You ever just wanna go fully unhinged with your story?

[Freemints30]

brah, aaaalll the time. But I want to start with something simple to get people engaged befor going insane. Frequency Overload is just small town kids looking into urban legend mystery before it gets to what I really want to do. With monsters and people on Tv mind controlling and ...other things.

Same with my novel though it starts somewhat quirky in the sense the world is weird but with a seemly normal person with a normal job before going 100% off the rails into insanity and messed up stuff.

Me taking my stories of the tracks an into the ocean is my bread and butter

[impossiblesoul]

Is it insulting to the readers' intelligence to refrain from going big brain?

It's not insulting because the bulk of people won't realize you're patronizing them. That's the irony.

If you want to appeal to as many as possible though, you could write a story that hits both the lowest common denominator as well as the higher ones. By that I mean, you'd develop an exciting plot that anyone can follow but with symbolism or concepts that only big brains care enough to explore. An example would be Attack on Titan. Less big brained people: "WOAH! DUDE JUST GOT EATEN. WHO'S GONNA DIE NEXT??" Bigger brained people: argues endlessly in wall-of-text paragraphs in comment sections over the ethics of the story/characters

Personally, I'm starting to wonder if I should've been less blunt with how I feel regarding my own writing but I'm already too far in and committed to stop.

[aqua03]

a big evil cyborg samurai who breathes in raspy breaths

A big evil cyborg samurai based off of a Shotaro Ishinomori tokusatsu show no less!

[rajillustration]

I love bonkers ass stories--ones with Kojima level of weird layers going on--and I totally want to get good enough to write one that is still coherent at the end. One of the biggest problems with comics is making it all......coherent. Making all the panels work in conjunction is hard enough when the plot is simple (because the whole concept of comics is really abstract, when you think about it), but then when it's a plot going four different directions--it's so easy to drop everything. It's a lot of fun but I haven't managed to make my bonkers stuff come together yet (although it's hella fun and cathartic for me to make). When I do I'll let you know, haha.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

When I saw nobody reads it, then I thought "I have nothing to lose."

[Jenny-Toons]

@darthmongoose kinda hit it on the head: long as it's relatable to some degree, people will be drawn to that unhinged appeal.

But more importantly -- the best unhinged stuff I've read always had faith that I understood what went down and the weight of it. AKA -- don't assume your readers (and potential readers) are stupid and won't get the message.

I do cosmic horror romance -- I let loose every update: and yet it's still relatable. People like the weight of Brenda & "Christina"'s relationship, and there is still that message of "loving someone with their differences". They've found love despite the horror and dangers, and the unhinged scenes, combined with the love, makes it work.

Unhinged without substance and context is non-sequitur. Unhinged with meaning pulls people in.

[thedude3445]

I love going completely off the rails. Like the way an Ed Edd and Eddy episode will just veer off into a completely new plot halfway through, but for an entire novel.

[Siromany]

Being unhinged is like, a core concept of the comic I make. It deals with both a dream world and the character's own perceptions of things, as he feels things in extremes. It's also a comic with body horror in it which is a lot of fun to do!!! I'm very much someone who leans in heavily with symbolism, as I really love it in things I read.

Also I do feel that content like this isn't like, widespread friendly just because it's not for everyone. It's not wrong that not everyone is into weird stuff, but content that's easier to grasp right out of the gate will be noticed a lot more. Especially when a lot of more unhinged content gets dismissed with the whole "oh man what drugs was this person on?" sort of thing. There's a lot of effort behind weird content. People who do appreciate it will be pretty loyal, but it can be hard to market it to everyone. We've all been there for that "the door is red for x reason" vs the "the door is red because it's red" It really just comes down the audience itself. I'm sticking with the concepts I have, and if someone isn't into reading that, they don't have to.

[indagold]

mfw all my work is essentially that. I had to tone it down for it to be normie enough.

[Legendofgenii]

My antagonist controls and manipulates my protagonist’s soul. Things are gonna get weird.

[N1ghtm4r3]

i kinda want to sometimes, just do like how till lindmann(lead singer of rammstien) and rammstien do , they just do something and for the most part dont care about the haters or people who are offended by so on

[Azifri]

Going unhinged is an important part of my current comic, one I'm afraid may confuse readers because it's a combination of hard sci-fi and weird trips into the minds of some of the characters

[Tanako]

does this mean throwing random plot into your work? because I'm trying to understand this thread LOL

[domisotto]

@darthmongoose said what I was thinking.

Part of writing is making sure that nothing stands in the way of delivering a gripping story with vibrant characters. That includes all the writing excesses that please the writer, but loses the audience. Excessively pretty language, 20 page dream sequence with obscure symbolism, etc, everything you yourself would skim through 2 years down the road.

[monotone_ink]

I already am

[Feathermage]

I put some fun dream sequences in my comic, don't let your dreams be.... dreams unless your dreams are to have comic dreams?

[Kiweevil]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[NickRowler]

I'm a huge fan of stories that just go hecking balls to the walls insane. Trippy dream sequences, Kingdom Hearts level ridiculousness, obscure symbolism, the whole nine yards.

Trippy dream sequences is sort of a common in my work. People tell me my stuff is already really random and weird. I don't know how people would react if I went 100%. I don't know if anyone would even what to read that. I have been accused by people of "being on drugs". No I'm not, I'm just weird.

Is it because the authors prefer simpler stories or because they're holding back?

I think because from a reader's standpoint these stories can get really frustrating. Sometimes these types of stories can come off as pseudo intellectual, where they think they are deep but they are mostly just navel gazing.

[WoollyPAR]

AAA YES! I wanna get wacky! Real strange! Shit straight from the deepest reaches of my brain! I want stuff to happen that barely makes any sense at all! I want to draw all the weird stuff I can think of!

It's not necessary for a story to be completely cohesive to be enjoyable, but it may be hard for people to get into it if it's not. So you might need to start out simple, and gradually pull your audience into the bizarre story you had in mind. It really depends on what's most important to you when making a story, the audience, or the story you wanna tell.

But if you want to get weird with your story and experiment, I say go for it! All that matters is that you remember what's important to you and you're sure to get readers who genuinely like what you do.

[erintesden]

You are making me remind my edgy period when I was a teen, I liked violent and "mature" stuff, so all my ideas for stories included some kind of end up the world scenario, or a fight with an all-mighty eldritch abomination, or the main characters dying on an heroic sacrifice. Really few fully happy endings, and I love happy endings.