Darkness

I wrote yesterday in passing about depth in a story, and I wanted to touch on that again today. Throughout my life, I have met many, many people who have it in their minds that, in order to create depth in a story, that story must have darkness. By this, I mean that the story must had sadness, anger, fear. For these people, unless a story has these things within it, the story is shallow and pointless.

This is a thing I don't agree with, and don't really understand. That's not to say that darkness in a story is bad, or that it does not create depth. Far from it. However, it is not the only, nor even the best way of adding depth to your story.

A great example of this is Game of Thrones. I know this is going to step on the toes of people who love the series, but here's the deal. I hate Game of Thrones. I hate it with a passion. And the reason is because the series is too damn dark. The writing is fantastic, the characters are interesting, but all the interest in the world doesn't mean much when you can practically be guaranteed that that character won't be alive for long. Yet somehow people love it.

I'm not gonna say that people shouldn't like it, and I'm not going to judge anyone for liking it. But I don't, and I frankly can't understand why anyone would. Obviously it's for some people, and that's fine. But I think too many people look at the series as a sign post for how to tell a good story. We don't need to fill the world with stories of death with no visible happy ending.

I'm big on happy stories. A lot of times in today's world, I feel like I'm one of the few people left who feels that way. I'm weird in a lot of ways, and I accept and understand that this is one of those ways. I don't have problems with cheese and cliches, as long as they are used well. A lot of people look on these things and consider them to be a mask that people use when they can't think of any decent story to tell, and want to hide that fact. But I feel like darkness is used in this way far more than any cliche could be.

I hear so often, from people talking games, movies, books, any kind of media, "That one was great, but this one was better. It had a darker, more serious story." I don't see what's wrong with an upbeat, silly story. And the weirdest thing about a lot of the stories this argument tends to be applied to, the less serious, dark one is itself dark and serious. It's just not as dark and serious.

I read stories to get away. I play games to get away. I watch movies to get away. I fail to understand why, in doing that, I would choose something darker and more depressing than what my life already is. I get that a lot of people want to experience something that's relatable to how they feel. What I don't understand is how that's supposed to be enjoyable. I would rather make myself feel better than keep myself in the same spot any day of the week.

So maybe, when looking to add depth to a story, we shouldn't turn immediately to darkness. It has its places, and even I use darkness in my stories from time to time. But it's not my go to answer, and I think we should learn to appreciate what other options there are, and when to use them.