How to Write Dark and Twisty Books to Showcase the Light

Find a readership. It helps so much if you can find readers who will enjoy your stories. Build a community with them so you can engage in discussions and possibly write the books they want to see.

Try Javierre Navarrete’s Pan’s Labyrinth, Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride, Crimson Peak, any M. Night Shyamalan movie, Helen Jane Long (for the sweet scenes), Lindsey Stirling, Jennifer Thomas, and classical playlists on your favorite music retailer site.

So, have care with your prose--the cadence of your words and titles you choose. You can gain or lose a reader purely based on your prose or voice.

Eccles’ locations are Valiant and Allegory. From these names alone, we can ascertain there’s a deep meaning.

We should take care when we choose the names of characters and places of our story. In The Phantom in the Forest, the fox’s name is Vulpine--an unusual but fitting name, since it means “fox.” But it sounds dramatic, eerie.

Take a poetry class or attend a workshop on songwriting. If you have a good ear or an innate musical ability, it may come naturally to you. Or, creating beautiful prose may not be your thing.

Study hymns, songs, and poetry. Then practice mimicking these cadences by composing verses of your own.

theme that explores the ramifications of justice versus mercy

Use Morbidity To Explore Theme

The choice of themes available to us as writers are incredibly wide and varied.

While we’re on the topic of using narrators on the sketchy side, why don’t we throw all chips on the table and allow the villain to tell his or her story?