Always gotta make the story turn dark

[amortelito]

Dark turn? I'm going to subscribe immediately to your comics! That' my cup of tea! I do the opposite! I think of a dark, depressing and twisted idea and then I have to make it softer and funnier. My current comic literally has received at least 6 comments saying" that went too dar pretty quick" They didn't expect some violent scenes because the art looks so bright, colorful and I'm a super playful author. I really don't mean to mislead anyone I just love working with polar opposite emotions. Overall is easier for me to think of a horribly dark plot first and then make the family-friendly adjustments.

[ar-ninetysix]

I mean.. yeah, same. But my head is constantly in a dramatic angsty place when I write, so it's just easy for that to affect the tone of whatever I work on.

I think a big part of it stems from this idea that comedy can't have a complex over-arching storyline, because doing so can rip the humor out of it. Most jokes are generally meant to be short and quick. When's the last time you heard a lengthy joke and it had you burst out loud in laughter? Point is, that stuff is far and few. Drama's just inherently easier to gravitate towards as everyone can relate to just disagreeing with a person, which is the most basic form of drama, I think.

There's also the idea of escalation, the jokes slowly get funnier and funnier, but there's somewhat of a tolerance built to that safe humor. So what do you do? Make some dirty or offensive jokes, it's gone past safe and familiar. You can still run into problems even then as getting used to that offensive humor warps your view even further on "those types of jokes that aren't funny anymore" which leads to you making jokes that can lean heavier into that direction, in which case you gotta know your limits.

Either way. I'd say it's fine if your story gets darker as it goes on. As long as you can handle that writing part well enough before it reaches that point where people are like "this is just being edgy for the sake of being edgy." I remember this anime (Magical Girl Site) that came out this year to a mixed reception on the first episode alone because it got incredibly dark too quickly with it's themes of abuse, bullying, depression, rape, and suicide. There were some who got emotionally invested and then there were some who couldn't take it seriously at all for the same reasons.

So... yeah, apply that darkness in moderation, I'd say! Or not! It's your story, do what you want with it!

[A-weird-girler]

I mean yes and no. My story starts out lighthearted and trying to play out the tropes but it gets more serious as time progresses as planned but being a fairly new writer I'm concerned with pulling it off well. I don't know, it's just that I made all of them suffer so much as the story goes on and even in the backstory that I take a good look at myself and wonder if I'm overdoing it. Hell, I turned the core beliefs of the characters against them so many times, but I haven't drawn it yet so it stays there in my script until I CAN FINALLY MOVE ON PAST THE FIRST PART!
@amortelito UGHHH I KNOW THAT FEELING

[dawgofdawgness]

Yeah, heh.. Me too...
But isn't that kind of a good thing? If you're too nice to your character, your story gets boring. And if the stakes aren't high enough, people aren't gonna be as invested. Literally pound your character to the GROUND and people will be gripping their seats waiting for more lol

[Zhengo]

Yeah in a way that's part of the reason I prefer more drama-oriented stories, though I'm also quite a fan of "dramedy." I've heard of Magical Girl Site and checked it out out of curiosity yeah boy was that edgy XD

Coincidentally, since you mentioned it, part of the reason I started this thread was because that anime revived the memory of an old magical girl story idea I had a few years ago that was originally something like a comedic deconstruction of the genre (rather than the more serious tragic deconstructions we see these days), but back then even though it started out as a comedy it just went dark anyways. I actually want to work on the story again solely as a comedy but that's a far ways off either when I get faster at drawing so I can make 2 series at a time or I finish my current series.

[silverraven0]

Pretty much most of my story ideas was like this but with sone exception, tho. XD

I think it is pretty common, so you don't need to worry to much about it, I guess?

[storytimebiondi]

Maybe we are unconsciusly fans of drama/heavy moods.

I think its part of it! I think we just desire strong character conflict, and strive for human stories. At least, this is how I view it.
I find even my current comic suffers from this at times. I want it to be a light-hearted fantasy romp, but often I find myself throwing very real situations at my characters.
However, it's all in good balance. There can be darkness without the light, and vice versa. In essence, you only appreciate the light-hearted segments because you know that it has and will always be worse.

[Kann]

Pretty much. Cute and cheerful stories are nice, but I love making my characters suffer a little bit too much... XD

Character development and stuff are easy to achieve this way.

[baasinsimple]

I just write stories like that, tbh I'm a fan of that kind of thing. My current arc is relatively light with some dark foreshadowing, but when it comes out, the Second arc goes like full Chimera Ant arc from hunter x hunter quick, with a bit of less class of course, I can't match Togashi at all because I'm relatively new to writing.

