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16472759 No.16472759 [Reply] [Original]

Got any advice on writing an edgy story about a scientist conducting human experiments without it turning into shitty fanfiction?
Blood-guts-murder. I want it to be real fucking edgy, but not the very shitty kind. Target audience is teens-young adults.

>> No.16472773

Give example of the very shitty kind

>> No.16472817

>>16472759
If your main character is a total sociopath, it'll come across as cringy because it's no longer art at that point, it's just the author's weird power fantasy. Your reader needs to be able to connect with the protagonist, that means internal struggle, emotions, etc.

>> No.16472916

>>16472773
I actually don't have an example. Just don't want it to be a trope-ridden self-insert mess that glorifies violence and shows how dark and cool the main character is. I just want it to be chock-full with shock content.
>>16472817
This aligns with my thoughts, but I have an alternate option of writing an amoral protagonist that cracks and learns that he's not as empty as he thought, but it's too late.
Making him a relatable character who's disturbed by his actions from the beginning, but carries on to reach a goal seems more coherent. Raskolnikov, but without the initial God complex. Not sure which one I'll go with.

>> No.16472921

CIA blacksite. DOD dark funds pay human trafficking cartels for dozens of infants, adolescents, and adults, and begin to breed humans on-site.

Among their various unethical experiments are those involving DMT and LSD. Using brain scans and intravenous hallucinogens, they use their farm-bred subjects to map out DMT hyperspace. And they've found something... big.

>> No.16472956

read American Psycho
realise you can’t do copious amounts of violence for shock value with no actual meaning behind it without it turning into shitty fanfiction

>> No.16472984

>>16472773
>>16472916
Fuck, forgot to add this to the first reply:
If there are any pitfalls like these, please let me know.
>>16472921
That's nice, very Altered States. I want to make it more personal, without the big boys, but the LSD part I could actually use.
>>16472956
It's fine, actually, there's meaning to it, the guy's not just a psycho. I only watched the movie, gotta read it.

>> No.16472996

>>16472921
>>16472984
The hallucinogen part, I mean. Maybe not just Altered States, I'd imagine that's a common trope because of MKUltra. The trafficking stuff is really cool, I like it.

>> No.16473084

>>16472759
Try reading something about actual vivisection and human experiments. I assume that there are biographies of Joseph Mengele out there. See if you can't find any biographies of his accomplices, then see if you can't find any information on human experimentation in the Kwangtung Army.
If you're really interested, try to find information on human experimentation in the US. The coverage will probably be less hostile, and might give you an idea of how to portray such people without making them look like devils.

>> No.16473232

>>16473084
Thanks for the research material.

>> No.16473896

Bump

>> No.16473995

If you do not aim to write a relatable character write a hypercompetent one. Have a clear difficult goal in mind and carry the readers trough the process making them complacent to the process. In time even without moral approval they will be eating the character up and wanting him to succeed.

Make the character flawed in other ways,maybe to humanize him or perhaps to simply add extra depth to the readers cognitive process of trying to figure this creature out, hooking them to read on.

Be careful with your prose, a spectacle of gore is not in 3 paragraphs of descriptions, nor is it in cringey "beautiful" writing. No, an open wound is not a "blooming rose that painted a scarlet sky."

Keep a tight voice and let the readers figure out the rest completing the image in their minds. Lovecraft does this well.

>> No.16474208

>>16473995
Where's the line between a hypercompetent character and a Mary Sue?
>Make the character flawed in other ways
That would tip the scale towards a non-sue character, I guess.

>> No.16474335

>>16474208


Mary Sue is a character that is lacking in flaws,weaknesses and feels like its a character that is unreservedly capable as means of progressing the plot,leaving an unsatisfying feeling in the reader.

A professional thief cracking open a safe in a heist novel is a competent character doing what is expected of him by the parameters established in the readers minds, they can see the thief being capable of doing that and go along with it


An apprentice magician who had 2 classes in basic spells circles and formations cracking open the secret of some ancient spell circuit because at that point his friend Garry Plopper needs to pass trough that specific door at that specific time is a Mary Sue.

Not much else I can say except study how hyper competent characters that are not sympathetic are written and established in general.

>> No.16474598

Thanks, guys.