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Maybe this place isn't necessary, and people have said all that needs to be said in reviews. Or maybe not. Need to say something more? Here's a chance...

There are going to be times, every now and again...when the written content of your stories may take a very dark turn, or veer off into situations that are somewhat uncomfortable for other readers to absorb as readily as they do some of your 'brighter' themes. This can be an intimidating atmosphere for you to thrive in. The gritty realities and graphic nature of the story that you want to tell may be too much for some of your readers to handle or understand. But, while there is the temptation to avoid darker themes and controversial material at all costs, especially with the sheer brutality of the typical ′internet comment section′ working against you...I say GO for it anyway! They′ll get over it. The people who pretend to be the most offended by the story you wrote have NO problem ripping the author to shreds with their opinions. So you might as well balance things out by treating them the same way when you′re writing what′s in your heart. Hehehe, that being said, there are ways to tell a ′heavy′ tale without having it totally wreck the lives of the people absorbing it for the first time. Still, there are some stories with sensitive, and sometimes disturbing, details that deserve to be told. Whether your reading public is ready for it or not isn′t your concern. They have the option to stop reading. Period. But, as a writer, you have the right to bleed through your words and tell your story any way that you see fit. You just have to find a way to keep things ′accessible′ so at least some of your audience can latch onto it, and appreciate it for what it is. That′s the topic that I′m going to tackle today. So let′s get DARK! The thing about many of these darker themed stories you may read online...is that they often come from a very personal place in the heart of the writer. It′s not always an author trying to be dark for the sake of being dark. Sometimes, it′s a much needed healing process, translated into fiction and created to convey some kind of message or express some sort of personal tragedy. Stories of loss, heartbreak, suicide, rape, physical or emotional abuse...they can be extremely hard to digest for some readers. And if they take it too close to heart, they may end up turning away from the project instead of dealing with the turmoil the story is putting them through. That′s understandable. But if this is a story that you really want to tell, something you really want to put out there for public consumption, then do it. Why not? Get it off of your chest. Share it with other people who might relate and feel even closer to the work than you do. You may touch something deep within them that they haven′t fully dealt with themselves. So every paragraph may end up being a therapy session for the both of you. Again, these stories are often very personal in nature. You′ll never find a more exposed artist than one who is delivering you an unrestricted look at their pain. There′s a rawness in it. Strip every piece of armor away and speak from the heart. It connects to an audience in a way that your ′happy go lucky′ romance stories just can′t. So, if you′ve been holding off on giving a dark themed story a try...maybe you′ll change your mind and step up to the plate after you finish this article. Hehehe, I′d love to read it! But, then again, I happen to be a very dark individual, myself, at times. So that′s just me. There are a lot of readers out there who use fiction as an escape from the problems and stressful impact of the world at large. They may be looking for something cheerful, or uplifting, or inspirational. But that may not be the kind of story that you want to tell. And that can shake a percentage of your audience out of their comfort zone in ways that they weren′t looking for and don′t appreciate in the long run. When it came to some very painful memories about my own past, and I felt the need to talk about it and add them to one or two of the stories that I was writing for the site...I had some difficulty with it at first. I dealt with some extremely abusive memories growing up in a household with a father that was...ummm, less than fatherly. I remember adding ′elements′ of that abusive relationship in a few stories, but I clearly wasn′t ready to tackle that situation yet. Especially when I added it (Briefly) to ″New Kid In School″. If you notice, that plot point was rather quickly written out of the story, and never brought up again. I simply wasn′t practiced enough to take the theme head on like I wanted to. Not at that time. In ″Gone From Daylight″, I tried to do the same, but it was a side story until I was more comfortable talking about it. However...when the time came where I really wanted to tell a ′no holds barred′ account from my personal experience with physical domestic abuse...I started writing ″My Only Escape″, and that was the right time for me to do so. That was my release. A lot of that story is autobiographical, and I still have moments where I have to deal with the aftermath of what happened way back then, even when I would rather leave it behind for good. But it was a story that I felt was dying to get out, and since it′s first chapter, I have received sooooo many emails from people who could relate in one way or another. Emails of support, and sympathy, and encouragement, as well as messages of people who had gone through similar experiences (Or who were younger, and experiencing them currently). I have NO regrets, whatsoever, about finally writing that story, and waiting for a time when I was