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Do you omit certain "negative" aspects in your writing so it will appeal to a wider audience?

I'm starting to think I should tone down some of the "darkness" in my stories. My current works include so much violence, and characters who seem truly evil. While my genre is dystopia, I feel I may be going too far.

I do tend to make sure my characters and worlds need to feel enjoyable to read. With too much darkness, you run the risk of an audience becoming apathetic and not feeling like finishing the work. However, don't let this take away the feel of the work. You can make it enjoyable without draining the spirit from it with simple things like: A redeeming quality or moral support, an interesting facet of the world being explored, just anything to distract from overwhelming darkness.

I hope this helped!

Drakka Reader wrote: ↑01 Mar 2020, 00:16 I do tend to make sure my characters and worlds need to feel enjoyable to read. With too much darkness, you run the risk of an audience becoming apathetic and not feeling like finishing the work. However, don't let this take away the feel of the work. You can make it enjoyable without draining the spirit from it with simple things like: A redeeming quality or moral support, an interesting facet of the world being explored, just anything to distract from overwhelming darkness.

I hope this helped!

Yes, this is helpful. Every character has a least a few redeeming qualities, surely. I think I should fashion my main characters with less of a hard contrast between pure good and pure evil. Thank you for your input!

If you look at some artistic expressions from the past, you will find comments like, "the audience wasn't ready for that, yet," or "it would have been better recieved if it came out at a different time." You need to compromise, because who are you writing for? The masses, a niche or yourself? Sometimes creating something unfiltered can create surprising positive results, but sometimes it's all about timing.

Amanda Majors wrote: ↑06 Mar 2020, 14:34 If you look at some artistic expressions from the past, you will find comments like, "the audience wasn't ready for that, yet," or "it would have been better recieved if it came out at a different time." You need to compromise, because who are you writing for? The masses, a niche or yourself? Sometimes creating something unfiltered can create surprising positive results, but sometimes it's all about timing.

I'm not writing for the masses, or a niche audience, but somewhere in between.
I certainly don't want only to write for myself. Then it would simply be therapy!

I think part of my problem may be my presentation of female antagonists. I don't think people are willing to admit that womyn are capable of the same evils as men. However, I don't think this is necessarily a "timeliness" issue.

Some favor writing as process. For me, communication is key to writing.

Thank you for your input!

I would think that having contrast is important and could help the readers not get too depressed or grosses out. With some contrast they will stay interested

davidvan1973 wrote: ↑06 Mar 2020, 19:25 I would think that having contrast is important and could help the readers not get too depressed or grosses out. With some contrast they will stay interested

Yes, contrast is a good idea. Keeping in mind not to make them overly "black and white."

I'm not a fiction writer, but it seems to me that you are far enough into your writing where you should determine why you are writing. Not writing for the masses frees you up quite a bit because you don't have to write it so everyone understands. However, not writing for a niche might mean that you have to be more descriptive of things that only people in the niche will understand. So there, you might have to compromise if you want to be totally understood. What is your point or goal? You wrote that it isn't simply therapeutic. Is it for entertainment? An attempt to describe what you or others fear, to describe or speak upon what you feel is eminent that others are not seeing? For the sake of telling the story? If so, to what purpose? If you are writing to entertain, then perhaps being so graphic is fine and you are second-guessing yourself. If you have an underlying argument or point to make, as you wrote regarding women being as evil as men, then are you getting caught up in how to go about describing these women in a fashion that others will understand? That last sentence did and did not make sense. In a way, you would be working against the grain, so-to-speak, or swimming upstream because you recognize that others might not fully understand how awful these characters are. Maybe using more negative or harsher terminology when defining the women and toning it down with the men would help? If that even is the problem. It would tone down the book, but even out the males and females. Or, using analogies that highlight the characteristics you want noticed. Whatever you're writing, it sounds scary. I've read mostly classics in my lifetime and classical writing is generally so friggin' pretty, that one has a hard time finding the bad, in a way. One has to look for it. I hope I haven't merely answered your question with more questions for you!?

I'm glad you bring up the "D" word for this topic, as I think that's a big part of what "acceptance by commission" concerns.

As a writer of dark topics, particularly as darkness pertains to human nature, I love to explore the psychological addiction to power, dominance, deviation, and these interests often lead to scenes that go (or want to go) way to far for a broad audience. I've learned to adjust my level of darkness from story to story, based on what I seek to accomplish in a particular story.

I like to give my stories a wide appeal, but I also like to ensure my readers understand that, in my stories, anything can happen.