tragic lean to them, though I do tend to write my protags conquering their mountains in the end. On some occasion, I've been known to write something where nobody 'wins'.

Basically, there's a market for just about anything. Don't let one person's opinion stop you from writing the story the way you think it should be written.

Krelian · Aug 3, 2013

WriteMinded said:
Sad endings are one thing, but books where a bunch of people struggle for hundreds of pages and end up dead having accomplished nothing, make me feel that I, like the characters, have wasted my time. If you are going to kill all your characters, have them be the ones responsible for getting CA's grid up and running. Otherwise their deaths are meaningless and so is the book.

Just my two-pence.

I think that kind of depends on what peripheral meaning the characters had up to that point, or what the moral of the novel is. I think that philosophy is too black and white, but I suppose it's all up to taste.

How dark should I go?

Krelian

I set fires to feel joy...

WriteMinded

Derailed

Lycoplax

Krelian

I set fires to feel joy...