On tastes, balancing soft and VSW
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I’ve mentioned it before, but while I like the darker content, I’m too soft for it at heart. While reading it is one thing, where I prefer something darker that explores the dynamics of such an uneven relationship over just something soft and fluffy, every time I try to plan out an idea these days, I have all these ideas I want to try and part of me just… cringes at doing it, even in my imagination, even while a pure fluff story seems ultimately… boring; conflict drives a story, after all.
To be blunt, I’m having trouble balancing these impulses. Thoughts? How do you all handle it?
Power is choice.
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@i-am-insane I see it simply as if it drives the story forward and it’s not simply for shock value then fair play the hard part is finding the line between story and chaos
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As you say, conflict drives the story. So roll with that. It’s personal taste, but I’m partial to soft and fluffy stories where the happy moments are earned.
This may go without saying but longer, more character-driven narratives lend themselves to that sort of development. I love it when the characters we’re focusing on are thrown right into the clutches of conflict. I like seeing them work through it and find a harmony between themselves in doing so, whatever that might look like.
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@i-am-insane I had the same problem writing this one story. I was just writing violence and psychological horror smut at the time, so a slice-of-life dramedy was kinda new.
As of now, that little experiment has become my longest-running story. I did stop writing it after a while, but I still looked back on it for inspiration from time to time. if getting inspired by my own work doesn’t make me sound like an egotist.
My advice, try writing some of those cringy ideas out. You might actually like them.
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@i-am-insane The simplest answer to this problem is to imagine/create/write a variety of characters and scenarios, so that trying to be realistic will force you into a balance. We have all encountered pleasant and unpleasant people, protectors and predators. And there’s a spectrum in between, of course. And a lot of this can be just internal thoughts or emotions. I don’t think I’ve ever written a story, even the “gentle” ones, where a tiny doesn’t feel threatened or a giant doesn’t feel tempted.
Even for scenarios that are intended to be gentle or cruel, it heightens the impact to have an element of the opposite theme mixed in at some point. Developing your characters will necessarily put them through the whole range of possibilities, so that by the end we have an idea of how they’re going to react to the climax.
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It’s safe to say that the role of conflict in stories has been covered already.
I’m the same in that I was (still am, sometimes) really wary of incorporating darker themes into scenarios, because I emotionally invest a lot into my charcaters. I really wanted to explore violence and conflict, but I didn’t want to “taint” the characters I was using and also, it had to make sense (talking about romances in particular, but can also extend to friendships or other relationships). I like nice, healthy relationships so it was difficult to imagine, for example, the main giant as a sadistic abuser AND for the story to have a nice fluffy ending for the main giant and tiny. For example, some romances don’t make sense to me, or are not something I would call “romantic”. Like, the “I can fix him” trope is not something I usually subscribe to. Also, Ross and Rachael (iykyk).
In line with @Mrgoblinging7, I create “throwaways” - one-shot, stand-alone and non-canonical scenarios that focus on the dark stuff. I can incorporate regular characters, or make new ones entirely, it doesn’t matter. The scenario is only on whatever theme(s) I’d like to explore - I don’t worry about how it fits in with a fluffy scenario. Not yet. It’s about getting comfortable and understanding what I’d like to see; what would work, what wouldn’t if I did try to make it canon.
If that kind of dynamic between the main characters doesn’t work, but I still want someone to do something, then I use other characters to fill darker roles. Sometimes that’s a matter of preference though - you might not like having another character involved in the dynamic.
Sometimes it’s about reframing the story entirely - would I call something a romance? Or is it better described as a drama, tragedy, horror, etc.? You can have nice elements in all of these, but they’re secondary to the overall theme. It might start off nice then devolve into something darker. Maybe it’s always been fucked up, but it’s never been realised until a point.
Anyway. Those are my thoughts and approaches
