Pick and Choose

If you only have the following options to choose from in which category would you write?

As quirky as my stories are, those are not limits. The two I have going elsewhere I can claim as love stories. One has a strong love story going between two major characters. The other does not have the love theme as strong, but it is present. I could claim the story that I have here to be inspirational. I know others that whatever they write has a dark edge to it. A good novel or drama has elements of most of those things present.

It is the setting that I feel would be more limiting. Asking me to choose between Space Stations, Apartment Complexes, Underground Communes, and Desert Nomadic Tents would force me to think. Your list would only influence how I tweaked (or promoted) a story.

I don't do 'sad'. Sad for the glory of being sad is tripe.

I certainly don't aim to do 'love' in any sort of traditional sense, but sometimes it comes through despite my efforts.

'Inspirational', me? If by inspire you mean grabbing people by the head of their hair and shake them until all thoughts of a high power swooping in an saving them ooze out their ears and they stumble away knowing that only they, and the larger public as a whole, can repair what's wrong with themselves and this dying world, then yes I try to be inspirational.

Humor, sometimes I've said that 90% of what comes out of my mouth, and pen, is a joke. That I don't take anything in life seriously, because nothing deserves to be taken seriously, but for the most part my humor is lost on other people.

So, I answered 'dark', because 'Dark fiction', horror, and science fiction are about the only genres I read and about all I have any passion for writing. So, it seemed like the obvious choice among those listed.

I think each of these have their places in writing. I wouldn't personally call sad tripe, mainly because writing is what helped me get through what I like to call the 'depressive' years. Most of what I produced during that time was sad and sucidal. Horrible writing and some of it a bit scary but like I said I think it has its place. A lot of young teenagers write that depressive and sad stuff for attention.

Inspiration is great; I love reading 'How To', and spiritual books especially concerning Seers, Lightworking, Wicca and Pagan. I think one day I would like to share my spiritual experiences with the world through a novel. Because most religions are so broad containing my beliefs (which are not situated in one particular area) would be very frustrating and time consuming.

Humor is always fun and I think that everything we read has some form of humor in it. Dark is the open category for me, it can contain all the other categories and still be dark.

Love is the ultimate category, in my opinion. It is also an open category as well, it can be dark, humerous and or sad and still end in a loving, they lived happily ever after. Ok, I'm done rambling. I would choose love, probably because it is the easiest.

Kellycakes wrote:

I think each of these have their places in writing. I wouldn't personally call sad tripe, mainly because writing is what helped me get through what I like to call the 'depressive' years. Most of what I produced during that time was sad and sucidal. Horrible writing and some of it a bit scary but like I said I think it has its place. A lot of young teenagers write that depressive and sad stuff for attention.

You're right writing can be a great way of dealing with and getting over depression. But a lot of the 'dark poets and writers' I run across seem more or less to be wallowing in their sadness. It's like a badge of honor. You can't even have a conversation with them without them reminding you every five minutes how hard their life has been. We've all had bad stuff happen to us. Some of us have had worse things then others. Everyone hurts, as the song goes. So, no, expressing true sadness isn't tripe, but thinking that sadness is a state that should be held onto is... And yeah, I realize you basically just said this same thing, but I felt like saying it too. :P

Humour and love would mostly be what I write about. Sometimes I end up with pieces that happen to be an inspiration to the readers...though that may not have been what I had in mind when writing it. I love writing humanitarian stuff, like putting myself in the hawkers shoes, or a streetboy...but I mostly write about love with laces of humour in some of them. I just happen to be able to relate to it more. I have tried writing dark before, it wasn't so bad, but it wasn't one of my favourites either. Good thing though is I read a wider variety than the one I write.

I think a lot of the of these topics have been done and over done. Inspirational topics are usually left to the more religious people. And for those of us with odd or taboo religious beliefs we don't have enough reading material. So we have to write our own stories.

Funny always make people happy!

Poet wrote:

...And for those of us with odd or taboo religious beliefs we don't have enough reading material. So we have to write our own stories.

You certainly said a mouthful there.

It's actually just that which set me off writing my fantasy series, The Infernal Empire.

I like dark.
Because without darkness there is no light.
Therefore if we just have light we have no darkness.
And if we just have darkness we have no life.
Both coexist and balance each other out very nicely.
[This made no sense]

I don't write love stories wholly. I write stories with love stories in them, basically because I want to change the image of love in people's minds nowadays. So I'll cut that out.

What do you mean by dark? Gore and horror, and the like? I personally love horror and thriller, but I've never have tried to actually put it to paper. Gore, yes, for my latest novel it was necessary. I must say I'm pretty dark in that regard.

By sad if it means endless pain and struggle which ends in pile of dirt then no. I have depressing and intense stories, but the message is always cheery, and the end is happy. I do it on purpose, so as to show that after every dark night there's a sunrise. Also, what we dislike isn't necessarily sad. We just need to look at life differently.

Humor? I just write down without any specific intention of humor, and all my readers say I have written a bit of humor. Humor just happens. Not an intention.

Inspirational is my main stream. If the story has love, sad stuff, darkness or even humor, its all for making it inspirational. For letting the reader explore the parts of his thinking he shut down, and to look at life in a different angle. So to inspiration.

I said "sad" because the stories I have written have been tragedies.

Not sure if that counts as "Sad" but that was as close as I could find to what a Tragedy was.