[craftymarten]

I try to balance the dark themes out in between some lighter bits. If it's always depressing and your characters are always miserable I've found some stories are slog to get through and if you never see a character being happy you're less likely to root for them when bad things are happening I think.
With my comic I realised the themes were a bit too dark so I had to make my MC the kind of person who's in total denial and doesn't dwell on it. I've found it's one of the harder things to balance. It makes everything feel inconsequential if a character dies and a few pages later all the other characters seem fine but spending too much time on it sort of gets boring!

[Samuraiflame]

Amen. I like to punch my characters in the guts. I try to balance it if it's supposed to be a light-hearted story, so it usually gets resolved or the characters don't dwell on it for too long. I even made a meme about it when the darker moment(s) dropped in my comic.

[BobbyjoeX]

this thread is my life owo

[GesuGesu]

Y eah I understand that feeling. I usually write comedies but somehow angst and drama sneak in when I wasn't really planning on it to happen. Maybe because without it, there's less of a "conflict" for my characters to deal with if every day is bananas and pie. I don't mind when it happens, since ehhhhhhhhhhhhh things happen let's just roll with it.

[Penni]

I like to try to balance things. I think the darkness is important to develop characters. Plus, it makes things way more interesting!

[ar-ninetysix]

This video actually came up for me today while screwing around on Youtube lol I think it offers valuable insight for all of us as writers who tend to make things dark. I mentioned before that there's a right and wrong way of going about it, and let's be real.. no matter how subjective "right and wrong" can be, there are audiences that can go towards either side of reacting to the stories we write. To sum up the video in such a basic and blunt way, tragic stories live off of substance and reasoning, if you don't have either, there's bound to be some sort of a disconnect

[DiegoPalacios]

Darker stories can be great if properly executed, but there is a common mistake is important to avoid.

The mistake of not giving the audience a reason to care about the characters.

"Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy occurs when a conflict exists that simply lacks any reason for the audience to care about how it is resolved. This crops up where the setting is extremely but meaninglessly Darker and Edgier, or all sides are Evil vs. Evil, or at least, far enough gone that any difference is a Distinction Without a Difference.

In other words, there is nothing really at stake."

More details in this link with examples!

Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy - TV Tropes

[danitasibert]

I've always like dark themes as a young teenage something about them felt more like i was able to handle and understand them which made me felt more grown up.

The comic I'm currently working on Maximum Chaos will get dark for sure, its light heated now but i know that things will get crazy for the characters. I know for a fact that my second series Vampire Search its a drama so things are going to get messy regardless....

the more dark/mature themes was so addicting, i felt that if has influence my work and I've always like the idea of characters having problems/struggles in their lives. its makes the development of characters more rewarding in a good or bad way. depends on the story that creator wants to tell.things that make people uncomfortable interests me more so i be eager to real them, once i see the "M" symbol i instantly read. O_O

[spicy_sweets]

I have that problem. My main goal for my next work is to not have too much from stuff.

[AmysGames]

Yeah, I definitely have this problem lol. My friends call me "the Midas of Woobies" because everything I touch becomes sad eventually.

That said, I'm of the opinion that dark themes in stories should be handled carefully, and that they should make sense within the context of the story. As much fun as it can be to make our characters suffer, there comes a point where it just comes off as forced darkness for the sake of being dark, which isn't very appealing to me.

[Jenny-Toons]

I do work more with darker, serious stories. Though, I feel that's from me watching a lot of 1940s noir/crime films and 1980s horror/crime films. Adding that with reading a lot of Stephen King novels, I have a love for darker stories when it comes to character development.

Trying to understand how someone can react to a certain situation or how they can push through them. I'm a bit drawn to that psychological aspect, and I kinda try to add that into all of my stories. I write horror based in cosmic and psychological terrors, and I write thrillers based in gangsters and crime.

That said, I prefer watching and writing darker stories with emotional/heart-warming scenes and hope. There has to be a bit of hope to balance out that hopelessness. Even if the situation will end in tragedy, having a bit of hope to look forward to or at least implied is what I desire out of my darker stories.

An example I can pull is Carrie from Stephen King (the novel, not the movies XD). Even though Carrie had been ostracized and abused for her personality and abilities, ending in her ultimate death, there was something to come out of it. More people became aware of people like Carrie, and it was definitely hinted that a little girl had the same powers like her; only difference was that her mother accepted those powers, assuming it had bee passed down from her grandmother.

Even though that novel had been dark and unjust to Carrie, knowing people were beginning to understand people with powers like hers gave me hope that someone else wouldn't suffer the same fate.

Those are the darker stories I prefer, and the ones I hope to replicate in some fashion.