LOL How could I forget his video game hour? Yeah, he and Lauren seem to have a good balance when it comes to personal time versus parenting time. It's nice that he lets her sleep in while he takes care of the kids in the morning, and I'm guessing she gives him the same me time later in the day.
That's the dream! Especially the sleeping in time. I'm trying to be a better morning person in preparation, but it's just not happening.
Are they spoilers for PNecklace or a future story?
PBox/PNecklace/etcetera
I've been a little more productive today, which is usually the case on Sundays compared to Saturdays. Chapter 5 is over 1000 words now. I got past the descriptive part at the beginning to a part with more dialogue; I feel like dialogue always goes faster.
I think so too. I think dialogue is more fun is probably why, since it's characters interacting together and not just "There was a tree, but it was a fundamentally important tree and that's why I'm telling you about it."
Here's a question for those of us on Team Dark. Do you ever worry that what you're writing is too dark or depressing? If so, what do you do about it? Do you just keep writing what you planned or try to lighten it up somehow? I was talking to Tracy last night about her new story, and she said she was worried a scene she was considering writing would be too sad. My story is also a huge downer, so this seems like a relevant topic right now.
In addition to being a card carrying member of Team Dark, I am also Team Story. If what the story needs is something really dark or depressing and I have decided that I am okay telling that dark or depressing thing, then I will carry on. So I guess that's the first question, are y'all okay telling whatever this dark, depressing, or sad thing will be? If the answer is no, then you have the tough decision of coming up with a way to lighten it up, finding an alternative, or scrapping. If the answer is yes, then you have some options.
First, consider whether your readership is aware that you trend toward Team Dark. If they are aware, then you're probably fine to keep going as planned since it wouldn't be out of left field for you. If they're not and this is your first venture into Team Dark (welcome, it's fun here), I'd try to find a way to ease them into it as you're writing so that they know that in the story you're sharing now, they should expect some dark moments.
I also think it's important to know your lines in general. Do you have anything that's too dark for you? Does this upcoming thing fall over that line? I've mentioned I don't like depicting the death of children in the narrative. So I automatically know that if that's going to happen in a story (or a backstory), I have to either find some other way to say it happened, summarize, find a way around it, or come up with something different.
If you're on the fence... I always start by making lists. I'm not much of an outliner, as I've mentioned, but I love random lists of crud. My list would include my initial idea that may or may not be too dark/depressing/sad/whatever, reasons why I feel it might be that way, and then alternate ways I could either lighten it up or show the same type of thing in a different way entirely that still leads to my desired aftermath. I find it's always important to consider what's coming after the too dark thing. Does the too dark thing need to happen for those things to happen or to solidify something about the character? Or does it just seem like a good way to convey *gestures vaguely* some thing that moves the story along? There's lots of different ways to convey things.
Character deaths are fun, so let's use that as an example. What's the too dark line for a character death? A result of illness? Some rogue accident? Murder? Grisly murder? Self-sacrifice for another character? Suicide? Why does that character need to die? Is there an alternative to death for the same thing to be conveyed in story? What do the other characters do after the death? Is that the important part of the story? How do they grow, change, or make decisions because of it? Is the character death what kicks off the plot? Can the plot work without a death? And so on and so forth...
I could come up with more questions, but I only spent a short time thinking about it and obviously don't know exact details of your too dark/depressing/sad things. But in my experience pausing to consider something means you have some more questions to ask yourself before you start writing that portion. And since you're the author, you should have all the answers when you're presenting a piece of written work. Just my two cents!
