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Full disclosure: This is another post off a note that I don’t remember the meaning behind. All I know is that it has to do with Chasing Bedlam.
Now, I think I know what I was talking about here. After looking at various dystopian stories or anything that involves a dark, harsh world, I’ve found that there are two important elements. There is the HORROR of the reality that the characters call home and the HOPE that they will either survive or improve it. One always seems to be following a hero or group that will make things right, but they travel through some of the worst scenarios the author can throw at them. This works to make the reader/viewer empathize with the characters’ need for hope while struggling in situations that we’re thankful are fictional to us.
I don’t know how well I did this with the Bedlam books. There are some horrific things like the cannibals, gangs, slave traders, and other dangers. Yet, Lloyd can count for one of these monsters too. Cassidy and Lloyd not being interested in anything other than survival reduces the ‘hope’ part of the equation. Is it still there? To some extent, but I don’t think it’s a conscious one. The characters can be pretty dark in their mindsets, especially when it comes to death. They play to the horror and accept it as their world instead of trying to change it. Makes me wonder if monsters can have hope or will it have to be twisted. I’ve had to think about what can take the place of that since most dystopian heroes use hope as the thing that drives them. All I can come up with is surviving from one day to the next.
Another question that comes up under this is: How far can one go with the horror before you lose people? For example, I’ve seen a lot of people complaining and giving up on the Walking Dead for a very gory scene. Not into the show myself, but it seems the horror went too far. Yet, it’s also believable. Humans are capable of great deeds of good and evil, but we really hate seeing the worst ones get shown in fiction. This is a challenge for me when I’m working in a world like the Shattered States. For some reason, fantasy worlds get away with more because the humans aren’t Earth humans or the victims aren’t human at all. Putting it in a familiar setting brings to mind that one’s self and loved ones could be the victim. Possibly even the perpetrator. It counters the hope because a reader/viewer is suddenly horrified by the act. Technically, it shatters the hope, which could be the intention of the bad guy. The challenge here is that the author might have a higher threshold for horror than the audience. One could even have a lower threshold, which starts the issue of being ‘spineless’ when it comes to hurting characters.
So, this is a choppy subject that I’m still trying to wrap my head around. Stumbling onto it by accident doesn’t help. What do you think about hope and horror, especially in dystopian stories?
Thanks to Sue for letting me be a guest on her blog. Normally, I would be writing about fantasy or something magical because that’s my main genre. Yet, it isn’t my only one and I have my smaller world to touch on this time. In a few weeks, I will be releasing the sequel to 
I’m in the revision process with my novel and one of the areas I am focusing on is character development. When you hear character development, you usually think of main characters or supporting characters. Well my main characters do need some work, but for this particular blog I was talking about those ‘fly by’ characters that step into your novel, do what you want them to do, and then disappear never to be heard of again.
