One of the few actual rules of writing is; the longer you stay with something, the more emphasis you put on that something.
This is actually a critical concept when writing drama and I think I discuss it in one or two of my other genre articles (if you’re not a member at story to script you can grab the genre guide here.)
Where sitting with any narrative element too long, can overdo it, there is a one specific narrative element that when overcooked, potentially pushes you into completely different territory. Of course, I’m talking about violence.
Segue into samurai movies. Yes!
There’s a pretty popular samurai movie, I won’t call it out because I don’t want any spoilers in here, but in this movie, the samurai walks past this dude in a hallway, stabs him in the heart with an icepick, then carries on down the hall without a care in the world.
The strike happens so fast, the dude doesn’t even know he was stabbed, until he collapses, red seeping throughout his kimono and dies.
The violence is fast and smooth, the focus falls in part to the skillful execution of the attack itself, but more so, to the consequence of what it does…
Same thing with many of the violent kills in a movie like John Wick.
When John Wick gets a gun in his hand, POP POP POP, bodies drop. Wick rarely expends more energy than is needed to put down his target, allowing him to move on to his next… In fact, specifically with Wick, that’s his whole shtick, superior gun-fu skill, putting people down fast, flowing from one target to the next…
Again, the violence is fast and smooth, focusing not on the HOW each act of violence manifests into their consequences, but the consequence of each act of violence itself.
Fast and smooth doesn’t linger on the “how.”
In fact, in action, staying with the action longer, putting added emphasis on the struggle between foes creates a more challenging encounter, opening up deeper narrative opportunities which is a core aspect in expressing action narrative.
But I digress.
The point I’m working to show you here is that, fast violence. Violence that doesn’t linger in the action and exploit the “how.” Violence that doesn’t have a drawn out emotional exchange between characters, is safe violence. Violence, pretty much everybody can tolerate in a narrative.
The potential problem of violence pushing you into different narrative territory when overcooked, arrives two-fold. First, reaching into the realm of horror, specifically into gore. And Secondly, moving out of safe violence, into violence that turns the tone dark. The further you go push in either of these areas, the narrower your audience becomes.
Going back to our samurai example with the ice pick attacker;
If in comic visualizations, you capture the point of the pick piercing the victim’s flesh, then show an internal view of the metal jabbing the guy’s heart, followed by a show of massive muscle damage, blood ejecting inside the victim’s ribcage, then return to the hall to show blood shooting from the wound, spraying not just on the attacker, but on the walls, his friends, his little white dog, blood dousing out the hallway candles… you get the picture.
In the above visualization, the act of violence shifted away from the fast and smooth consequences, to a showcase of how exactly those consequences came to be. The violence lingers in the details.
It’s by no means WRONG to do this, narratively speaking.
But it’s important to realize when you’re doing it and recognize when you do, that you are in fact, moving out of the realm of safe violence.
Similarly, if during the attack, you showcased the victim grabbing the attacker’s hand and struggling to pull the pick out of his chest. While the attacker growls and struggles back forcing the pick to stay in place, or even “worse” pulls the pick out for multiple new stabby stabs.
All while the victim maybe begs he wants to get home to his kids, screams for help, or gurgles his last breaths… or all three.
Note here, that you have slowed down the violence and while not focusing on the visualization of the “how,” have pushed into our a much darker tone, emphasizing the emotional and dramatic (realistic) weight of the violence.
Again, these can be hallmark tools when specifically writing horror action or darker toned material.
Just be sure when you’re writing lighter action or lighter tone material, you don’t accidentally linger and push your violent material somewhere you don’t actually want it to go. Because violence pops up in just about any and every genre at times, it’s an easy mistake to make.
Well, at least if you don’t read my blog 😉 And if you decide to go hard in the gore or the dark tone that real violence carries, better cue this one up… ▪
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Nick Macari is a full-time freelance story consultant, developmental editor and writer, working primarily in the independent gaming and comic markets. His first published comic appeared on shelves via Diamond in the late 90’s. Today you can find his comic work on comixology, Amazon, and in select stores around the U.S.