fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2992 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2992 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

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02.

[Grand Theft Auto 5]

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03.

[Zipang]

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04.

[Ricky Gervais]

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05.

[Tokyo Babylon/X1999]

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06.

[Dexter]

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07.

[The Mentalist]

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08.

[The Truth - Terry Pratchett]

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09.

[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]

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10.

[Douglas Adams]

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11.

[Black Books]

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12.

[Lucky Star]

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13.

[Edward Petherbridge as Lord Peter Wimsey]

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14.

[Ga-In, Brown Eyed Girls]

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15.

[Oz the Great and Powerful]

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16.

[Colin Baker]

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17.

[9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors]

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18.

[Yatterman Night]

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19.

[Johnny the Homicidal Maniac]

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20.

[Blake's 7]

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21.

[Game Grumps]

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22.

[Alexis Denisof]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 07 pages, 170 secrets from Secret Submission Post #428.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Like I am writing a vampire story. I want it to be bloody and scary but I feel like I am restricting myself because I don't want people to go, "Holy hell, what is wrong with this author?" while reading it. Because I want it to have one foot in reality too. Like this is what it would be like if vampires were real. This is how they would live searching for blood. How desperate they would be and what they would do in that desperation.

Can you do that? Write a horror story that is too out there? Have you ever questioned the sanity of an author?

Eh, if Nabokov got away with writing Lolita...

true...

AYRT - Oh, and that wasn't as sarcastic as it sounded. Just pointing out that writers have gone really, REALLY dark places before.

I've seen some pretty dark horror, yeah. I think you can find a publisher.

I think as long as you acknowledge that the reasonable reaction to whatever action your vampires take would be to go "dude that's fucked up," you'd be in the clear. The only time I've ever side-eyed an author was when they were presenting a clearly dysfunctional relationship as not only normal but not even worth commenting about--I started wondering what the hell happened to make them think that was how a familial relationship should go.

Not exactly, but I think the issue with too much blood and gore is that the reader ceases to care after a while. I think a prime example of a book series that fell into this trap is Paul Cornell's "London Falling". I love dark urban fantasy, but so many awful things kept happening to the protagonists that I no longer gave a damn by the end of the second book. I've lost all emotional investment I might've had.

Don't try to top yourself. Don't write awful things for the sake of writing awful things. Write them because they make sense plot-wise, and then you'll be OK. Most classic horror is inherently a little OTT, after all.

I am fine with that sort of thing as a reader but I occasionally worry about the same thing as a writer.

I think it's a concern in theory, but practically, it's just so difficult to actually push things to that point that I wouldn't worry about it.

Don't restrict yourself. Let yourself go. You can always edit it later, but you'll write far better if you go with what feels truthful.

I've written some things that I look back at and question my own sanity tbh

Most of the time, I don't think the content you find in a story is a problem. The problem comes with how that's presented. If your vampires do something horrible, and it's believable that they'd do that, but you write about it tastefully, you'll probably be okay. If you go on for pages about how horrible but oddly spellbinding it is . . .

I probably don't even need to mention this, but I also dropped Thomas Disch because it seemed like he was having horrible things happen just because he wanted them to happen, without any concern for logic or character consistency.

So far none of that sounds too "out there". Guillermo del Toro co-wrote a vampire series where vampires are monsters who spray liquid ammonia shit, so... yeah, don't think you need to worry.

(anon from above, hit post too soon)

I think what matters is that you write a good story. The reason why going full out on blood and gore can backfire isn't always because people are freaked out by blood and gore but because too much usually means other aspects of the work suffer. So all you're left with is the audience who doesn't care about characters or plot, they just want blood splatters and ickiness... and frankly, those people are probably more likely to see a movie than read a book about it.

If the writing is compelling enough, that's all that matters.

[ SECRET POST #2992 ]

can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?

Re: can you write a horror story that is too out there....?