Drowning in the Dark (Part II): Setting the Backdrop

Photo by Leon Contretas on Unsplash

Read: Drowning in the Dark (Part I): Rose-Colored Glasses

At a 2017 young writers’ conference, Mark Wilson (mentioned in Part I) talked on the damaging effects of dark writing on culture and the world. A girl asked a question along the lines of how to be a Christian writer who tends to write darker stories. Another student named Nicholas answered the question with, “Light shines brightest in the darkest place. You don’t notice a candle in a bright room. The candle is only bright when the room is darkest.”

The good parts of your story stand out most against a backdrop of darkness. But here are some points to keep in mind when choosing whether to write darkness into your story.

The world is evil

Stories mirror the world. Man is evil, sin is our nature. If you want your story to appear real, there must be elements of humanity’s nature in it. The world is not perfect. It’s breaking from the effects of sin. Your story world can’t be perfect either. If it is, then your story has lost the illusion of reality, not to mention it is completely boring for lack of conflict.

Don’t delight in it

Okay, so I just said your story would be boring without conflict. However, don’t run off the deep end and write stories full of depravity. We are here for God’s glory and writing stories that will destroy the world can’t bring Him glory. Ask yourself: why am I writing this? Is it historically accurate? Is it necessary? How can this evil be turned to good? (More on that in Part III). If you’re writing it just to enjoy the muck of man’s sin, seriously consider cutting it. Dig deep and study your own heart.

A side note on violence: For me personally, I find it easy to get carried away with violence. Honestly, there are times when I find myself liking it. Hold it. It’s time to take it back to respecting my characters as people and slowing down to really observe what I’ve written. If my story was real life, would I be hanging over William in the dungeon cackling evilly as I torture him? No.

You’ve got to respect your characters as real people. Yes, make it realistic, but write respectfully and with the purpose of creating emotion.

Is there another way to portray it?

How can you represent the bad without being too detailed? Take swearing for example. Why is the character using it? Is it because he’s angry or afraid? How could you portray those feelings aside from language? Are you just taking the lazy way by using language? What could you focus on instead?

There must be consequences for the wrong done

Consequences are a real part of life and story, whether the Hero sins and suffers or the Villain exercises evil and the Hero is hurt because of it. Adam sinned once—he ate the fruit that God had explicitly told him not to eat, and ever since then man and the world have felt the effects of his actions. Sin doesn’t just hurt one person—it hurts everything and everyone around it, and sometimes for the rest of eternity as in the story of our world. Adam’s sin even affected God. It didn’t force God to do anything, but because of Adam’s choice, God chose to send His Son, Jesus, to pay the price of that sin.

Recognize the difference between what is right and what is real

One of my works-in-progress is about an African-American soldier during the Vietnam War. For those non-historic people like me, racism didn’t go out with the American Civil War. It was rampant in the ‘60s and ‘70s and it hurt blacks. Just because racism is wrong doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t have it in my story. The MC must deal with racism, because it would’ve been in his face. Respect the reality of life, even if it’s not “right.” It’s real.

To the same point, my MC is a soldier. In the military, there is tons of language, but I didn’t feel like I could write it into my story with a clear conscience. In this case, what else could I focus on in the war place aside from the language?

God and you

Although I mention it last, it’s the most important of all the points.

I hesitate in writing this series because I don’t want to advocate destructive, depraved writing. For me, the height of darkness in my stories will most likely be violence. I freely write about depression, alcohol abuse, lying, etc., but I cannot easily justify language and sexual content. However, the way God impresses you to write may be different than He does me.

So, what does He say about it? What are your convictions? How, if you’re a Christian writer, is your work different from the world’s? Can you write with a clear conscience, knowing that you’ve brought God the most glory in it?

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What light is the darkness in your story making shine brighter?

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