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Hey guys? I could /really/ use some advice.
I love to write and read exciting fantasy/adventure stories. Yet I tend to run into trouble with scenes or stories that are filled with pathos. Like, if a character is being attacked, I get an emotional rush or thrill. And sometimes it feels like that goes to an unhealthy level.
I’ve read the Tricky Subjects in Christian Fiction series and loved them. They were very helpful. Yet they left that question unaddressed with me that I’ve struggled with for a long time. When darkness is used to emphasize the light, it’s good to have in stories. Yet it seems like the emotional rush I get tends to drown out the true message that the darkness is meant to convey. Rather than seeing the darkness for the terrible thing it is, I just feel stuff and that’s it. Instead of seeing the light brighter for the darkness, it’s harder to see it at all or to see it nearly as bright as it should be through all the emotional fog.
What am I supposed to do with this? I’ve thought of trying to focus on the reality of painful events in my stories rather than the simple, possibly melodramatic emotional appeal so I won’t end up romanticizing it. Sometimes that helps, but not always.
Besides mental/emotional/spiritual health concerns, I’m also worried about this for my stories’ sake. If I end up centering my books around emotional charges, I’ll end up writing something like Twilight—it gets people to like it, but is a low-quality story that is missing important meat. Emotion should further a story, not be a story.
If anyone has advice, I’m welcoming it with open arms. I really don’t want to have to stop reading and writing because of this, but if I have to I will.
I should also note that I have a /really/ easily wounded conscience. I’ve felt crippling guilt over things I really shouldn’t have worried about much at all, and sometimes it’s hard for me to tell when God is trying to warn me about something, when I’m just overreacting, or if I have a problem but I’m exploding it into something bigger than it really is. So if you think this might be something like that, please let me know, but it feels to me like this is an actual problem. The question is, how big a deal is it really and what should I do about it?
I’m going to tag a few of the leaders and here, but seriously, if anyone has something to say, please say it. @josiah @daeus-lamb @hope-ann