Bleeding Beauties

Writing Dark Scenes

Writing is something we're all passionate about, but sometimes it's as wonderful as writing a ten page essay late at night only to have your laptop crash and delete all your unsaved work. It can be frustrating and damn exhausting, especially when you don't know how to write your next chapter or scene.

A lot of the time, the reason why writing block occurs or the reason why writers struggle with writing their next scenes is usually because of either A.) they're lazy (*coughs* *points at self sheepishly*) B.) they're not inspired to write/they're next chapter isn't interesting to the writer themselves or C.) it's putting pressure on them because they don't know how to approach it

As someone who's been guilty of all three, I've struggled with getting myself out of these writing holes and in this chapter I hope to patch up those holes for you dear readers because they're honestly safety hazards that we'd all like to stay far away from.

The first part to solving this, is understand why you can't write a scene. Often times, it's because your next scene is foreign to you in the sense that you've never written anything in its style before. Commonly on Wattpad, the scenes most people struggle to write eloquently are the one's that require a dark writing voice.

There are those on Wattpad who write darkly in style by nature because that's their signature, but to others who aren't naturally dark writers, writing those heavy scenes can be hard, especially when their vital towards your story.

You don't have to have a dark book to write dark scenes. Sometimes, their needed in those light or otherwise neutrally toned books.

Dark scenes can bring your story from a 7 to a whopping 11 in just one chapter. They're that powerful, and that's because they are powerful. Authors purposefully write dark scenes to create some, or all of the following:

Drama

Strong Emotions

Mystery

Suspense

Character development

Plot Twists (yes, we authors can be very evil)

When trying to convey one of the points above, it's a good idea to consider writing a dark scene to get the job done. I'm not saying you have to go Stephen King on all your readers to do this since that type of dark writing is a whole different level, but having dark scenes at least here and there is healthy and will in the end help your book out a lot.

So before I continue to blabber on, let me explain what dark writing is. Dark writing is a type of literary voice that emphasises certain details in a grave, eerie, or, well, dark light. They're meant to emotionally or psychologically move or connect a reader to the story, and sometimes quite intensely. The most common form of dark writing in books tends to be during character deaths or traumatic accidents.

Ex. If I Stay (I won't say the specific scenes due to spoilers, but if you've read the book or at least watched the movie you can remember which scenes correlate to what I was talking about)

Now that I have your attention on how important dark scenes can be to your story, you might be wondering how you can write these dark scenes. Like I mentioned before, it's not a style of writing that comes naturally to everyone, so as a dark writer, I'd like to share some tips with you all, as well as show you the difference between normal scenes and dark scenes.

Word choice and paying attention to details are key.

You have to paint the picture for your audience so that they can see what you want them to see, the only thing to keep in mind is that your palate isn't filled with bright, pastel colors as pretty as a sunset out on the beach, it's instead coated with thick, despairing shades from wounds that never fully healed. (See what I did there? ;) )

For word choice, try to pick the words that go more "in depth." Instead of saying "It was dark outside," you could choose to instead say "the sky was void of any stars to light the eerily quiet night." Both are expressing the same exact thing, except one chooses to go more in depth and focus on a certain aspect, and in this case it was the darkness of the night. Details also go hand in hand with word choice--you have to think of both for your writing to flow smoothly. Again, we're trying to paint pictures ;)

So far, I've only shown examples of imagery/setting when referring to dark writing, but of course this type of voice can work for anything. It's key however, to know when and when not to use this voice. For example, if your characters are going out to go buy ice cream on a summer afternoon it would be a bit odd to write this darkly.

For some of you that would like a visual comparison, I'll write two excerpts; one in a normal voice and the other in a dark one. Both, for the sake of comparisons, will be about the same thing.

(Excerpt one: normal)

I watched as his fingers moved across the keys with such speed and grace it was hard not to be impressed. The quiet boy from the back of the classroom it turned out had a lot to say, just not through words. My eyes widened--entranced by the dance his hands were performing to the beautiful melody, the tempo as fast as my beating heart as I melted into the symphony he was performing for himself, and unknowingly me. I didn't think to wonder why he was in the music room all by himself, I chose to instead close my eyes and get lost in the sea emotions evoked from his alluring performance.

(Excerpt two: dark)

The boy's fingers clashed against the black and white keys in a blinding storm. I stood frozen in by the door, letting his searing music melt my form. His eyes were closed as he collapsed onto the piano again and again and again--harder and harder as he tumbled through the symphony. His arms were shaking--his muscles screaming for him to rest, but faster and faster he pounded the keys with everything he had, everything he had bottled up. The silent boy was no longer mute as he screamed his pain and frustration and anger through a language with no hindering words. I had to close my eyes at one point, my heart plummeting along with his fierce refrain as he went on and on, never giving himself a chance to catch his breath. It was a storm--a storm of fire and black smoke that rendered me blind as I fell into the prison his music had trapped me in. There was nothing else in that instance--no reality outside of that music room, just the quiet boy screaming through his instrument and my dazed form stuck in a trance.

Like I said, word choice and detail! Dark writing doesn't have to morbid as it's stereotyped as, it can also be subtle, yet intense like above.

I hope you guys got something out of this, and if you have any questions, just comment them down below!!

Yours truly,

Queen of Roses