emotionally stable enough to get it right. If you have a painful part of your past that you want to bring to the screen, and tell from a perspective that only others in your position can truly understand...then don′t wait. Do it. Pour your whole heart and soul into it. Let your voice be heard, and know that your writing had an impact on your readers that they′ll remember. Good or bad. Three things to remember when writing a story that may come off as a bit disturbing to your readers, are as follows... Give it meaning! If you′re going to sink into some truly dark themes and bring that into your story, make sure that you′re doing it for a legitimate reason. NOT for shock value. Shock value doesn′t last long, and will ultimately just become a part of your story that people would rather forget about instead of taking it to heart. If you′re going to have a rape scene, or a drug overdose...a suicide attempt, or someone battling terminal cancer...then I think writers should make sure that it is actually a part of the main character′s growth and evolution as a person. Don′t just throw it in there as some kind of sucker punch to your audience. That′s just plain MEAN! Hehehe! If a character of yours has recently beaten Leukemia? Then have that be a part of his or her personality. What outlook do they have on life now? Maybe they′re super excited to get back to living their lives. Maybe they′re angry at the time they lost battling the disease. Who knows? That′s up to you. But let it be known that the dark circumstances of the story had some meaning, and some impact on how the rest of the story plays out. Don′t go overboard! Scenes of extreme violence and sexual abuse are hard to read. If it′s a part of your story, and you don′t want to pull punches about the reality of what happened…then use your own judgment when it comes to what you say and what you don′t say. I′m not saying that you shouldn′t include some of the graphic details needed to get your point across...but keep in mind what your goal is. You don′t want to depress and disgust your audience. Evoking sympathy and an emotional bond, capable of getting your readership to cheer for your main character is great! But let′s not drag our readers down so low that they can′t recover. Learn to ′allude′ to certain parts of your story, and go into painful details about others. As always, its important to find a balance. Don′t ′bully′ your audience into sharing a truly disgusting experience in a way that overpowers every other aspect of the story that you′re trying to tell. I think it′s important to not let the dark content take center stage, when it′s the characters and how they deal with the content that should be the focus of your story. Give us hope! No matter how horrible a character′s life may seem, no matter how graphic you are with the details of their suffering...readers will struggle through it if they think there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Give us a few brief glimpses of joy. A possible solution to the tragedies they′re facing from chapter to chapter. If all you′re bringing to the table kis pain and murder and rape and misery...your audience will eventually get turned off and go elsewhere for a story that doesn′t make them feel like shit every time they read it. BUT...if you dispense some truly awful scenes here and there, but combine them with possible ways out of their situation...opportunities to experience some level of happiness if only they could get away...then people will keep reading. They may be disturbed and disgusted by the events that are currently taking place...but with just a few hints at a hopeful outcome, they will continue to read to see if things get better or that justice is served for the character involved. Be proud of that. It means that you told a great story and that people sympathize with your situations, no matter how dark they may be. This doesn′t mean that every story has to have a happy ending. It just means that you have to give your readers a break from the misery every now and then, to let them believe that things are not as dark as they may seem. At least for a little while. Think of it the same way as swimming underwater. Let your readers come up to the surface for a breath of fresh air every now and then before they drown. K? The world isn′t always a happy place. Not by any means. And the stories of the abused, the less fortunate, and those in turmoil, are just as important as the uplifting stories that are told elsewhere. But there′s a skillful way to deliver that message without sending your audience running for the hills. As always, I hope this helps you out! And I′ll be back soon for more! ((Hugz))

This is quite out of left field for me, but I've recently started up a new story named "Tuct Side", a dark mystery / romance. Feel free to come over here and converse, ask questions, or speculate if the comment section isn't a big enough place for your thoughts.

For 14 year old Jon, the best thing about his friend Patrick is his good-looking older brother, Spencer. It’s just a crush, after all – what harm could come from wanting to spend a little more time with Spencer? But when Jon’s crush grows from love into obsession, all the usual boundaries become blurred – and he becomes willing to risk everything to get what he wants. Check my latest Blog entry for more info.

What if the one you love, who doesn't know you existed, is in danger? How far will you go to protect him? There are some things in this universe best kept secret and away from the curious hands of humanity. Alfred's tale is just among the unfortunate ones that exist out there. The Servant This is a one-shot story, but I hope it pleases your palate. Enjoy...

