How do you feel when you plot or incorporate those elements into your story?

LilTV1155

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Such as designing murders, criminal violence, cannibalism, incest, bizarre deaths, wars, romance, gores, and depictions of cruelty into your story's plots or concepts?

And for what purposes in your stories?
 

AKnightWithaKnife

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If im really being honest depictions of cruelty are rarely done right. especially if its and iskeai. a good example is SLAVE HARM ISKEAI where the main protag is a scumbag. is on this site and most people don't really like it not because of the tabbo but how okay its seems in the story. when taboo isn't taboo its comes off as cringe
 
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For my first arc, war is the main theme, or at least preventing it. A 'bizarre death' of one of the support characters, as well as the 'treachery' of a major one served as an 'awakening moment' for my MC, though he didn't really get way too powerful like a super-saiyan on steroids.

For my second arc, the war element was used to 'unite' the people of the world my MC is in. The depictions of cruelty like rape, and torture, were used to convey the fact that my humans and beastmen don't get along very well.

For my third arc (currently in writing), war is also present, for the same reasons as to my second. However, for this one, I also incorporated incest, marriage and slavery as a way to highlight the differences between the demon race and the human race.

Romance is present in all of my books for my isekai, as my MC connects with the people (ahem, ladies in particular) around him.

As for my own feelings when I manage to incorporate those elements...well, I feel accomplished. I mean, it's not easy to combine those elements into one coherent narrative without making obvious plot holes. There were days I would re-draft an entire 50k-word manuscript, just to make sure one potential question from my readers would be answered by another situation. Fortunately, I was able to cover those 'plot holes' so far.
 

BenJepheneT

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more often than not, i adopt the tarantino approach to taboo/violence in my stories: it's some extra flavour to the story. that doesn't mean I won't try to incorporate it with some thematic/plot elements too, like tones of depravity or to display that one guy REALLY doesn't like the other guy. I'll try my best with the latter, but it's usually to strengthen the former. it's "come up with the scene, then try to connect it after" for me. that goes for ANYTHING taboo, though I usually try to avoid rape and wars. the former because I don't like and don't feel competent enough to depict it to its full extent and the latter because I am a strategic and political numbskull and that the extent of my knowledge in warfare is "castle = instant loss" and "if you have double the troops, surround them", and I'm not even sure if those are correct.

as for romance, I like to start with the idea of character deprivation; that's not a real term, by the way, I made it up. the idea is that love is about filling holes, metaphorically and literally. you love someone because they complete you as a person, or that their companionship takes you to a whole new world you want to stay in. with that in mind, I write my romance around that concept. say, for example, there's a homeless guy who lives a life of vagrancy. he's essentially a vagabond. then you have a girl who's very sheltered and well-taught, but she feels trapped and feels as if she's never once been in a situation where she can fully realize her potential. now that I've constructed two puzzle pieces, all I need to do is connect one another, and let the rest build itself. is the girl truly ready for the world? would the homeless guy be used to a sedentary, domestic lifestyle? now you have a strong base, all you need to do is construct scenarios where these questions would be challenged, along with their chemistry.

as for purpose, it's optional. you don't need EVERYTHING to connect to the main theme of the story. sometimes you can have a mini-arc or short story happening in tandem with the main plot. try to attach everything to the through-line, and you'll get a convoluted mess of themes and tones that MIGHT clash against one another if you have too many. not all threads are born equal. got a nice idea you think might fit into your story? don't overplan. write the damn thing out first, then go from there. this might not sit well with the planner type writers but sometimes, spontaneity is all you need to find a potential breakthrough.
 

Paul_Tromba

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I use these scenes quite a lot. Mainly because I feel that some of them are issues that are realistic and ignoring them in a literary form is similar to saying that they don't exist. That and they are interesting to flesh out because of the challenges that come with it. Brent Weeks does an excellent job of fleshing out scenes like this in a realistic and interesting way. Though they always serve a purpose. Whether it is to further the narrative, introduce a setting, or show how cruel people can be. There are obviously other purposes but these are the ones I can think of at the moment.

