: Re: How to make a dark story not-so-dark (Shining the light in darkness) I'm writing a war story, and it's dark. However, I find that every scene turns out to be depressing because of it. Readers

@Vandalay250

Vote Up Vote Down

You could make the story lighter by setting some scenes in a peaceful landscape, perhaps in the homes of the characters, showing who they are fighting for.

You could have the protagonists suffer defeats and setbacks and hardships in the first chapters, and start to break down, and seem on the verge of defeat. Then have chapters set in the enemy camp,and show that the enemy soldiers are also on the verge of breaking down and think that they can't go on much longer. This shows that victory or defeat are still balanced on a knife's edge and could go either way, and that in any case the war can not last much longer. This works in a relatively evenly balanced war like the American Revolutionary War or the American Civil War, but not in a war where the enemy has overwhelming superiority.

Or you could have chapters set in the distant future, a time of peace, when kids are studying the war your characters are fighting in, and trying to understand what it would be like to fight in such a terrible war. Perhaps the teacher could mention to them that they owe part of their present happiness to the outcome of the war, without specifying how the war ended since they already know that, unlike the readers or your characters.

You can lighten the darkness by contrasting cruel deeds with a few acts of kindness.

(0)

Login to post a comment!