What Today's Darker Fiction is Doing Right

Photo by Rahul from Pexels
NextGen. Into the Spiderverse. All Imagine Dragons and 21 Pilots music. All these are intensely popular right now, and they all have a common thread: They admit that the world isn't great, and they're not trying to convince you otherwise.

And I think that's what makes them popular.

I'm not talking about Dark Fiction, as in gritty, hopeless, broody literature that leaves the reader feeling hopeless. I'm talking about the stories that just acknowledge that the world is dark.

Why do we need darkness in fiction?

This new generation of readers, my generation of teens and children, want to hear a different message. One they can resonate with. The message of the generation before us was, 'It's gonna be okay.' And people do still need to hear that it's going to be okay, believe me. That message is still massively important.

But this generation already knows this. We've been raised on stories with this message, and we understand it. But we live in a different context. We live in a world of Instagram perfection juxtapositioned by the looming problems of our private lives. We just want to know that it's okay to feel this way. That other people have problems too. That on a daily basis, life is crap, and it's not just us who suffer.

That's why songs like 'Bad Liar' and 'Demons' by Imagine Dragons are so popular. Why our favorite characters are the ones that are hurting. Because we see ourselves in them, and in a way, it feels good.

How to do it yourself

I really do think that this needs to be in more stories, and while I don't think there's any right or wrong way to do this, I would imagine that the writer knows whether it's being written correctly or not.

But I do have a few pointers for how to do it right if you do plan to try:

     1. Darker fiction is admitting the presence of darkness, but that doesn't make it dark dark. Nobody should be sinking into a deep despair from reading what you've written. It requires balance.

     2. On the same note, the hero of your story should not constantly be Batman and be thinking dark, broody thoughts about how terrible the world is. This is a matter of subtext, my people. Plus, if all your hero does is think dark thoughts, it will seem overdramatized and the generation I'm talking about will just take it as unrealistic and ridiculous.

     3. This one is possibly the most important of all three tips, so listen very carefully: It's important that your hero makes it through okay. Even though the point is to acknowledge that the world isn't made of kittens, there must be a careful sprinkling of happy moments and a peaceful, if not happy ending. This generation understands that it's going to be all right, and that's not the point, but the hero needs to come out okay. Because in the end, all we really need is to know it's going to turn out fine.

What's your opinion on this subject? Did this post make any sense to you at all? Let me know in the comments!

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