One of the things that stifled my development as a younger author came in the form of encouragement from my friends and family. When I would create something that wasn’t immediately uplifting or pretty, they would look at me and say, “Oh Ben, that’s dark.”
What they were telling me was that something that is not bright or motivational is not as valuable as something that is dark and sad. The problem was not with them saying that, but within me—I believed them.
I can summarize the value of darkness in one sentence: darkness gives our hero something to fight against.
I am not advocating darkness for darkness sake. There are more than enough horror stories in the world that lack any point, as far as I can see . . . unless systematically making the leading female’s outfit more revealing counts as a point.
The beauty of fantasy to me is the opportunity it gives us to fall in love with a hero and see them defeat darkness.
Harry Potter’s conflicts felt weak. Rowling seemed reluctant to allow Voldemort to be as evil as he needed to be. On the other hand, in an equally PG story, Avatar, The Last Airbender (the epic TV show, not the appalling movie), Fire Lord Ozai is a terrifying villain. He did not need to eviscerate his enemies on screen for us to understand what Aang (our hero) is up against.
Ozai burned his son, Zuko’s, face to teach him a lesson. Zuko’s disfiguring scars are a constant reminder of the callousness and evil of Ozai. Knowing, but never actually seeing, that Ozai is willing to exert his power in such an abhorrent way is much more powerful than watching Voldemort’s snake eat someone. That is why Aang’s victory over a better defined darkness was more satisfying to me than Harry’s victory.
If you have a story that has sadness, misery, suffering, and evil in it, then that’s okay. Some stories do not have a hero, and sometimes the heroes lose. The importance of dark tales with dark endings has a different kind of value and should be covered as a different topic.
Own the darkness, ignore those that tell you to write about nothing but roses. If you remember to keep the ending hopeful, then your hero’s victory will be that much more poignant.
Ben Ireland (one of our youngest X authors) hails from Australia but currently lives in the US with his wife and three children. His short story, “Kissed a Snake” will make its dark and disturbing debut in our Mind Games anthology, slated for release July 31, 2013.