I've started on a new story, and I want to know if anybody else thinks it's worth continuing. It's a bit dark (understatement), but it's more about overcoming problems than wallowing in them, so it's uplifting too. I don't have a name for it yet, so if you think of a good one please share XD Just to clarify, no underage readers please! I'll censor the curse words for this post, but it'll still mention touchy subjects. OK, I'll start off with the description. ______________________________ In my world, where everybody can transform into animals and teenagers are thrown into the unknown to fend for themselves, some rise but most fall. There is no guarantee of safety, or even survival. In my world, how can I hope to survive, let alone retain my humanity? Can trust grow in a world where a childhood friend would stab me in the back for a chance at a dollar? Is kindness even worth the risk? In my world, those are dangerous questions. ___________________________ Too dramatic? I'm wavering on keeping this lol. Oh well. Here's the prologue: ______________________________ My name is Hayden. I was sixteen when I was banished by the town I’d always lived in with my family. OK, that sounded pretty dramatic. It’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s a tradition to banish people when they turn sixteen, and they’re not allowed to come back until they’re twenty and have found their animal. It’s called the Hunt, and it’s supposed to be the best part of a person’s life. It’s like a break from normality, and we’re supposed to treat it like a vacation. You can go adventuring and have all the fun you want, all paid for by your parents. It teaches kids the skills they’ll need to be adults, like money management, responsibility, people skills, you know what I mean. It also lets them get all the crazy out of their systems, so when they go back to their homes they’re ready to settle down. It sounds good, right? Wrong. It probably all worked well for a little while, back when it started, but some particularly creative *censored* decided that he’d form a gang and hunt down people who are freshly on their Hunt. As soon as you leave your town, carrying all the money you need to supply you for the next four years, they find you and rob you. You’re left with nothing, and you can’t go back to your home, where most people have spent their entire lives. What do you do when you’re alone in an unfamiliar world with no money? You find a job. Of course, since there’s thousands of other people in situations just like yours, there’s a high supply of workers with a low demand for them, and you end up getting paid next to nothing, if you’re lucky enough to even find a job. If you can’t find one, then your only hope is to join up with a gang just like the one that robbed you, and continue the tradition of being a douche. Because of how some people have done that, now any travelling teenagers are treated with distrust, and people are reluctant to offer jobs, making the influx of robbers even worse. It’s a vicious cycle that’s resulted in your Hunt being a race for survival. Occasionally, groups will assemble and chase off all the robbers, but all it takes is one person who’s already found their animal to start the cycle over again. As a teenager, all on your own for the first time, who would try to fight someone who can shape-shift into an animal? Me, that’s who. I was one of the few idiots who try to resist, and I got beaten savagely for my troubles. I had the misfortune of being robbed by a Jaguar, so I had no chance at all. A Jaguar is someone whose animal is a jaguar, predictably. You’d think that would get confusing, but it’s all in how you pronounce it. When we say ‘Jaguar’, you can hear the capital ‘J’. So the same sentence can have two different meanings, depending on how you stress one syllable. “There’s a bear on our porch,” would be met with “Oh *censored*, where’s the Shaman?” While “There’s a Bear on our porch,” would be followed by “Oh, hello, John!” It’s a simple system, but it works. Unlike the system of the Hunt, of course, to get back on topic. After the Jaguar beat the living shit out of me, leaving me bloody, broken, and broke, I thought about my options. I had a snowman’s chance in hell of ever finding a job while injured, and I’d never be able to afford healing if I couldn’t get a job. I won’t lie and say I never considered trying to rob someone else, but I didn’t consider it for long. I refused to be a part of that, and I still do. Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t make me a pacifist. Not by a long shot. I ended up following the Jaguar, and that night, I killed him while he slept and took my money back. See what I mean? Not a pacifist. I couldn’t have gotten away with just stealing it back, so he had to die. It was him or me, and he’d robbed me and beaten me already. I considered myself lucky that he hadn’t raped me, too. Anyway, when I got the money back, I went into a town. I had to spend most of the money on professional healing, but I managed to save a little bit, and I’ve protected it since, using a mix of good hiding places, excellent lying, and blending in with all the other penniless refugees. You’d think that eventually, somebody somewhere would have the bright idea of stopping the tradition that resulted in many people being killed or maimed, but the idea has never taken hold. We’re a violent people, and the Hunt is such a huge part of our culture that I can’t see it stopping anytime soon. It’s brutal, but it does weed out the weak links. Survival of the fittest and such. Generally, if you want to live to give your own children advice about their Hunt, you have to be either smart, strong, or lucky. I’m a modest person, but above that I’m practical. Modesty is a luxury I can’t afford right now. I have to be honest with myself to survive. Keeping that in mind, I’m smarter than most other people, and I’m fairly strong. I’m almost six feet tall, and if I ever had any fat on me it’s been worn away by the last six months. My muscles are defined, and I’m careful to eat just enough to keep them that way. There’s a fine line between