As anyone can guess, writing scenes like this are difficult for many reasons. Sometimes it can be a challenge to write it without plotholes or maybe it can make you sick to your stomach just imagining such scenes. Some people have a hard time talking about these scenes and others just don't want to write such scenes due to discomfort. Though those that can pull it off well are usually rewarded for having such an in-depth story. Thankfully, I have a pegboard, a lot of string, and the ability to push away morals for hypothetical scenes and questions.

in my stories at least, I use murder, bizarre deaths, gore, and cruelty as ways to further the narrative while war is used only to increase the worldbuilding and set up for the scenes that are needed to further the narrative. Incest and rape are two that I don't touch on much but it is brought up every so often to express certain characters' depravity. As for romance, well... I am not that great at writing it so I just keep writing and see what will happen between the characters. If subtle romance blossoms between characters then that's great and I will try to flush it out more but if not then that's fine too. I never want the romance to feel forced so I let it happen naturally.
 

NotaNuffian

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To me, my plot tries to explain the inevitablity of humanity's evil nature. Benevolence is just a phase while humanity only exists to do two things; either remains stale or be incorrigible.

Being selfish is evil, being timid is evil and doing nothing is evil. I then try to force the notion that being good is a thousand times harder and a million times not worth as those who want to benefit the world will have their beliefs trampled because they are weak, either too powerless or too soft hearted, and those who want to gain power to do good will end up just as dirty as those who are evil. One way or the other, they WILL be evil.

Ultimately, everything stems from the nature of evil, such as having ambitions to help one's nation and requiring to trample on other countries. Wanting to not have to deal with others and be at in solitude with one's loved ones; either you are too weak and get swept in the currents of fate or becoming the rock that stands firmly against it while slaughtering millions for your own path. Do nothing and get eaten or become a monster that gets "righteous sects" come knocking on your door daily. There is no right, just a multitudes of wrongs. Of course, there will be those that show you kindness but rest assure as a thousand times more malice is on its way.

Rape is common, on women, children and even pretty men. Nobles and rich merchants can bend the law backwards with no issue and My MC was thrown into mental hell, including dismemberment, get roman candled but the worst part is that his "family members" are joining the fun with him because the torturer knows that physical pain can shatter a person's psyche but having to watch everyone you cherish die because of the powerless you hurts even more. To be fair, this scenario is churned out by the system to toughen the farmboy up to get his pain resistance up, get him to stop whining and mentally preparing him as the family he leaves (which at that time is the only thing he knows and cares) behind will swiftly die (no thanks to his sponsor).

There will be human experimentation because due to the latest Gods' war, all ascention paths are blocked and people who wants to become higher beings will need to spill blood, lots of blood. Not to mention a shit ton of unsavory methods to grow including tormenting people to collect their agony as fuel and basically grimdark cultivation shit.
 

Ilikewaterkusa

You have to take out their families...
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Such as designing murders, criminal violence, cannibalism, incest, bizarre deaths, wars, romance, gores, and depictions of cruelty into your story's plots or concepts?

And for what purposes in your stories?
Half cringe, the other based
 

VoxPopulist

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A good amount of these elements can be done very well, whilst others I've only seen turn weird and cringe. Most stories that go super over the top with depictions of 'cruelty' just end up being cringe. However, if you can incorporate a well-written war or murder or crime into a novel, it can turn a 7/10 story into a 10/10.

Definitely Totally Not Grimdark
 

SailusGebel

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I'm feeling alright about this. For what purposes? Well, if I want to, I will incorporate it, and there are no profound reasons behind this. It's simply my desire\wish.
 

AryaX

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How do I feel ? :rolleyes:

Wars, battles, tactics, strategies, etc... are good... but I don't want to deal with the nastiness like... people mourning the dead, descriptions of people being mutilated, permanently physically crippled, etc... and their hardships... angst, depressions, etc... those things... are no good... I want to keep em to the minimum, whether I am reading or trying to write something...

Other kind of "cruelty" is fine... Like people being corrupted into deranged horny sluts, or being transformed into lewd hentai monsters, or being kept in captivity and being subjected to "soft" bdsm like activities, by the some sexy, kinky type of evil aristocrats, etc...
 
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