The Pen & The Sword: A Discussion Book

Trope Breakers #34|A Pen & Sword Article

    So, something not many people probably know about me is that I adore DC comics stories and characters. The bat-family contains some of my favorite. It is for that reason I have a love-hate relationship with the DC live-action show Titans. The show is essentially a grim dark version of the Teen Titans. The main problem with the show—arguably the single and most pervasive flaw of the show—is its insistence on applying a grim dark filter over every aspect of the show in the name of "realism". I have read many books which suffer from the same problem, in which the author focuses on superficial ways to make the story feel more grown up and mature. When trying to determine if my book belongs in YA or Adult, something that stood out to me is how often surface-level details were the main factor, and how some authors might be pressured to change elements of their story to better fit certain aspects of the marketing category. For adult novels, the general consensus was that graphic sex, horrific violence, and foul language distinguished it from adult. Additionally, YA books were supposed to have some degree of romance. Those parts of an adult novel fit into the grim dark realism problem—the trope I will be discussing in this article.

    Essentially, grim dark is usually used to describe when a story is dark and depressing in the name of realism. A common connotation for grim dark is that it involves characters being needlessly horrible and that it is hopeless for no reason. Once again, Titans is a fantastic example of this problem. There is maybe one or two characters in the large ensemble cast whom I would say are actually sympathetic, interesting, or redeemable. Now, it's fine to have scummy characters, but they need to have something that endears them to readers/viewers. Game of Thrones, for example, is renowned for making characters like Cersei really sympathetic, to the point that some people wanted her to win or at least not die. Breaking Bad and the Sopranos (and even the Netflix adaption of The Haunting of Hill House) similarly included characters who did bad things but whom were adored by fans. Similarly, some great pieces of fiction were entirely hopeless. George Orwell's 1984 doesn't end on a particularly hopeful note, at least, to my recollection. But grim dark stories specifically seems to irritate people more than other media with similar characteristics.

    I think there are three defining reasons why grim dark has come to be kind of despised as a trope with a lot of people and how each of those flaws can be "broken". I'll be using examples, but I won't include any spoilers for the stories I discuss

    The first flaw with conflating grim dark with realism is characterization. I just touched on it above, but most stories are propelled by a character whom is at least somewhat redeemable and somewhat sympathetic. Readers need to have someone to latch onto; even an intentionally horrible person should have something compelling about them. Grim dark has a tendency not to do this in the name of "realism". The take on Superman in Man of Steel is an excellent example. Clark Kent was changed from an altruistic man who wanted to protect the Earth at all costs to a sullen man who grudgingly saves the Earth (killing many in the process) once he finds a woman he likes enough to want to keep her alive. Zach Snyder's Justice League handles him significantly better, but at this point he has been fairly ruined in the eyes of many fans. This version of Kent isn't nearly as interesting as other adaptions, and a lack of understandable motives or endearing character traits make it difficult to be invested in his story.

     Not every human is entirely selfish and depressed and one bad day away from snapping. Yet, many "adult" or "dark" stories are either gratuitous—which I will discuss later—or they are fairly tame stories with a light coating of "grim dark" to them. Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House is a fairly decent example. I think the Six of Crows duology is actually more mature than Ninth House in terms of character, theme, and story. However, Ninth House has a few really dark moments which keep it from being ruled YA. There is sexual violence, harsh language . . . And that is basically it. With those elements removed, the story is actually pretty simple and is fairly standard YA. Even the harsh language can fly in a lot of Young Adult novels. This fact made those more intense elements feel needlessly tacked on to make the story seem more adult. The characters in Ninth House find not feel nearly as matured or complex as those in some of the author's other series. In some cases, it felt as though they were being written more simplistically because the story is considered adult. More attention was paid to the aesthetic seeming grim and like a dark reflection of our own world that the plot and characters seemed like afterthoughts, a common issue with grim dark stories.

    A way to fix this problem is to first force yourself to find ways to make the story and characters even darker or more realistic without employing one of these tactics. No brooding characters. No constant complaining. No cursing, not yet. Try to make it feel intense without any explicitly mature content. Watch or read fiction which manages to convey that tone without being too gratuitous. I would recommend both The Haunting of Hill House and its sequel The Haunting of Bly Manor. They do include language, but upon watching you'll quickly realize that the show is fairly tame in regards to sex, language, and violence. Yet no one would ever say the show isn't adult. It manages to feel adult by grounding the characters in real-world issues. The Lies of Locke Lamora is another book/series which feels realistic and adult while avoiding gratuity.

     Maybe write out a scene you could see happening in real life without any melodrama. It could be a depressing or scary moment from your own life. Be completely honest. Don't go for any extra drama. Then, once you have a scene which you feel captures the tone, rewrite it to fit your story and writing style (now you could add any language you feel necessary, along with any of the other elements). Have someone read it. If it feels too melodramatic, it probably is. Think about how the characters would realistically behave. Also, please don't use sexual assault narratives to cheaply make the story feel more intense. It can be handled well, but I've noticed it frequently be used to force character growth/change or to make the story feel mature in a really tacked on way (just look at Game of Thrones's later plot with Sansa to understand what I'm talking about). Basically, what I'm saying is try to make the characters feel grown up and mature (as in not childish) only through characterization and story.

    I mentioned earlier that grim dark stories often are gratuitous in language, violence, and sex. I want to make clear that none of these things are inherently grim dark or bad. However, some writers use these elements as shorthand for "this is a sophisticated, adult story" when they really aren't. For example, in Birds of Prey, the violence and language are pretty extreme. However, those were not necessary for the story, and the movie probably would have done better without them because their inclusion drew in a crowd who was not the film's target audience and ensured those most likely to enjoy the other aspects of the movie were less likely to see it. It's themes of teamwork and being true to oneself were very YA and not at all grim dark. In Titans (sorry to keep punching this low-hanging fruit), the language, violence, and sexual elements do not enhance the story at all. In some cases, they even make the story and characters worse. Because their heroes are so dark and violent, the show's antihero character has to basically kill innocent people so he will be worse than the heroes and have a noticeable change. This has outraged fans and could've been easily fixed by making the main characters slightly less terrible people. Writers and producers of grim dark often conflate a story with mature content for a story with mature and realistic themes. Having your main character get r**** does not guarantee you're telling a mature and realistic story any more than a first kiss makes a story inherently YA.

     The final problem writers striving for realism tend to fall into is that they will end on a dark or hopeless (or ambiguous) note in a cheap way. I am pretty tired of writers killing characters or having villains win just to make the tone feel darker. A frequent offender of this is Cassandra Clare, though her books do not necessarily qualify as grim dark,. Two of her series that I've read have killed off a child with relative unimportance to the plot as a way to make the story seem more intense and to make it seem like there are actual stakes. The deaths were extremely cheap, and the characters' violent murders barely impacted anyone or anything in-story. Titans has done this twice now. Basically, most of these writers seem to use these cheap tactics to subvert expectations or make the story feel like it had more stakes or the characters were in danger. It often accompanies grim dark and it is rarely satisfying. A dark ending should be justified by the rest of the story, especially the tone.

     If you're looking to write a dark or realistic story, I recommend examining your favorites and try to determine what worked in those stories. It's also worth noting that a story could be too light or immature. Legend of Korra, for example, suffers a bit tonally, as it is simultaneously much darker and more adult than its parent show, Avatar: The Last Airbender, while also containing much less mature humor and simplified characters. A lot of the Arrowverse shows have similar issues. Be mindful of tonal consistency and striking a balance between oversimplifying and false depth. Again, reading stories similar to what you're going for—they'll be the best teachers.