being too weak to defend myself and looking well fed, which is like putting an “I have money” sign on. You’d think that being smart, strong, and practical is enough, but I have plenty of disadvantages as well. I’m good looking, for one, so I’m more memorable and I’m more likely to be raped. My luck, for another. Sometimes, it seems like my luck alone is determined to negate every advantage I’m lucky enough to have. If a road forks, I’ll always pick the path with the bear traps all along it. That’s not just me being pessimistic. That’s me being realistic. I’ve been Hunting for six months now, and I’ve encountered as much danger as some people see in their whole four years. Of course, some of it I bring on myself, like trying to resist when I was mugged, but there’s only so much I can tolerate. I won’t let the Hunt beat me down. After four years have passed, I still want to be someone I can respect. To make sure that happens, I made rules for myself before I ever started my Hunt, and they’ve kept me sane. It doesn’t matter what life throws at me, I will not break those rules. They’re my fundamental beliefs, and they keep me away from what most people do in their Hunts. If I break one of these rules then life will have broken me, and I’ll die before I let that happen. My rules are simple. I will not harm innocents. I will not join a gang. I will not rape anyone, ever. As you can see, non-innocents have almost no moral protection from me. If I need money to survive, I’ll rob a robber. To save an innocent, I’d kill a murderer. Hell, I have killed murderers, and for less reason. Of course, the ones I really hate are the gang members. They’re the cause of everything bad about the Hunt, and I’d happily kill one just for being what they are, if I could get away with it. I’m not a saint. I’m a survivor. One less gang member living is one less to deal with later. Now that you know more about me, I’ll explain my current situation. I’ve managed to keep most of the money I had left from healing, so I have twenty-seven dollars. That’s not much, but it’s more than most other people have, so I need to be even more careful. If I didn’t have it, then getting stopped by gang members would mean I’d probably only be raped, and I’d have a decent chance at getting away with my life. Since I do have it, if I’m caught by a gang, I’ll probably be mugged, raped, and killed. They’d assume I was a rival gang member, because who else would have that kind of money? I’ve thought about hiding it somewhere and only using it when I need it, but staying in one area would be pointless, since I need to be searching for my animal. Also, if people start to remember me, they might notice that I’m not getting malnourished. I can pull off the ‘penniless refugee’ disguise if I keep moving, because I look like I just started my Hunt and only recently lost all my money, but if people notice that I’m not getting any hungrier they’ll realize I have money. Because of that, I don’t stick around anywhere, but I always check all the animals in the area before I leave. I’ve checked almost all the usual animals already, but I haven’t found mine. When I do, I’ll supposedly feel a connection to it. The animals will recognize that I’m a kindred spirit, and they won’t attack me, so I’ll just have to live with them, as they do, until I’ve unlocked all my powers. It sounds easy, but I’ve already checked all the forest creatures, all the desert creatures, and I’m travelling through the forest to the tundra now, trying to find all the animals. Hopefully mine will be somewhere around here, and hopefully it’ll be something useful. I’ve seen too many cases of people who’ve found their animal, only to have it be a squirrel or something. The ability to climb faster is cool, but trying to survive the rest of their Hunt would suck. I’m currently looking for a snow leopard, because that would be a really good animal to be. The resistance to cold would mean I could live in freezing places where most other people couldn’t go, and it would be really good for fighting off any robbers who found me anyway. Oh well. I can’t allow myself to imagine it past listing the advantages and disadvantages, because that will lead to hope, and hope ends in disappointment. I have to be realistic to survive. I’ll have time for hope when I’m safe in my village again. Until then, I can’t be human. Humans let emotions cloud their judgment. I have to be a machine, emotionless but infallible. That’s why I have my rules. I can’t have morals, so I have to maintain a set of rules instead. I won’t break those rules, and I will survive. I hope. ______________________________ So yeah. Chapter one is an average day for Hayden, and then it switches to Matt's perspective (I'm using this story to work on writing different personalities and views, so there'll be plenty of different perspectives) and you learn a bit about him, and how he thinks. I'll add in more characters as the story goes, because I want to practice writing supporting characters, and I'm not going to be shy about killing them off, too. I'm not going to turn into George RR Martin or anything, but I'm definitely experimenting with the whole 'main characters aren't necessarily safe' idea. My other stories so far have been pretty lighthearted, so I'm looking forward to writing a darker, more real story. That's not to say there won't be happy moments, though. I'm a sucker for romance, and I couldn't keep love out of my stories if I tried. To explain more about the magic system (I kept it vague in the prologue and in what I've written of chapter one so far), everybody has an animal. They can transform fully into this animal, but even in human form they still have some of the animal's traits. For example, a Chameleon would be able to camouflage themselves as a human, a Bear would be stronger than they look, any aquatic Animals could breathe underwater, etc. Later in the story, Shamans will play a bigger role, and they'll have a magic of their own, more in line with what you'd expect when I say 'magic' XD. I'll stop now, before I give away too much. I can't wait to see what you guys think!